Slashdot Mirror
David Bowie Dies At Age 69 (bbc.co.uk)
echo-e writes: Renowned singer David Bowie has died after an 18-month battle with cancer. His latest album, Blackstar, was only just released on Friday — his birthday. His last live show was in 2006. Bowie rose to fame in the 1970s, and he is known for hits such as Under Pressure, Let's Dance, and Space Oddity. He also appeared in handful of films, such as Labyrinth in 1986.
Bowie was also notable for being one of the few musicians to immediately see the value and staying power of MP3s and the digital distribution of music. If anything, he was overly optimistic about it. In 2002, he said, "I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing."
I'll miss him and his excellent music.
Send his ashes to Mars.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
I think that's what it was, this was a good 20 years ago. It wasn't really a CD+G, it was a CD+LD, you could see the analog part of the CD that would play in a LaserDisc. The disc got stolen, who knows what it's worth today.
Oh well, RIP imaginative dude.
Mostly random stuff.
Christmas Mr. Lawrence....
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Now we'll never get to find out what happened to his character in Twin Peaks.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
It seems they're being rather tight lipped about what type of cancer it was, but rumors prior to his death (and prior to the public admission he even had cancer) claim it was lung cancer.
Whether you like his music or not, there is no denying that David Bowie was a true artist, a real entertainer. There was nothing fake about him. Nowadays, we don't see real artists like him very often.
It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
and the spiders from Mars will be the pallbearers.
He just released an album, its good, but bleak.
He must have recorded knowing his death was imminent. You'd think why he didn't say he had cancer, but if you watch the videos he did say.
Blackstar, is full of lonely candles and a Dead Major Tom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw
Love is lost,
http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/post/137078250186/prostheticknowledge-love-is-lost-hello-steve
But for me, the best track he's never remembered for is "Andy Warhol"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4sANPkk3ys
Goodbye David.
Have already downloaded all of Bowie's tracks, but that was probably awhile ago.
Now they have to find them so they can listen to them!
Thanks for posting this info here, or I would never have heard about it !
Because he was a rebel that supported the fall of music labels, the media ignored his death.
That, or the real Goblin King is involved and we're not supposed to know about it.
One word: Marketing. And promotion. Wait, you need three words: Marketing and promotion. And publicity. OK four words: marketing, promotion, and publicity. Oh, and connections to the industry.
So far the articles I saw made no mention of his adventure as a banker and alternative currencies.
Bowie was a more interesting person than your typical rock star.
I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.
Indeed... if only it were true David, going to miss this guy, grew up with his music and strangeness
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
The guy was razor sharp, and at times almost prescient.
From around 6 minutes in this interview, he talks re. the music industry's rot, and predicts much of the internet's climb over the last decade and a half. All to Paxman's skepticism...
We have an emptier world today
Still one of my favorite albums. I was just listening to it last night, it always hits me how well the theme of the album works.. are there any album themes anymore?
Dude was a genius. An actual genius.
Give us a break. We just happen to like his music.
Not really it has been all over the news in the UK. Just fire up the BBC news website if you want to see what I mean.
Just spent the weekend listening to the new album and trying to figure out the meaning behind the Blackstar video. It suddenly all makes sense.
He will be missed, but it's nice to know he left at the top of his game.
..now where did that
There's only 27 mentions of "David Bowie" on their main page. Is that normal for the BBC?
This is a hoax. Bowie will never die.
I had no idea David Bowie died until I read it here on Slashdot! How come the mainstream media didn't report on this at all in the last 16 hours since it was formally announced?
I don't know where in the world you are. But in my part of the world the media have been talking about little else since early this morning.
That is all
A true genius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Bowies eccentricities aside, Ive never understood why his kidnapping charge wasnt investigated? Sure, he certainly as a monarch reserved diplomatic immunity but his 13 hour standoff over the child was completely uncalled for.
Now that hes gone, what of his estate? I certrainly hope someone does something with the bog of eternal stench he was so enamoured with...and that horrible room full of staircases? certainly someones complained of trip hazards and safety violations...Rest in peace Goblin King.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Nerds play D&D. Labyrinth was fantasy, much like a D&D game. So I guess it kinda explains why this is tech news.
"News for nerds", jackass. Bowie was music for 70's music nerds.
I saw The Man Who Fell to Earth on first release, when local censors had shredded it into incomprehensibility. Gotta give it another shot...
Whoosh (in a tin can)!
The dude played fucking Nikola Tesla in the movies. Because of course he did. That's how cool he was.
You are welcome on my lawn.
How is this tech news?
How is it that you don't know what are the topics at the top of the slashdot web page? It says:
Topics: Devices Build Entertainment Technology Open Source Science YRO
This article is about Davis Bowie, so it concerns
1) entertainment; music
2) technology; digital distribution of music
3) YRO; copyright issues
I won't awful him and his excellence.
"In 2002, he said, "I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.""
It's sad that natural technical evolution was so successfully thwarted via the mass purchase of lawmakers.
Does anybody else remember David Bowie having an ISP at one point? BowieNet or something like that?
That's actually quite Low...
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes......
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I had no idea David Bowie died until I read it here on Slashdot! How come the mainstream media didn't report on this at all in the last 16 hours since it was formally announced?
Because Benghazi!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It's fortunate that you shamed yourself as a AC, rather than posting under your name.
Are you kidding, It was the first thing on the news when I got in my car to go to work at 2 am (mst) this morning. It's been on every news site I've looked at today?
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt04...
Don't waste your time with the American series.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
It's all Hunky Dory if you ask me...
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Gosh. On /. I would have figured that some people would have chimed in that he played Nikola Tesla in the film "The Prestige." Bonus: his lab assistant was played by Andy Serkis, in one of his few live-action roles.
They tend to get obsessed with one single story at a time, and then commission dozens of articles and interviews on it.
Sometimes it's worthwhile (starvation in Syria), or tedious (Labour reshuffle), or one popular cultural figure (this).
They had the Archbishop of Canterbury paying tribute to Bowie on the radio this morning, among others...
I will never forget the first time I heard Ziggy Stardust (to be played at maximum volume).
It was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor and I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there. Your face, your race, the way that you talk. I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk.
RIP David. I love you.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
So everyone with a song on iTunes who has stated an opinion on IP should make a Slashdot story when they pass? Where's the article for Lemmy?
Pretty silly argument. The media will be always be where there is a buck to make. That he didn't support labels or whatever shit you believe doesn't change anything to the fact making the front page with Bowie this morning is selling everywhere on this planet. It is all over the news in Canada as well.
Achille Talon
Hop!
He will be missed by the entire Guild for his loyal service to villains the world over.
May he RIP.
We were just about to come back for a new tour, like Axl and Slash. So sad...
Based on Bowie and the entire Glam rock scene of the early 70's .
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01...
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
such as Cassandra Wilson, were to die, would Slashdot have a feature article about it?
Are you even BEGINNING to insinuate that Bowie wasn't a competent singer?
who?
Who gives a shit
Lots of people evidently.
I won't miss him and his awful music.
Both Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust are true masterpieces. If you grew up listening to his post-seventies work, you can be forgiven your opinion.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
Seriously...he had a lot to say about the future state of the music industry in the internets early days. His death mentioned on Slashdot is definitely not a random celebrity death sighting.
"Nothing is impossible Mr. Angier" and I am sad. A great one in the genre of entertainment if not inspiration that comes with it has passed. They don't come along everyday.
I thought he still had a good 20 years left in him. Bowie was perpetually looking amazing every time I saw him in public, with no signs of slowing down.
I know some might say 70 is a good stint especially for somebody who used a lot of drugs in the past, but I wish he was with us longer.
So everyone with a song on iTunes who has stated an opinion on IP should make a Slashdot story when they pass? Where's the article for Lemmy?
Ask yourself why Slashdot doesn't post an article on every tech story that exists, every science story that happens, every YRO story that happens, and you'll know the answer to your question.
Johnny's in America
Low techs at the wheel
Nobody needs anyone
They don't even just pretend
I'm afraid of Americans.
(and you should be too!)
My girlfriend called me this morning because she knows I am a Bowie fan. I turned on the morning news. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN (didn't check FOX) all basically said, "David Bowie is dead. He was 69 and had cancer." before moving on to the same stuff about the Golden Globes and Trump. BBC said that and added a few clips of his music.Aljazeera shocked me; They had a HUGE tribute (at least 3 min -an eternity in TV news) including clips, interviews (including the astronaut that sang "Space Oddity" on the International Space Station). etc. and ran it every 15 minutes (even I thought it was overkill). Maybe the other nets needed time to get their tributes together and will show them on the nightly news, but frankly, I was amazed that a news agency based in Qatar would beat out NY, London and Atlanta...
I like his music, but as a human being I liked him even more. He turned down British knighthood by saying "I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that, I seriously don't know what it's for. It's not what I spent my life working for."
Very suspicious that his death coincides with his birthday and the release of Darkstar... does anyone else suspect that this might be a huge publicity stunt? Certainly sales of his albums are going to go through the roof, just as they did when Michael Jackson died. On the other hand, Darkstar is actually dark enough that it is believable that the person creating it did so knowing he was going to die of cancer. No question Bowie was a great songwriter, performer, and actor.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Nerds play D&D. Labyrinth was fantasy, much like a D&D game. So I guess it kinda explains why this is tech news.
Not just D&D--a huge number of Nerds enjoy fantasy. And Labyrinth was not quite old-school fairy-tale, but it was definitely fantasy. If slashdot were here when Tolkien died, it would have been news. David Bowie isn't Tolkien, but he's definitely relevant to fantasy culture.
RIGHT?!?!
You have so misread the comment if you think he was being overly optimistic.
Funny how secrets travel. RIP Bowie
Completely relevant IMHO. He worked with Brian Eno (see album "Low" and look up his "Berlin Period") and was one of the pioneers of electronic music. He also was acutely aware of the way tech would transform music distribution, but sadly was rather optimistic that the labels would give up their revenue streams so easily.
What media are you looking at that you think his death was ignored?? Fox News?
I think his spaceship knows which way to go
church of the better resurrection... https://betterresurrectionchurch.wordpress.com/
I would call you Captain Obvious, but I think Colonel is more appropriate.
There's clearly an entire battalion of blithering idiots who aren't very good at spotting sarcasm.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Saw him back in the seventies, sixth row center. He was hoisted out over the audience on a crane and stopped just above me. Sang "Changes" I think. I could have reached up and shot him a grip. "Reality" was his last great album: best album this century.
Considering Bowie's contributions to digital music distribution, and he being one of the first people to recognize just what the Internet was going to mean to the music industry, I'd say that alone justifies a Slashdot article. The guy wasn't just a very good artist, he was also an extraordinarily canny businessman who foresaw how the business he was a part of was going to be shaken to the core even when "high speed Internet" meant a 14.4k modem.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
From today's New York Times:
https://twitter.com/brianstelt...
announces Mick Jagger passed away.
Profound Revelations
You may think you have profound revelations
only to find out later they are none to profound.
Such as:
Survival of the species is everybody's business
No matter how much you may dislike pickles, it is after all, the only think you can do with cucumbers.
But how old are you? Disco was being pushed down our throats by major media (seriously, no news broadcast was completely without a "how To Do The Hustle" fluff piece), it had a culture based on expensive clothes far out of the reach of any teenager, not to mention the heavy cocaine use. The big disco venue was Studio 54, which was famous for being Exclusive, if you weren't a Big Star good luck getting in the door. And no one liked the music, the record companies lost their shirts pushing disco records. This entire business sucked, the suckiness of the music was just a small part of it.
Disco is why punk was necessary.
I thought you died alone.
Bowie did as much to encourage space travel as Carl Sagan.
RIP Starman
i remember seeing him the first time - crossdressed, full makeup, vomit inducing dancing and singing. avoided his music and videos like a plague since then.
btw, what exactly is this doing on slashdot? anybody knows what lady gaga has been up to lately?
i remember seeing him the first time - crossdressed, full makeup, vomit inducing dancing and singing. avoided his music and videos like a plague since then.
btw, what exactly is this doing on slashdot?
Well, he is arguably the nerdiest pop singer/artist that could ever be. News for nerds surely.
I won't miss him and his awful music.
Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family is, like, two minutes out of decades of work.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Sound and Vision, We Could Be Heroes...lots of great stuff from him over the years.
RIP, David.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Well, he is arguably the nerdiest pop singer/artist that could ever be.
I'd argue that point. Compared to the likes Weird Al, They Might Be Giants, OK Go, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, Beck, Thomas Dolby, Weezer, GWAR, The Mountain Goats, Ben Folds, Elvis Costello... Bowie probably isn't even in the top 20 nerdiest pop artists. I didn't even bother with indie acts like Jonathan Coulton, niche acts like The Aquabats, or nerds who were only incidentally pop artists like Brian Cox.
My vote for the nerdiest pop superstar would be Brian May. He built his own guitar and helped build his own amplifier, he has a PhD in astrophysics, and wrote a song about the effect of space travel at relativistic speeds.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Goodby David
I heard about it on DW, so it did at least get covered by one major news outlet.
And the papers want to know whose shirts he wore!
:(
Next on Slashdot: Miley Cyrus and celebrity news!
Get Real.
TVC15
Aaah I get it now - you really have no idea. Thanks.
One could see what was going to happen when mp3's started popping around, and it got completely obvious when Napster came around. Before that, people have been burning cd's with prices of writables costing not much less than retail music, but prices were dropping fast. At the time you couldn't but shell out cca. $20 for a full album just to get your hands on that song running on MTV. Today days you pay $1 for the same pleasure, or in fact just open up youtube for free.