David Bowie is one of the biggest influence in modern culture. Even though his songs aren’t as obviously engaged as his peers Pink Floyd or the Beatles, he has greatly (and probably even more than the previous) influenced the way our society thinks today. By challenging publicly and widely the boundaries of gender and sexuality as we knew them, or simply by claiming, demanding, his right to be something one day, and something else the next, David Bowie questioned our usual assumptions that everybody fits into one of the categories that form our society. He simply tells us that we can’t try to put everything in boxes, and people should not have to try to make themselves fit into one and stick to it.
Also, what David Bowie stated, that really helped me in my life as well as in my practice, and I am sure a lot of other people, is that he made it okay not to stick to everything your tried. Bowie tried so many things in his career, some very briefly and he would move on to the next thing if he realised that it wasn’t for him, but it as all part of his artistic exploration. “He basically did everything he wanted to see if it was something that could propel him further in his journey.”3 It allowed so many people to be lighter about they decisions. He basically took what we used to call failures and turned it into something positive.
It might be hard for people of my generation to understand just how much David Bowie changed the game, because we didn’t know what it was like before him, we don’t realise that a lot of things that we take for granted today had to be fought for, or brought up to a society which was completely closed to them.
The Dylan Jones from BBC says "And then came the famous moment on the show when David Bowie slung his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson - which was simultaneously blokey but also a bit gay. It may not sound like much now but in 1972 it was a revolution.”4 This made me realise how far we’ve gone since then. I never was aware of this before I started reading opinions of people who actually lived through Bowie’s rise and felt liberated by his attitude. He was bringing with him thousands of new possibilities, he was something they never saw before.
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3. Buckley, D. Strange fascination: David Bowie The definitive Story. 1999 London: Virgin Books, Print.
4. Dowd, Vincent; BBC News. (2018). Did David Bowie change attitudes to sexuality?. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21897627
Now even if there definitely was a lot of controversy around his sexual display, saying that he was doing all of this for commercial gain and popular recognition, there is no denying that he pushed the gay and queer cause years forward.
You can still see David Bowie’s influence in today’s queer culture, he is probably still one of the biggest influence and inspiration there. He paved the way to a fresh and freer way to make art, to perform but also to be. In the film “A cracked actor : A film about David Bowie” he is asked how he feels about so many young kids mimicking his behaviour and looks. He answers : “They’re finding out things that are nothing to do with me, but the idea of finding another character within themselves. (…) One isn’t totally what one has been conditioned to think one is.”5 Through this statement, you can sense that David Bowie isn’t trying to make the world more like him, he is trying to open doors for people to feel more comfortable being themselves, that it is being gay, being queer, being androgynous, feeling that you are more than one thing,… He allows people to be unabashedly themselves, but he also encourages them to go on a journey of self-discovery, trying anything that they feel like even if it turns out not being it. David Bowie wasn’t successful at all of it to everything he attempted. But he never was ashamed of his “failures” nor did he ever viewed them as such. They were just a part of his artistic exploration, and would lead him on to the next thing.
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5. A Cracked Actor. (1975). [film] Directed by A. Yentob. UK: Alan Yentob.
