Star Image Essay David Bowie

By Callum McCormick

The Evolution of David Bowie almost perfectly matches the evolution of the music industry as a whole, either as the forerunner or trend follower he has greatly impacted the music industry over the last four decades. Starting his career in 1962 he gained wide spread popularity for his ‘’Star man’’ character in 1969 bit hit ‘’A space Oddity’’. From that point his image and fashion sense became an integral part of his on stage persona, first as Star man and then as the glam rocker ZiggyStardust. Unlike other artist David Bowie was constantly evolving and changing his craft, both artistically and genre to be more in line with popular culture. From Rock in the 70s to Funk and soul in the late 70 to new wave pop in the 80s etc. Bowie was never the sort of man to be confined to one type of music.

His career started in 1969, which in typical Bowie fashion started off with a bang with his ´´The man who sold the World´´ although not realising a music video David Bowie is pictured on the cover as wearing a style of ´´man dresses´´. This would be the start to his boundary pushing career although it remained undeveloped.

Most daring outfits. Resulting in the star image that became known as Ziggy Stardust. His break out hit came in the form of 2001 a space oddity (a pun and intertextual reference on the Kubrick masterpiece), in the music video, he takes the stage persona of Ziggy stardust, (or starman).

David Bowie re-reinvented his star image in 1976, realising a trilogy of minimalist albums which became known as the berlin trilogy. This shift shocked fans and critics alike, as it was unusual for such a drastic artistic makeover. The reason for this is due to the decline of the glam rock and growing popularity for more artistic unconventional rock leaving Bowie the option to change or to fade into irrelevancy. He choose the latter creating the so called berlin trilogy of albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger. With a new subgenre of music came a new star image, David Bowie cast away his Ziggy stardust character and presented himself as David Bowie the voice of generation.

However his first music video showed none of this established design. In the first rendition of A space Oddity David bowie is far from the flamboyant star man. Instead he is portrayed in the style of mod rocker. With slim white clothing and a bole cut hairstyle the star image is the archetype Modder. The mise on scene element also support this lack of a star image, instead its shown as an homage to the Kubrick masterpiece 2001 a space odyssey , with little of David bowies flare or sense of design.

The first appearance of starman came in the re-release of his break out hit. This character represents the Glam rock movement of the early 70s, were performs would expressed themselves with elaborate costumes, makeup and hairstyles, which blurred the gender lines (by that a mean challenging gender specific fashion) . Ziggy fits this description down to a t. In 2001 A Space Oddity he is sporting a bright long red hair, with shaved eyebrows and white face paint. Toped of with a sparkling silver top. This all culminates in an otherworldly effect, fitting as Ziggy was an alien. This flamboyant persona carries on in such singles as ‘’life on mars’’ and ‘’star man’’ both of which follow the sci-fi theme, with Ziggy sporting elaborately designed costumes and makeup. The genre just like Ziggy´s personality is hard to pin down, it has been described as Glam Rock, art Rock and just plain old Rock. This again is in line with David Bowie attempt to push and evolve the genre into unexplored territory.

The visual motif that have associated with Starmanare as unusual as the character himself. In his glam rock days David is always sporting unusually fashioned garment each individual by still encapsulating this bizarre personality. Examples can be found in both in his music video and outside, participating in a Japanese fashion show where he hired Kansai Yamamoto who designed some of his most daring outfits. Resulting in the star image that became known as Ziggy Stardust.

Finally the video primary purpose is to heighten this unusual persona. In Life on mars official music video stars out with a pan extreme close up shot of Starmans face, this is then followed by a mid-shot of the artist alone with a white backdrop. The framing of the artist doesn’t evolve beyond these two simple shots (alternating between extreme close up, close ups and mid shots) , allowing the viewer to take in the stage personas fashion and personality.This all culminates in the overall message of Starman, as a glam rocker he preaches self-expression and rebellion. To fight the status quo and evolve into something bizarre, in other word ´´let the children bogie´´This message could not have come out at a better time. With the rise of the Hippie movement free love and expression was the rage, the youth were rebelling against the establishment and their rules and thus turned to Starman as an outlet.

• David Bowie’s most unusual change came later on in his career, abandoning both Glam rock and Starman Bowie evolved with the time presenting himself as his star image. This mean he is not sporting his iconic fashion design instead he is not sporting any make up or unusual garment, just a leather jacket and trouser zipped down to reveal a undershirt underneath. This shows that Bowie does not what to be viewed as a colourful act but as a serious music creator.

Therefore are final case study attempts to reflect this new star image, it is Hero’s. This single on one of the acclaimed Berlin trilogy is placed in stark contrast when compared to David bowies previous work ‘’Space Oddity’’. The video shows Bowie in a series of full body shots in direct mode of address with the audience, there is also a series of close up and mid shots. Besides the relatively plain clothes, as he is sporting a leather jacket and wife beater, there is no engaging mise on scene elements. There are also no cut always or other special effect to distract the audience from the main attraction David Bowie. By doing this Bowie is clamming centre stage concluding his evolution as an artist.

•He has dropped the visual motif associated with his star man character, there is no flamboyant costume design or hairstyle. This the central problem to David Bowies career while other artist start out as generic cookie cutter performers they evolve and become unique over time finding their own niche in the market. This was not the case for Bowie who became a slave to the ever evolving trend, going on to play jazz and even hip hop, and by imitating other performers lost the strong identity he once held. For the rest of this essay we shall be focusing primarily on the character of Starman as he is by far the most consistently developed and unique of all of Bowie stage personas.

In conclusion David Bowie’s career was one on constant change and experimentation, however his high point in terms of a star image came in his outlandish glam rocker performances, with his innovative sense of fashion and design people still praise the character that was starman, with 2013 the VA honoured this legacy with a fashion exhibition.