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Celebrating David Bowie: The Visionary Who Shaped Pop Culture in the 20th Century

One of the most influential and charismatic singers of a century died after releasing his last album. This is what David Bowie was like

Celebrating David Bowie: The Visionary Who Shaped Pop Culture in the 20th Century
Chema Carvajal Sarabia

Chema Carvajal Sarabia

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Rock star David Bowie’s first hit was the 1969 song Space Oddity. Bowie, the original pop chameleon, is one of the most influential figures in music and entertainment. In 1996 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bowie died of cancer on January 10, 2016.

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Known as a musical chameleon for his ever-changing look and sound, David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, south London, England, on January 8, 1947.

Bowie showed an interest in music from an early age and began playing the saxophone at the age of 13.

A song that traveled to space

In early 1969, Bowie entered the world of music. He signed a contract with Mercury Records and released the single “Space Oddity” that summer. Bowie later said the song came to him after watching Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The song quickly caught on with audiences, driven in large part by the BBC’s use of the single during its coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The song enjoyed subsequent success upon its release in the United States in 1972, climbing to number 15 on the charts.

Drugs, your faithful companion

As a good artist, David Bowie had many drug problems, as he himself explained in several interviews, in this TikTok clip you can see how he talks naturally about a taboo subject until then.

In 2004, Bowie suffered a serious health problem when he suffered a heart attack while performing in Germany. He made a full recovery and went on to collaborate with groups such as Arcade Fire and actress Scarlett Johansson on his album Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008), a collection of Tom Waits covers.

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Bowie, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. He kept a low profile for several years. Bowie released Blackstar, his last album, on January 8, 2016, his 69th birthday. He passed away two days later.

Just a few days later, the world would learn that the album had been recorded under difficult circumstances thus making his legacy even greater.

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Chema Carvajal Sarabia

Chema Carvajal Sarabia

Journalist specialized in technology, entertainment and video games. Writing about what I'm passionate about (gadgets, games and movies) allows me to stay sane and wake up with a smile on my face when the alarm clock goes off. PS: this is not true 100% of the time.

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