David Bowie

The Art of the Late Daniel Johnston: Musician, Artist, and Renaissance Man

The Editors

Johnston’s songs have been covered by several hundred artists, including David Bowie and Tom Waits. The late Kurt Cobain mused that Daniel Johnston is the best songwriter in America. In 2006, his life was documented in the award-winning film, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, and his painted illustrations were exhibited in the Whitney biennial. Johnston had a lifetime battle with mental illness, and medication prescribed for this condition damaged his liver requiring multiple hospitalizations. He died from a heart attack in his sleep before the morning of September 11, 2019.

Enough Already: Has Lady Gaga Gone Too Far?

Sandra Canosa

From her lightning-bolt makeup to her penchant for science fiction imagery, it’s clear that Gaga draws significant inspiration from Bowie. But the obvious difference between Ziggy Stardust and Lady Gaga is that the latter is not a fictional character. Lady Gaga is not a mask or a façade for Stefani Germanotta, or so she insists in various interviews; Gaga is Gaga is Gaga. Inseparable from her public persona, the distinction between fantasy and reality in her performances becomes hazy at best. When she prostrates herself in one video, only to reappear glamorous and unscathed in the next, does it cheapen the effect? 

David Bowie and the Media's Obsession With Sexuality

Bailey Pennick

English glam rock legend David Bowie has lived and thrived through the process of reinvention for over 40 years.  With each musical release—including classic albums such as Hunky Dory and Heroes—Bowie took on a unique persona that came with a new sound, new attitude and a new take on sexuality.  While impressed by Bowie’s sheer talent and musical creativity, the changing pop culture scene emerging from the late 1950s and early 1960s was more enthralled by his own personal sexuality.  Painting him as either a fake, or as a pioneer of equality, the media’s obsession with Bowie’s taboo bisexuality affected his fans and his music to the point of actual social change.

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