I\u2019m not sure of what to think, as I\u2019ve always felt cheated by Bowie\u2019s celebrity. <\/p>\n
See, I grew up too late to really be able to understand him as he should be understood. I\u2019m too young to look at him in the proper context.<\/p>\n
I always wanted<\/i> to get him in the right and proper way, and believe me, I\u2019ve tried. I like his music, and not just what they played on the radio- not that that distinction matters, as I\u2019ve only heard one of his songs that way. Yes, truly, only one<\/i>, except for his NIN collaboration, which I\u2019ve always thought was more of a Reznor song.<\/p>\n
Actually, let\u2019s back up for a second. His NIN collaboration was my first real introduction to him. I mean, this was the first time I actually saw him on TV.<\/p>\n
Actually, wait\u2026 I\u2019m forgetting that video with Bing Crosby. You know the one. I saw that as a kid and never forgot it, mostly because MTV played it every year. I used to mark my viewing of that video as one of the hallmarks that Christmas was just around the corner.<\/p>\n
I always liked Bowie. I recorded his MTV Live special back in the day and played it over a few times now and again after the NIN collab sparked my interest in him.<\/p>\n
But wait\u2026 let\u2019s back up a bit.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always LIKED Bowie. I\u2019ve always respected him. But I\u2019ve never been able to get him as I properly should. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve read articles about him from many sources over the years. I heard a good portion of his music, I think the majority of it to the date, or at least all of it that I could find on Napster and Scour, back in college, for two reasons: 1) most of the Goth artists I loved so much back then were influenced by him and name checked him, and 2) the dumb frat drunkards at the University I went to scoffed at him, which gave him an instant 2 points with me.<\/p>\n
The music I liked, but the articles didn\u2019t give me the complete picture. They were always after the fact. They\u2019re only someone\u2019s biased interpretation of hazy, half-forgotten memories.<\/p>\n
But I always LIKED Bowie. Truth- I\u2019ve always been a fan of his gender-bending stuff, and he\u2019s one of the reasons why I got into it. I mean, not that I understood<\/i> why he did it, except on carnal and artistic levels, but\u2026 I found it a bit inspiring. I mean, gender bending is cool<\/i>. I mean, it just is, especially when done right, and without him, I might not have known what right actually was. <\/p>\n
And Bowie did it right. His whole way of doing it was as it should have been done. He was fluid<\/i>. He was not in any way so much of something that he couldn\u2019t pull away and try something else at a later date. <\/p>\n
I also investigated, back in my college days, an artist named Jobriath, who was supposed to be the \u201creal deal\u201d back then as opposed to Bowie, because Jobriath was actually, IDK, trans, or gay, or something that was supposed to be more \u201cauthentic\u201d than Bowie\u2019s artistic expression.<\/p>\n
That other dude went nowhere. <\/p>\n
So\u2026 I also investigated a few other artists who who tried gender bending, like the great and inspiring goth musician Sopor Aeternus. He\/She<\/i> (or whatever) is interesting, as interesting in his own ways as Bowie. And of course Genesis P-Orridge was fascinating to me as well. Although- both Aeternus and P-Orridge were influenced by Bowie, right? So\u2026 Bowie\u2019s there, too. Kinda.<\/p>\n
IDK. Bowie is in so many places culturally these days, in little bits here and there, that\u2019s he\u2019s hard to really quantify. <\/p>\n
But\u2026 I\u2019ve always liked him and his music.<\/p>\n
So R.I.P. David Bowie- and Ziggy Stardust, and The Thin White Duke, and, let\u2019s see\u2026 Jareth, too, and The Man Who Fell to Earth.<\/p>\n
But mostly, rest in peace, Bowie.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m not sure of what to think, as I\u2019ve always felt cheated by Bowie\u2019s celebrity. See, I grew up too late to really be able to understand him as he should be understood. I\u2019m too young to look at him in the proper context. I always wanted to get him in the right and proper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1842"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1852,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions\/1852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighinide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}