Because of his appearance in movies like Labyrinth and The Prestige, many of us have heard of David Bowie before, but what a lot of us don't know why else he is famous for besides being a singer.
David Bowie did not start as an average music student going into fame. He was often looked down upon in society because he enjoyed dressing up in clothes that were considered too feminine for him and in bright colors and hairstyles. People have ridiculed him while he walked down the street, and called many slurs. He could have changed for those people to conform, but he chose to keep going on his path to becoming a star.
When he first came out as a performer he used his birth name, David Jones, but because he had the same name as someone from the band The Monkees, people did not take him seriously as an artist and he did not become popular until he made his stage name David Bowie. His older music and style is much more conforming than his later stuff which was a more artistic expression in things that most people considered really weird.
His influence on young gay people is one of the most prominent. He was alive and popular in a time where people were fighting for their civil rights, and when homosexuality was looked down upon in society. David Bowie himself was gay/bisexual, and he came out to the public in an interview. He was a leader and icon for young gay people looking for closure and ability to accept themselves. He had come out to the public only three years after the Stonewall Riots, and his stardom was something that many young gay people looked up to.
David Bowie also had pushed the social norm of gender. He very rarely dressed in typical male clothing when he was in public, and presented himself as more of an androgynous space alien rather than a male human. This also gave transgender people a way to look at themselves as normal rather than mentally ill. Many of his songs are very suggestive in a non-straight way, and he has dressed in drag many times. The way David Bowie performed gender gave transgender and gay people someone to look up to.
David Bowie's perseverance is what allowed him to become the influence that he became. He could easily have given up on his dreams of being a musician. He was told he didn't fit in with society, but he kept doing what he loved and became very popular. When Bowie eventually had the popularity and the courage to publicly come out as gay, it became a stepping stone towards gay rights.
ReplyDeleteHe is an example of a why stars and celebrities often are more than just their work because they have a platform that allows their personal opinions to be broadcast and then often accepted. I did not know about the ridicule he faced early on with his style because I had always considered him as such as icon that such bigotry seemed inconceivable. I also had never put together that his Ziggy Stardust persona had effects in the gay and transgender community because of its androgynous undertones. It shows the contrast between today and the 70's, and that these cultural shift and change was caused by people like David Bowie.
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