# David Bowie - what am I missing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 23, 2026, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944 "2026-01-23T01:03:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/81 "2026-01-24T03:22:16Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > But there are many, many influential people/bands that that made good music and wrote just as good songs that are not fawned over as Bowie is. > Here’s a few: Nick Drake, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Big Star, The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Ian Curtis - hell, even Jellyfish. Well now you are just being silly. > [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Equally, for instance, I never bought into to 'Clapton is God, bullshit either. Fully agree with this, tho. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/82 "2026-01-24T04:42:00Z")
Of course not. Aretha Franklin is God! ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/83 "2026-01-24T06:00:19Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Reed didn’t have much to do with the album. Ummm…well, he did write and sing every single song. I think that counts as having something to do with the album 🙂. ---
**Author:** ![rickp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickp/32/17521_2.png) [@rickp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rickp)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/84 "2026-01-24T07:08:55Z")
I ‘m not going to try to convince you that should like Bowie but his work from the first half of the 70s — my high school years — struck a chord with me and many of my friends. He was singing for the kids who were maybe a little on the nerdy or quirky side, not jocks or mainstream. I wore out my copy of “Hunky Dory.” Songs like “Changes” and “Life on Mars” spoke to kids like me who didn’t quite fit in. The song “Rebel, Rebel” from “Diamond Dogs” starts out “You got your mother in a whirl, not sure if you’re a boy or a girl” — heady stuff for 1974. If you have Spotify i’d recommend “Hunky Dory”, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust”, and “Diamond Dogs” as a good intro to Bowie’s work. Oh, and he does rock. His bands always had some kick musicians, like Mick Robson on guitar. Check out a live version of “Moonage Daydream” for a treat on youtube. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/85 "2026-01-24T08:01:27Z")
I think I never got into David Bowie mostly because, at the age when I was really getting into music and deciding what my obsessions would be, I didn’t have a Bowie nut in my life ready to shove _Station to Station_ or _Hunky Dory_ under my nose and sing his praises. My timing wasn’t ideal, either. By this point in my life, Bowie was in his little-loved era of _Tonight_, _Never Let Me Down_ and his work with Tin Machine. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/86 "2026-01-24T15:22:35Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Concert-wise, I only saw the Glass Spider tour. I just figured out why I could never find the cover art that matched the picture in my head. I dated a guy in August/September 1987, who had gone to the Glass Spider concert in Vancouver, BC, and he had a picture of the [set](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Spider_Tour#/media/File:BowieRaR87-stage.jpg), or maybe it was some sort of poster. Actually I think he gave me a mix cassette, which is long gone. David Bowie is what I listen to when I don’t know what I’m in the mood for. I do have the feeling that if someone watches enough British TV, they will run into a David Bowie song. There’s even two series named after two of his songs, _[Life on Mars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars_(British_TV_series))_ and _[Ashes to Ashes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashes_to_Ashes_(British_TV_series))_. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2026, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/87 "2026-01-25T20:27:27Z")
He was excellent as a producer and performer also, always had top notch hired guns and collaborators. He and Syd Barrett are the rock n roll deaths that I’ve felt deepest in passing Deep cut with Adrian Belew tearing it up… [Stay - Live](https://youtu.be/7tWyIug2qP0?si=WQQsJYkV7s7Zz9pD) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/88 "2026-01-25T20:44:50Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I don’t hear it any more frequently than Under Pressure or Modern Love (but then again, I don’t live in the USA). Personally, I definitely can name more Bowie songs than Springsteen songs (even though some people consider Springsteen to be some sort of living Jersey god). I’d generally consider Under Pressure to be a Queen song (or more like the start of a song that never quite got finished). Just checked out the music video for Modern Love. Doesn’t sound familiar to me and so far as I can tell it was the first time I’ve ever heard it. So yeah, maybe not as well-played in the US? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2026, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/89 "2026-01-25T21:01:19Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Just checked out the music video for Modern Love. Doesn’t sound familiar to me and so far as I can tell it was the first time I’ve ever heard it. So yeah, maybe not as well-played in the US? “Modern Love” made it to #14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart; in my recollection (I was 18, and a college freshman), it got a whole lot of airplay at that time (1983-84) on U.S. radio stations, and the video was in heavy rotation on MTV for a long time. It still gets played very regularly on SiriusXM’s 1980s and new wave stations. Unless you’re young enough that you weren’t listening to the radio or watching MTV in 1983, or just didn’t do those things very much in the early '80s, I’m surprised that you never heard it. (For the record: I am not doubting you when you say that you don’t think you ever heard it before, but it was, indeed, very prominent here, and still gets played regularly on certain radio/streaming formats.) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/90 "2026-01-25T21:16:25Z")
My mom and brother were heavy into MTV when I was a kid in the early 80s. That said, looking at the top songs on MTV, I recognize everything from 1983 (Billie Jean, Every Breath You Take, etc. all yes) but not 1984 (Footloose - yes, Missing You - no), so maybe they got tired of it by the point that this one hit? But as said up-thread, there’s a difference between getting a hit once in time and being in heavy rotation in supermarkets, malls, elevators, commercials, sports stadiums, etc., decade after decade. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/91 "2026-01-25T21:27:36Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > “Modern Love” made it to #14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart; in my recollection (I was 18, and a college freshman), it got a whole lot of airplay at that time (1983-84) on U.S. radio stations, and the video was in heavy rotation on MTV for a long time. Yeah, I remember it being very prominent on radio and video at the time. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/92 "2026-01-25T21:36:24Z")
I mean, obviously music is subjective and nobody is going to be able to “convince” you of Bowie’s talent. If you are truly interested in your original question of why people praise him so highly, you have been provided with ample material to dig into. But I’m not convinced you are truly interested, given this: > [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > But there are many, many influential people/bands that that made good music and wrote just as good songs that are not fawned over as Bowie is. > Here’s a few: [snip] Jellyfish I’m not taking that ludicrous bait, and will simply wish you well if you choose to discover more about David Bowie. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2026, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/93 "2026-01-25T23:28:49Z")
Reading the thread I’m reminded of The Who showing this slide before shows during the 2016 tour. I thought it was a classy thing to do. The crowds always responded with a round of applause. [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczPyhjjiQOdNZoh6jatebeAocQeJrTqApNM2FtULg7_NxK5V3OyNXjGFj78Bn7OlrYoUiPH6tal-1M4zFTdv6clkhD2pRGqp8ixhGPZCgbekpl5hmsIJW200R9zUl44rkCkm44925o-gpIsfUP9cXz2UUg=w882-h644-s-no?authuser=0) ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczPyhjjiQOdNZoh6jatebeAocQeJrTqApNM2FtULg7_NxK5V3OyNXjGFj78Bn7OlrYoUiPH6tal-1M4zFTdv6clkhD2pRGqp8ixhGPZCgbekpl5hmsIJW200R9zUl44rkCkm44925o-gpIsfUP9cXz2UUg=w882-h644-s-no?authuser=0) _"Tonight we will distinctly miss David Bowie, longtime fan of The WHO._ _He’s told the story of how he climbed the fence at London’s Roundhouse to sneak backstage and give Pete Townshend a copy of his new 1969 album, David Bowie. He covered I Can’t Explain and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere on his PINUPS album._ _Nearly every year at MSG, he sat in the first row right beside the stage We’ll miss our friend, a true icon of music and art, and a brilliant innovator."_ ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/94 "2026-01-26T16:28:42Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > His performance of “Starman” on “Top of the Pops” in July 1972 was a country-wide pants-shitting moment in the UK, and kids and parents had a similar reaction to him as Americans did to KISS; Eh, begin at the beginning. I heard Starman on Radio Luxemburg when it first came out. I can still remember how astonished I was - I had to order a copy from our local electrical appliance and record shop - the record took for ever to hit the charts; I have the original picture cover pressing, worth quite a bit I imagine. One of the first grown-up records I bought (I was 13). I saw that edition of Top Of The Pops, of course. My parents despised Bowie based on that. What could be better? A fantastic single and your parents hate the singer. Potent stuff - it’s the essence of rock ‘n’ roll, isn’t it?. So… Bowie was a piece of my growing up. I imagine many people had a similar experience - maybe they found him as Ziggy, or maybe as The Thin White Duke or…there were plenty of opportunities. To your question, OP: Don’t forget how much he means to many people. That said, I do agree that musically he is somewhat overrated (but we’re kinda talking about two different things here). Personal opinion - he created one great album (Hunky Dory) and two other excellent ones (Low and Station to Station) - I really don’t know his later work. He was inconsistent - even Ziggy Stardust has a couple of proper stinkers on it. On the other hand, time and again he wrote great songs. Finally: I think, in Britain at least, he is thought of as quintessentially British - born in south London, raised in the suburbs - and that’s important to how British people regard him. j ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/95 "2026-01-26T16:45:33Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Just checked out the music video for Modern Love. Doesn’t sound familiar to me and so far as I can tell it was the first time I’ve ever heard it. So yeah, maybe not as well-played in the US? Depends on the stations you listen to, I guess. If you look at my first post (#14), I reported the local eclectic rock station having played three Bowie songs in the last 24 hours, and the one two-and-a-half hours before my post was “Modern Love.” (And it looks like they played it yesterday at 5 a.m., as well.) ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/96 "2026-01-26T17:31:34Z")
I came up with a list of “songs I like”. There are about 1,500 of them. There is one song with David Bowie, Dancing in The Street. It’s a remake and a duet. And if it wasn’t for Mick Jagger, I doubt it would have made the list. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/97 "2026-01-26T17:36:44Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > To your question, OP: Don’t forget how much he means to many people. For whatever reason, this statement made me think of Taylor Swift. She seems to mean a heckuva lot to a tremendous number of people. I don’t know any of her music - other than understanding that some of the songs young people jump up and down to while screaming at weddings are hers. I think “Shake it Off” is likely the only song I could name. But I never cared for Beyonce, Whitney Houston, etc. TS seems to write and sing a pleasant enough brand of pop music which has never really meant anything to me. She seems pleasant enough, and clearly is a brilliant businesswoman. Just thinking that popular success may not necessarily be the best indicator of artistic excellence. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2026, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/98 "2026-01-26T19:55:48Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Just thinking that popular success may not necessarily be the best indicator of artistic excellence. Heh, yeah. I strongly feel that it’s probably the worst indicator. Almost every other metric is better, including whether it stays crunchy in milk. Bowie releasing odd albums and invariably having a few odd songs on every record is a pretty good metric. It shows he was willing to experiment with music, sales be damned. _Low_ is probably his most influential work. It divided critics pretty heavily at the time, but tons of people have taken inspiration from it. Heck, Phillip Glass wrote a suite based on it, and its stature and influence have only grown with time. But if it doesn’t move you, then it doesn’t move you. It’s pretty much impossible to please everyone, especially when you experiment as much as Bowie did. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2026, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/99 "2026-01-27T09:58:39Z")
I love Star Wars. I just think it’s not a very good movie. (bear with me) I saw SW at the opening here late 1977. I was totally blown away by the very first shots. The Star Destroyer coming into frame “over me.” I’d never seen anything like it. I went back the next day and watched it again. I’m bringing this up because it’s a “you had to be there to get it” moment. I could list many, many other instances like this, but I think SW being such a central feature of pop culture the last 50 years it illustrates a point. I’m not saying that those who caught it later didn’t get the feeling of awesome. They must’ve, since new fans emerge with every generation. But seeing it on the big screen (as compared to home media) and without prior knowledge of any kind whatsoever, makes for a tremendous impact. It cannot be achieved later, no matter how much you try. Were I too see SW for the very first time today on Disney+, I’d probably go: “Huh, OK. It’s fine I guess but I can’t really see why it had such an impact” because - again - it really isn’t a very good movie. And I think this works across artistic endeavours of most kinds. People of younger generations do discover Bowie. But they are not living in the context of being teenagers in the 70’s in Western Europe. Along with Roxy Music, Bowie spoke to a certain kind of kids - the kind that would worship The Cure in the 80’s and My Chemical Romance in the new millennium. For them, Bowie was probably the most influential artist of the 70’s. Not the most popular, not the biggest sales, but certainly the most important. These kids grew up to form bands, became journalists, curators at galleries and museums, painters and sculptors. And so they set the narrative. Trying to figure out Bowie’s importance, based on the corpus of his work decades later, is futile. You had to be there. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944/100 "2026-01-28T17:58:48Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > I came up with a list of “songs I like”. There are about 1,500 of them. There is one song with David Bowie, Dancing in The Street. It’s a remake and a duet. And if it wasn’t for Mick Jagger, I doubt it would have made the list. That sounds like the sort of obsessive thing I would do. 😃 I think if I made a top 1000, “Jean Genie”, “Space Oddity”, and “Modern Love” would make the cut…maaybe “Starman”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-what-am-i-missing/1026944.md?page=6)