Assumption at Zero, David Bowie

I have a very colorful music taste. I pretty much like everything but country. When I was little I grew up listening to hip hop, R&B, and pop because of my parents. As I got older I started to expand my music library. My friend’s started introducing me to bands like The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Doors. One day I saw David Bowie’s song “Ashes to Ashes” in the suggestions category on YouTube while I was listening to “All My Love” by Led Zeppelin. I had heard of David Bowie before but never listened to one of his songs. During the chorus in Ashes to Ashes he says, “My mother said to get things done you’d better not mess with Major Tom”. I wondered who he is referring to as “Major Tom.” I enjoyed this song and wanted to dig deeper into his music. I started listening to one of his earlier albums called, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”. I liked that the album focused on this “Ziggy Stardust” character. It was David Bowie’s alter ego. I want to learn more about Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character and how David came up with him. Was there a deeper meaning to him? Was Ziggy the person he always wanted to be?

I want to know if David’s parents or any other family members were famous. Was he born into this fame? Or did he have to work his way up to it? Were his parents supportive of him going into the music industry? Were the band members in The Spiders from Mars David’s friends from his childhood? After the Ziggy Stardust album did the band break up? What record label did he get signed to? Did he ever change labels?

Later I found out that David Bowie had an addiction to cocaine in the seventies. I want to know why he felt the need to do drugs. It seems like a lot of celebrities in the seventies and eighties did some kind of drug. Cocaine produces short-term euphoria, energy, and talkativeness in addition to potentially dangerous physical effects like raising heart rate and blood pressure. I know that many people snort cocaine to “get up” similar to having a cup of coffee in the morning to wake them up and get ready for the day. Carlos Alomar, who played guitar on twelve of David Bowie’s albums says that cocaine played a crucial role in his early career. Alomar said, “In order for him to stay up all night and finish the tasks at hand, it was a huge factor. Its function was to keep you alert, and that’s what he was doing. It did not stop his creativity at all.”.

I like how David Bowie has had different music styles throughout his career. They call him a musical chameleon because he can adapt to new styles. He has inspired many artists around the world. I am excited to learn more about the amazing musician David Bowie throughout the rest of this project. I want to know everything from his life as a child in his hometown in England, to the reasons why he divorced his first wife, Angela Bowie and later married Iman. I want to know if he is still making music today and if not, what he is doing. He is so musically talented that it makes me want to learn how to play an instrument. It’s going to be fun designing the box and putting a bunch of different things that relate to him in it.