David Bowie
Obviously, there are only a few stars in the history of the music industry, who shone as brightly as David Bowie did. Bowie began his music activity at the end of the distant 60s and not only won the popularity as an actor, singer and producer but became a kind of a symbol of glam-rock of the 70s and an embodiment of artistry that became a model for many fans of both the mentioned music direction and the singer himself.
David Bowie was an innovator in many respects, bringing new images and techniques, shocking and grooving the public. His unique ability to remain among world stars even while his music genre is suppressed by more commercial and successful directions gives rise to searching and finding something unique and original namely in this singer. For example, one must note his striking changeable image, from an androgynous appearance, which caused rumors about the singer's sexual orientation, to a gender-framed, rather masculine image, which is typical of the musician's everyday life.
David Bowie's music career advanced in a rather interesting way. First ten years of his active stage activity, during which he had three rises on the wave of relevant interests of the public and falls caused by appearance of new music styles and directions. Music experts state that David Bowie is a chameleon that changes according to the public's demands, following, at the same time, his unique style, which is recognizable at any time and in any context.
The musician's discography is as various and large as the list of his awards, which we will discuss below. David Bowie released his first studio album in 1967, and, according to the critics, it had nothing to do with the musician's further works and became a strange experiment of the novice artist. Unfortunately, this work was not commercially successful and Bowie had to look for decisions, which are more livable and popular with a wide audience.
He found them in 1969. The release of a popular single “Space Oddity” (later – of an eponymous album) brought David Bowie to Top Five of the UK charts of singles (and to Top Thirty of the albums' chart correspondingly). During a few next years, Bowie kept on experimenting with music and images. At the beginning of 70s, in the period of glam-rock booming, he finally made himself known, presenting his character Ziggy Stardust to the world public and this personality played the lead in creation of the singer's glam-album titled “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”. Namely this album became Bowie's first confident step on his way to the world popularity, peaking at number five of the UK chart and appearing in the Top of Billboard 100 and in the list of The Greatest Albums of All Times of Rolling Stones magazine. The album's title single “Starman” is still one of the most important and known songs of the musician.
That was followed by the years of the active music work, during which David Bowie was sometimes outdone. But he reappeared, just as Phoenix, again and again, and all his returns to the stage were really triumphal. Every time people recognized him but he made surprises to his fans also. David Bowie is still popular as a singer and music producer. The special role among all his awards, received during his music career, belongs to Brit Awards for The Outstanding Contribution to Music Development (1994) and for The Life Achievements (2006). In 1984, the musician was nominated for the recently found MTV Video Music Awards with several videoclips at one time (the award was earned by the video to the song “China Girl” for The Best Male Video).
In 1998, David Bowie won MuchMusic Video Awards with the videoclip “I'm Afraid of Americans”. In total, the musician has 14 awards (including an award for acting) and 44 nominations.
