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David Robert Jones (January 08, 1947 – January 10, 2016), known professionally as David Bowie (/ˈboʊi/), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was a leading figure in popular music and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, particularly for his innovative work in 1970s. Bowie's career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, his stagecraft also significantly influencing the music industry. Bowie is one of the world's best selling music artists, with an estimated 140 million albums sold. In his lifetime, eleven of Bowie's albums topped the charts in the UK, and he was awarded ten platinum, eleven gold, and eight silver album certifications. In the US, he received five platinum and nine gold certifications. In 1996, Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Born in Brixton, South London, Bowie developed an interest in music as a child, eventually studying art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. "Space Oddity" became his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart after its release in July 1969. After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and its first single "Starman", which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted radically towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK devotees but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the album Young Americans and its second single, the chart-topping "Fame". In 1976, Bowie starred in Nicolas Roeg's cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he further confounded musical expectations with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that would come to be known as the "Berlin Trilogy". "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), its lead single "Ashes to Ashes", and "Under Pressure", a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached his commercial peak in 1983 with Let's Dance, its title track topping both UK and US charts. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including industrial and jungle. He also continued acting; his roles included Major Celliers in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), the Goblin King Jareth in Labyrinth (1986), Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006), among other film and television appearances and cameos. He stopped concert touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006. In 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with the release of The Next Day. He remained musically active until he died of liver cancer two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar (2016). Read more here...
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David Bowie
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