# David Bowie's reputation going forward - stable; improve; decline? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495 "2016-01-18T14:02:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/81 "2016-02-20T21:37:44Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > **Bowie** had a total available certified sales of 26.8 million (estimated: 100 million). That’s only slightly less than **The Beach Boys** and more than **The Who** and **The Doors** , to stick with classic rock acts. I’d be curious to know what you think of them. > > The idea that the **Pet Shop Boys** , **Morrissey** or **Annie Lennox** could be considered comparable to **Bowie** in any metric frankly boggles my mind. Where did you get those numbers and can you look up the numbers for Annie Lennox as well? Just checking wiki it says Bowie has sold 140 million records (estimated) and Annie has sold 80 million. Pet Shop Boys, again, according to wiki, come in at 50 million. It says the Beach Boys have sold ‘in excess of 100 million records’. Clearly, we’re both looking at different numbers, I’m curious what your source says about Bowie. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/82 "2018-01-10T14:54:42Z")
Bumped. Here’s a CNN photogallery of a young DB: [Baby-faced Bowie, before he became a star](http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/01/entertainment/david-bowie-cnnphotos/) ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/83 "2018-01-10T17:10:10Z")
In the UK he is more important. I think Mojo magazine was talking last year about how he has or will eclipse the beatles in history, for the UK, I guess. I don’t see that, for me. I love the golden period but I can’t join the church. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/84 "2018-01-10T22:21:18Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > I don’t see that, for me. Agreed. As far as DB’s rep going forward, surely nothing’s going to touch him in these golden years, perhaps with a slight rise and fall, though I’m sure most young Americans will be unfamiliar with him (while others might look back in anger). wow that “Blackstar” - quite the doozy of an epitaph. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/85 "2018-01-10T23:33:35Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I am way old and have never heard anything by the Velvet Underground or Morrissey. . . . I am way old and have heard \*\*\*everything \*\*\*by the Velvet Underground and Morrissey. Seen 'em both live, too. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/86 "2018-01-10T23:57:36Z")
Thank you **Elendil’s Heir** - lovely set of shots of the artist as a young man! A nice 6-minute piece on the BBC tonight, this being the second anniversary of his death: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgH9ldb19Dk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgH9ldb19Dk) Fwiw, I used to know Trident in Barnes very well - a couple of excellent pubs right by the studio 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/87 "2018-01-12T06:38:49Z")
David Bowie was awesome in and of himself. He was iconic and I think he’ll endure for awhile as such. But am I wrong in a longstanding assumption here? I’ve had a vague notion for decades that he was part of a …sort of a club…with Brian Eno and Phil Collins and others that sort of spurred on various other groups like Roxy Music and Talking Heads. Because that to me would be half the legacy. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/88 "2018-01-12T07:15:04Z")
I wonder if people 200 years from now would find 20th century music in its original recordings even listenable. In recent years, there certainly seems to be a trend toward remixing and remastering once untouchable work (i.e. Sgt. Pepper’s makeover last year). Lets say every 50 years, 1960s-1970s recordings are remastered or enhanced to fit future tastes in audio. In 200 years, “Space Oddity” might be unrecognizable. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/89 "2018-01-12T08:51:40Z")
> [@Elemenopy](#): > > David Bowie was awesome in and of himself. He was iconic and I think he’ll endure for awhile as such. > > But am I wrong in a longstanding assumption here? I’ve had a vague notion for decades that he was part of a …sort of a club…with Brian Eno and Phil Collins and others that sort of spurred on various other groups like Roxy Music and Talking Heads. Because that to me would be half the legacy. Quite wrong. Eno began his career in Roxy Music, who were pretty much contemporary with Bowie in early 70s glam - their first album came out in 1972, the same year as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Phil Collins began in Genesis at roughly the same time, but as the drummer: he didn’t take on vocal duties until Peter Gabriel left in the mid-70s, and didn’t become prominent as a solo performer until a decade later. And of the three, Bowie and Ferry’s self-aware archness - and Eno’s knob-twiddling - were a far bigger influence on David Byrne than the meat-and-potatoes pomp of Collins. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/90 "2018-01-12T09:18:49Z")
Both early Roxy Music and Bowie were very, very meta about their music: listen to the sequence of instrumental solos on Roxy’s [“Re-Make/Re-Model”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWNsZPXq7Sw), in which you can almost hear the quotation marks around each instrument’s turn, and which gave listeners a knowing wink about just how songs were put together. Meanwhile Bowie was singing “Starman” from the point of view of a teenager excitedly sharing a song he’d heard on the radio: these guys weren’t just writing songs, they were writing about songs, and the process of how music was produced and consumed, for an audience that was equally as savvy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/91 "2018-01-12T16:57:00Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > … and Eno’s knob-twiddling… What do you mean by this? ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/92 "2018-01-12T17:44:04Z")
Pretty much exactly what he typed. goo.gl/u9DMze ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/93 "2018-01-12T18:02:36Z")
Love Genesis, and I think he did a great job as drummer and front man, but Phil wasn’t hip. Bowie was a snob, you need to remember. He couldn’t stand genesis. Phil was on the scene but the fact that he worked with eno didn’t mean that much. And David Byrne and Collins really only have eno’s paid input in common. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/94 "2018-01-12T18:10:08Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > Pretty much exactly what he typed. > > goo.gl/u9DMze Ah, thanks. I thought it was a sexual euphemism of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/95 "2018-01-12T19:24:57Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > Pretty much exactly what he typed. > > goo.gl/u9DMze What the man said: I kinda lost interest in Roxy Music after Brian Eno took his knobs away. [And this Eno gif is perfect, he looks like Elrond with a synthesiser.](https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/24629129187039255/) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/96 "2018-01-12T19:56:43Z")
funny thing someone brought up the pet shop boys … They made a documentary when they were cutting a few songs and ive only seen a 5 min clip but they looked like George jetson at the computer he sat at only with headphones drinking tea and BSing and every so often theyed listen to some thing have a discussion and then go back to pressing knobs and buttons ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495/97 "2018-01-12T20:05:26Z")
ok re post … funny thing someone brought up the pet shop boys … They made a documentary when they were cutting a few songs and ive only seen a 5 min clip but they looked like George jetson at the computer he sat at only with headphones and drinking tea and BSing and every so often theyed listen to some thing have a discussion and then go back to pressing knobs and buttons supposedly depending on the mood it could take anywhere from 10 minutes to years to make a song … I’m told that the only reason to watch unless your into the whole “mixing” scene is tennats got a wicked sense of humor and just politely snarks on every thing he sees and hears [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowies-reputation-going-forward-stable-improve-decline/743495.md?page=4)