Description
Book SynopsisIn Experiencing David Bowie: A Listener''s Companion, musicologist, writer, and musician Ian Chapman unravels the extraordinary marriage of sound and visual effect that lies at the heart of the work of one of the most complex and enduring performers in popular music. Still active in a career now well into its fifth decade, Bowie's influence on music and popular culture is vast. At the height of the glam rock era, Bowie stood head and shoulders above his peers. His influence, however, would extend far beyond glam through successive changes of musical style and stage work that impacted upon wider popular culture through fashion, film, gender studies, theatre, and performing arts. As Chapman suggests, Bowie recognized early on that in a post-war consumer culture that continued the cross-pollination of media platforms, the line between musician and actor was an ever-thinning one. Opposing romantic notions of authenticity in rock, Bowie wore many faces, challenging listeners who consider hi
Trade ReviewWhat I particularly enjoyed was the writer’s passion for Bowie’s music, often recalling his excitement as a teenager at listening to each new release on vinyl for the first time. The innovations of each track are explored along with the visual impact and meanings of Bowie’s album covers. Despite his enthusiasm, Chapman acknowledges and explains the reasons behind Bowie’s less successful works in the 1980s and 90s. This work will greatly appeal to fans of David Bowie as well as anyone interested in the history of modern popular music, fashion, stage and cinema, and modern art. * Sixtyplusurfers *
David Bowie is one of the most daring and influential artists of his generation. Ian Chapman, musicologist and musician, serves as our tour guide, taking us through the ever-evolving art of Bowie. Chapman goes into great detail about every studio album, as Bowie glides from music hall to metal, glam to soul, disco to electronica. Bowie’s compulsion to innovate becomes clear. And Chapman includes in this study an exploration of the visual aspects, so vital to Bowie’s impact. The book gives us a far deeper understanding of a complex musical force. * Pop Culture Classics *
Chapman’s narrative approach is to describe the discovery of each new album in a kind of second-person voice: you go to the record store. You wait in line (yes, we used to do that). You take the record home. You look at the front and back covers. You put the record on the turntable. You flip it over after the side finishes. And so on. . . .[I]n Chapman’s hands [this] works quite well, especially – I should think – with readers who actually did experience new records exactly that way. . . .Chapman makes the case for many of Bowie’s more recent albums. . . .[And] the critical analysis he brings to bear upon such late-period Bowie albums as Heathen and Reality has gotten me interested enough that I just might check out those titles. And realizing that makes me say to Ian Chapman, 'Job well done.' * Musoscribe *
Table of ContentsSeries Editor Foreword Acknowledgments Timeline Introduction Chapter 1: Rock and Role: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972 Chapter 2: The Actor Emerges: Hunky Dory, 1971 Chapter 3: Musical beginnings: David Bowie, 1967 Chapter 4: Messages from Ground Control: David Bowie (aka Space Oddity) and The Man Who Sold the World, 1969-1971 Chapter 5: Irresistible Decadence: Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups, and Diamond Dogs, 1973-1974 Chapter 6: Plastic Soul and the birth of The European Canon: Young Americans, and Station to Station, 1975-1976 Chapter 7: The Sounds of Europe: Low, “Heroes,” and Lodger, 1977-1979 Chapter 8: The Rise and Fall of David Bowie: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Let’s Dance, Tonight, Never Let Me Down, Tin Machine, and Tin Machine II, 1980-1991 Chapter 9: Rediscovering the Alien: Black Tie White Noise, The Buddha of Suburbia, Outside, Earthling, and ‘hours…’, 1993-1999 Chapter 10: Twenty-first Century Man: Heathen, Reality, and The Next Day, 2003-2013 Postscript Selected Listening Selected Readings Index About the Author
