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David Bowie Dies At Age 69 (bbc.co.uk)

Posted by Soulskill on from the rest-in-peace dept.

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."

33 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Awful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll miss him and his excellent music.

  2. Tribute by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Send his ashes to Mars.

    --
    Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
    1. Re:Tribute by seven+of+five · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't know about that... they'll probably just fall to Earth...

    2. Re:Tribute by rgbatduke · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm sure his capsule knows the way to go.

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    3. Re:Tribute by plopez · · Score: 3

      ashes to ashes

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  3. True artist by Aethedor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:True artist by rgbatduke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And he would have made a great Elrond...

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    2. Re:True artist by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      I suspect that you're seeing history through rose-tinted glasses. There were plenty of pop-acts in every era that Bowie overlapped with, we simply don't remember many of them. People don't remember acts like Elastica or Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen that charted and were popular for a short time. Hell, look at Weird Al's parodies throughout the years, there are some artists he parodied whose specific work is unknown now that were popular enough at the time to justify parody, like Tiffany and George Harrison's solo work.

      Bowie was special, but he isn't unique. As far as musicians that have gone through several iterations of their personas, Kylie Minogue comes to mind, and when it comes to production and stagecraft along with actually crafting musically-clever songs, I like Spacehog and Muse. Absoutely modern techniques like Autotune are frustratingly common even with singers that can actually sing, but there are still acts worth following in popular music even if their albums are not immune to some of those tools.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re:True artist by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I still think that's incorrect. The majority of modern acts that record labels push are, to an extent, puppets of the record labels, but mostly because, like how Hollywood wants every movie to be a blockbuster, these are the acts that they're convinced will knock it out of the park. Why would a label spend a moderate amount of money to get a simple equal return, when they can spend a bit more and get an order of magnitude more?

      These acts getting arrested for doing stupid things also helps with their sales, so long as the things they do to get arrested are that which we all point and laugh at rather than being truly revolted by. Young, dumb singers whose teen angst bullshit is highly public are great targets. Nearly all of us had our share of it, but we lacked the financial means to get into real trouble or to be so highly visible while doing it. These singers and musicians that the record labels are using have that means and thus when they do the same kinds of dumb shit that we all did, they get busted but also increase their profiles.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    4. Re:True artist by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Long story short; we don't see many musicians of his caliber today and we didn't see many back then either.

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      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    5. Re:True artist by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      I suspect that you're seeing history through rose-tinted glasses. There were plenty of pop-acts in every era that Bowie overlapped with, we simply don't remember many of them.

      Which is why we remember Bowie.

      I wonder if anyone 30 years from now will remember Beyonce. We are officially in a worse period of music than disco.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    6. Re:True artist by TWX · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Could be. Linda Ronstadt was hugely popular in the late seventies but is virtually forgotten today. The Manhattan Transfer won multiple Grammys and used to sell-out auditoriums like rock groups but is down to 2,000 seat auditoriums.

      Bowie had staying power because he continually reinvented himself and managed to keep up with what the public wanted in addition to giving them something new to consider. He was willing to vary his look- Bowie in the Ziggy Stardust era versus The Man Who Fell To Earth era vs Labyrinth are basically completely different acts.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    7. Re:True artist by Jhon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      David Bowie and Bing Crosby. I don't think anybody will ever beat Crosby's records (though I think "we are the world" took the number one spot for a while -- and it took every pop artist of the time to knock Crosby down a notch) but that duet between Crosby and Bowie was awesome and demonstrates the longevity of his career.

      I'm not a fan of all Bowie's work -- certainly not most of it. But there's enough of his catalog that I believe we'll see/hear his music long after the majority of "pop stars" today are gone (I'm looking at you Beyonce).

    8. Re:True artist by KGIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's probably unimaginable to many but, a few years back, I managed to get to see Meatloaf. It wasn't that many years ago. I want to say four years ago? It might have been five. Strangely enough - it was an excellent show. I saw Bowie twice back in the 70s. He was excellent, but more on that in a minute. Now, the kicker is, I saw Garth Brooks a couple of times and I don't even really like most goat-roping music. I also saw a whole bunch of Dead shows over the years - some good, some not so good. Not too many years ago, more recent than Meatloaf, I got to spend some time with the band and see Three Dog Night in concert. Yup, Three Dog Night - still together, tiny venue, special passes, even ate with 'em. I've seen Dylan at least a couple dozen times now, I've even met his son. For someone a little more obscure, there's Susan Tedeshi and, I might be biased, The Roy Hudson Band. Let's include Ian Anderson (alone or as Jethro Tull) in the group.

      What do they all have in common? Well - every last one of them threw every ounce of energy and themselves into their show. They gave you everything they had (some exceptions for the Dead) with every show. There were others, like The Steve Miller Band and The Eagles, who gave you a polished show. Pink Floyd and even Metallica gave wonderfully polished shows. AC/DC and Ozzy are polished shows. But they don't have the same energy, they are not the same. The first group is a group of artists who put everything they have onto the stage. They hold little, if anything, back. If you've ever been on stage and played, well, you understand the actual effort that that can take. Actually, add Elton John and Billy Idol to the first list. I can't leave them out. I'm sure I'm missing more.

      This is probably going to run a little long but I have a point, really. It's just not easy to say, at least not for me.

      There's a certain something, I don't have a word for it, that I think an in-tune audience can appreciate and the artist feeds off of it. Certain artists, fewer than we might hope, have that capacity and they give you their all - and you give them your undivided attention and enjoy the moment. It's not easily put to words, at least not by me, but it's there and all the more palpable if you've been fortunate enough to be on both sides. (I'm not very good but I've played and sung in front of some reasonably large groups of people, sometimes even for money. The largest would be about 12,500 at a very overcrowded Hemp Fest, it was fun.) I don't know how to describe it but it's not just a connection, it's a willingness to push that to the limits, to push yourself to the limits (I presume - I'm not that good), and to really make everything work as best as one can.

      It's not even about raw musical talent. A fairly well-to-do friend hired a rather famous guitar soloist to play at his party one year. The music was absolutely flawless. It was mind-blowing. He ripped scales I'd never even realized could go together. He's rather famous for a reason. He's as fluid as water and as technically pure as possible. The acoustics were perfect, the ambiance was perfect, the music was phenomenal. Yet, he sat on a bar stool. There were no vocals (he doesn't have vocals and generally only does private shows like this) and no movement, no anything... It was so perfect and yet so dead.

      That's the opposite of Bowie... I'd not even say that Bowie was, on the scale of things, all that musically talented compared to many others. Yet, he was fantastic. He was, well, not just able but willing to put himself and everything he had into making art. I'm told that some shows from The Doors were similar to that but I never saw them. But Bowie? I only saw him twice and yet I still remember the sentiment and appreciation. Fucked if I remember what was played, I was blitzed! But, I digress...

      I guess I'd have liked to see him later in his career but I just never got to it. I don't actually regret that, oddly. I'm happy for the two times that I did get to see him. I'm happy for the short time I had in

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  4. Major Tom will be giving the eulogy by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and the spiders from Mars will be the pallbearers.

    1. Re: Major Tom will be giving the eulogy by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Informative

      Hey Einstein, get this - there aren't actually any spiders on Mars either.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Watch the new videos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Watch the new videos by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He must have recorded knowing his death was imminent.

      The video for Lazarus was released on Friday. David Bowie in a hospital bed. First lines of the song "Look up, I'm in heaven"

      He will be missed. Even his death was a creative form of art.

  6. No mention of banker Bowie by clovis · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  7. Hell of a guy by SMoynihan · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

    1. Re:Hell of a guy by DavidHumus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not to mention his shrewdness in securitizing revenues from his songs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . He got $55 million up front at the cost of ten years' revenue from his music. The revenues fell short but, based on what he was saying about the music business, he may have anticipated this.

  8. RIP Thin White Duke by markpg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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 .sig go??
  9. Ground Control To Major Tomb by shortscruffydave · · Score: 3, Funny

    That is all

  10. he died, a crontroversial figure. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  11. Re:Ziggy Stardust by TWX · · Score: 3

    Muse has picked up that mantle lately. The Art of Noise (The Seduction of Claude DeBussy), Spacehog (the Chinese Album), Styx (Kilroy Was Here) and many, many others have released concept albums that are best listened-to whole.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  12. Re:Possibly Lung by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems they're being rather tight lipped about what type of cancer it was

    News stories are saying liver cancer.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  13. Coolness on fleek by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  14. Re:Who gives a shit by clovis · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  15. Re:Possibly Lung by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If that's true, then he knew what the risks were when he was smoking. It's a horrible way to go but it's simply paying the piper for things you did earlier in life. It happens to the best of us.

    Keith Richards is laughing at you right now.

  16. Re:Holy shit this is the first I've heard of this! by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.
  17. Played as Nikola Tesla by necro81 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  18. Re:Possibly Lung by spire3661 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Shove this self-righteous crap up your ass.

    --
    Good-bye
  19. Re:Excellent by Pseudonym · · Score: 3

    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});