Looking Back at David Bowie's Career - Music legend David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Music legend David Bowie dies of cancer at 69

Looking Back at David Bowie's Career

A woman leaves flowers beneath a mural of David Bowie in Brixton in London, England; locals watch as an Elvis helicopter drops water to battle a large tire fire in Broadmedows, Melbourne, Australia; and a man pushes his damaged car away from the site of a car bomb attack in New Baghdad, Iraq.

David Bowie - Blackstar

David Bowie - The Stars (Are Out Tonight)

REMEMBERING DAVID BOWIE

PHOTOGRAPHY MARIO TESTINO
TEXT T. COLE RACHEL

AS PLANET EARTH TURNS BLUE AT THE LOSS OF ONE OF THE GREATEST ARTISTS WHO EVER LIVED, V REMEMBERS OUR VERY FIRST CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, LOVINGLY REFERRED TO OVER THE YEARS AS THE "GODFATHER OF V," DAVID BOWIE. OUR LOVE AND THOUGHTS ARE WITH V'S GODMOTHER, IMAN. HERE, CONTRIBUTING MUSIC EDITOR T. COLE RACHEL SHARES HIS OWN PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE OF THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH AND CHANGED IT SO MUCH FOR THE BETTER

The passing of David Bowie is a loss so large that it registers as almost incomprehensible. Few artists of the 20th century have had the same kind of immeasurable creative reach as Bowie, whose work not only forever altered the landscape of music, but also left a shimmering, glittery stamp on the face of popular culture on a global scale. To try and articulate all the ways in which Bowie’s work has influenced the ways in which we think about pop music and gender fluidity and fashion and art is both exhilarating and nearly impossible (though lotsof people will certainly spend the next few days, months, years, decades attempting it), but in the immediate wake of his death I can only think about how different my own life might be had David Bowie not come dancing through it. Like so many queer people who grew up in the pre-Internet dark ages, Bowie’s work was a lifeline—not just because of the music he made, but because of what he so flamboyantly represented. Listening to a hand me down copy of Diamond Dogs in my teenage bedroom was akin to having someone fit me with the musical equivalent of a Technicolor bulletproof vest. These were the ideas that would protect me throughout my tumultuous adolescence. This was music that would make me feel suddenly less alone in the world. I listened to “Star” on my Walkman while driving my stepfather’s ancient tractor in dusty circles across the wheat fields behind my parents house in Oklahoma and imagined a better, more glamorous life for myself out in the world, one in which playing “the wild mutation” of a rock and roll star (or a rock and roll journalist) was actually weirdly plausible. Bowie provided much-needed evidence to kids like myself that one’s identity could be fantastically mutable, that sexuality need not necessarily be defined, and that a life of creativity and radical personal evolution was not only possible, but something to strive for. His music will forever be a renewable resource in terms of how it informs and influences everything that comes after, but perhaps even more important than his records is the design for life that David Bowie himself represents. Bowie is the antidote to complacency. He defined for an entire generation (multiple generations, actually) what it means to be an artist. He is proof that simply being oneself—whatever that happens to be at any given moment—is actually enough to change the world.

NEW YORK – David Bowie, the other-worldly musician who broke pop and rock boundaries with his creative musicianship, nonconformity, striking visuals and a genre-bending persona he christened Ziggy Stardust, died of cancer Sunday. He was 69 and had just released a new album.

Bowie, whose hits included “Fame,” “Heroes” and “Let’s Dance,” died “peacefully” and was surrounded by family, representative Steve Martin said early Monday. The singer had fought cancer for 18 months.

Long before alter egos and wild outfits became commonplace in pop, Bowie set the music world on its ear with the release of the 1972 album, “The Rise of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars,” which introduced one of music’s most famous personas. Ziggy Stardust was a concept album that imagined a genre-bending rock star from outer space trying to make his way in the music world. The persona – the red-headed, eyeliner wearing Stardust – would become an enduring part of his legacy, and a touchstone for the way entertainers packaged themselves for years to come.

Bowie turned 69 on Friday, the same day as he released a new album called “Blackstar.”

“While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief,” said a statement issued via his social media accounts. No more details were provided.

Bowie’s son, filmmaker Duncan Jones, confirmed the news on his Twitter accound and shared a photo of him with his father.

The singer, who was born David Jones in London, came of age in the glam rock era of the early 1970s. He had a striking androgynous look in his early days and was known for changing his looks and sounds. He had launched a provocative alter-ego named Ziggy Stardust, and the stuttering rock sound of “Changes” gave way to the disco soul of “Young Americans,” co-written with John Lennon, to a droning collaboration with Brian Eno in Berlin that produced “Heroes.”

By Alice Vincent, Rupert Hawksley, Lucy Davies, Barney Henderson and Rob Crilly

He had some of his biggest successes in the early 1980s with the stylist “Let’s Dance,” and a massive American tour.

“My entire career, I’ve only really worked with the same subject matter,” Bowie told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview. “The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I’ve always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety – all of the high points of one’s life.”

At a concert for rescue workers after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, his performance of “Heroes” was a highlight.

“What I’m most proud of is that I can’t help but notice that I’ve affected the vocabulary of pop music. For me, frankly, as an artist, that’s the most satisfying thing for the ego.”

Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, but he didn’t attend the ceremony. Madonna, another artist who knew something about changing styles to stay ahead of the curve, accepted for him and recounted how a Bowie concert changed her life when she attended it as a teenager. David Byrne, of the art rockers Talking Heads, inducted Bowie and said he gave rock music a necessary shot in the arm.

“Like all rock ‘n’ roll, it was visionary, it was tasteless, it was glamorous, it was perverse, it was fun, it was crass, it was sexy and it was confusing,” Byrne said.

Bowie kept a low profile in recent years after reportedly suffering a heart attack in the 2000s. He made a moody album three years ago called “The Next Day” – his first recording in a decade which was made in secret in New York City. “Blackstar,” which earned positive reviews from critics, represented yet another stylistic shift, as he gathered jazz players to join him.

He released a music video on Friday for the new song “Lazarus,” which shows a frail Bowie lying in bed and singing the track’s lyrics. The song begins with the line: “Look up here, I’m in heaven.”

Tributes poured in for the singer. British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted about his sadness from outer space aboard the International Space Station, saying “his music was an inspiration to many.”

WATCH BELOW: Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday paid tribute to British singer David Bowie, who died of cancer on Sunday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that Bowie’s death is “a huge loss.” He wrote he had grown up listening to and watching Bowie and called the singer a “master of reinvention” and a pop genius who kept on getting it right.

Rest in Peace Sir David Bowie

Heaven Can’t Wait To Have You,

You’re Blessed by God himself.