I would say so. Prince is His Royal Badness, Madonna is the Queen of Pop, MJ's the King of Pop. So I would figure that Bowie be the king of Alternative. He's influenced every sub-genre that's come from it. Proto-Punk, Glam, Punk, Plastic Soul, Electronica, Post-Punk, Goth, New Wave, Synth-Pop, College Rock, Techno, Industrial, etc. Nearly every artist from those genres have cited Bowie as an influence and continuing source of inspiration.

Also, whatever Bowie does, you know it's gonna be different. Or at least that's how it was in his prime in the 70's. He was like nothing you've ever seen. He was and still is the definition of Alternative.

Give the man his knighthood.

flame at will, but there wouldn't be a madonna or prince as we know them without la bowie. michael would probably be the same, though.

Bowie is a bit of everything! He's so into everything, and that is great about him!!

Anxiety said:

Anxiety said:

who can argue with that?

Anxiety said:

Thesis: Madonna and Prince are glam artists.

GangstaFam said:

not i

Bowie is the best!
Please crown the man with something
His music is awesome, his style is ever changing and
hes just the king of cool

I think he is so underrated sometimes

King of Kings? wait, i think Jesus took that one...


um... King of Queens? no, that's taken by an awful sitcom.


King of Alternative doesn't quite have a ring to it. what should it be?

GrayKing said:

King of Everything

CinisterCee said:

well, there's more to bowie than just the glam. for example, i think his decision to veer off from ziggy and glam and go into a soul phase was pretty outrageous at that time, and i'm sure that had its influence on a lot of folks who followed.

CinisterCee said:

Interesting idea...

Bowie is The Hero!

(...and yes, He can swim!

...although not the way like dolphins can... )

Anxiety said:

I agree. I think he set up this pattern for quick-change artists like Madonna. The difference is that she goes from style to style within one album. If seems like shedding layers and playing dress up with her. Bowie from year to year would take on a completely different set of personality traits, politics, fashion, opinions, etc. And I think the reason he's had more influence than the artists he's influenced is that he's been able to tackle and move on from the genres that he helped influence. About every 2 years or so he seems to immerse himself in a new musical style and totally nail it. I think it's his committment and complete understanding of each of those styles that makes his influence so profound. As amazing and eclectic as Prince is, most of his albums focus on several different things at once. Notice that the majority of his most acclaimed albums are more contained stylistically (Dirty Mind, 1999, Purple Rain). If Bowie was as much of an ADD magpie as Prince, I don't think his work would have the same startling evolution. Prince is always Prince. Bowie's been a million different people.
[Edited 12/1/04 3:36am]

NWF said:

To bring things down to Earth a bit: there are likely to be artists in each of those genres that cite Jesus as an "influence", for example; that doesn't necessarily make him a musician.

Bowie was and is as much a follower as a leader (he copied VU, Iggy, Beatles, Dylan, Jacques Brel....), and was and is very commercial minded (which may go against the concept of "alternative"). Additionaly, some of his musical "changes" lead to some pretty mediocre output, especially from such a talented individual. His catalog does have numerous NPS equivalents.

I don't have much to add as I am a Bowie newbie. (Thanks again Gangsta for making this happen!)


I will say, when I began to listen to his material, many, MANY times I thought to myself "this sounds like (fill in the blank)." Then I'd remind myself I was listening to 20-30 year old songs and actually (fill in the blank) sounded like Bowie. He's clearly had a big influence.

jackflash said:

Tin Machine aside, there might be maybe around 3 NPS equivalents, while he made around 25 records. That's surely not numerous.

And BTW, I'd rate the need to change and go into different musical areas higher than a constantly great output. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't really know his stuff, but isn't someone like Bob Dylan, who is praised higher than anyone else nowadays, basically doing the same thing for 40 years?

No, but what I mean is, he has influenced every Alternative artist. They've all looked up to this man. He deserves his crown.

NWF said:

there WAS no "alternative" label when he was doing his thing in the '70s. nobody knew how to label stuff like "low" or "lodger" - it wasn't prog rock, it wasn't pop, it wasn't punk, and new wave had hardly even started yet...i do think he helped to inspire a whole sensibility to pop music, which has of course been dissected and marketed and manipulated every which way over the past twenty years.

Bowie is no King of any kind, the man is GOD.

jackflash said:

he was practically a one-man promotional team for Velvet Underground when they actually were underground. but yes, he was heavily influenced by VU (first guy in Britain to own their album) and borrowed a lot from them. but i'm sure Lou Reed doesn't mind, considering Bowie was able to salvage what was left of Reed's appeal and cobble together a fairly decent solo career for him. same for Iggy (and the Stooges, for that matter).

a guy that repeatedly pulls my ass out of the fire can borrow anything he wants from me.

Martinelli said:

I can live with that.

GangstaFam said:

I'm God, too.

Cloudbuster said:

attention whore!

GangstaFam said:

Cloudbuster said:

And proud of it!

GangstaFam said:

Don't you just hate it when you see there's a new post in an interesting thread and all you get is a bunch of smileys?


Just kidding.










damn...
[Edited 12/8/04 10:26am]

calldapplwondery83 said: