A thousand years from now, when scientists study the twentieth century, and more particulary, the culture called Rock n' Roll, what will they think of when they happen to fall upon David Bowie? What will they make of him? Of what he did for a society's culture?
If they were doing their research (and actually getting it right, you just can't trust those damned scientists!) they would probably come to this: for whatever reasons he became famous, and struck the public's fancy, it wasn't just because he could write a good pop song. Because, David Bowie never has struck the public's fancy (okay, maybe a bit in the eighties).
Just stop for a second and think. What was rock music like before David Bowie came onto the scene? The Beatles. Cream. Elvis Presley. Bob Dylan. And what was it like after? The Smiths. Duran Duran. The Cure. Blondie. The Eurythmics.
Now, I am definitely not crediting David Bowie alone for entirely changing the world. He was just a part of the whole Glam Rock scene and a restless society. Bowie wasn't in it alone, but I do give him the most credit for being the most influential and goddamn bravest of them all! Waxed eyebrows? Girl's clothes? Eyeshadow? Lipstick? Implying oral sex with your guitarist on stage? Claiming you're gay on air just for the hell of it? Sometimes wearing nothing but a teeny little thong in front of thousands of people? (see above) Hell, most musicians today wouldn't dare do that , let alone in the stringent past of thirty years ago. (In 70's Britain you could have been arrested for practicing homosexuality, so I've heard.)
Once, in a Smiths interview, singer Morrissey recalled his childhood and David Bowie, saying he had never seen such mass hate for one person (which would be the Bowie)as he had had when he was in school. Did David Bowie revel in that hate, or thrive in it? Did he ever feel intimidated or lost by it? He definitley took it like a man (pun slightly intended *wink*).
Even today, I don't think any artist has gone to such extremes as David Bowie. Marilyn Manson hides himself in his makeup. Bowie exposed himself in his. Not saying that Marylin Manson isn't a rebel with a cause. He is. The impact's just been dullened. And Marilyn Manson doesn't brag about "neatly fucking a school boy up on his bed". Dude, Manson actually seems like a pretty normal guy compared to the Bowie.
So what is David Bowie's final statement? Did he make people more accepting of gay folks? Definitely not. But did he make it cool to be weird? Yah, he did. And every pretty punk boy wearing eyeliner and mascara owes Bowie a big sloppy lipstick kiss, because he made what they do seem sexy and rebellious, instead of freakish and troubled. All at the expense of being remembered as "that fag from the seventies" by old timers (well at least middleagers). Give him your hands 'cause he's wonderful.
