I’m not particularly good at using modern technology. A couple of months ago I subscribed to the Apple Music service, but have so far only bothered to upload a couple of albums. The first is an exercise album called ‘Pump It Up Until You Have a Stroke’ or something like that, which I got to make my cardio sessions a bit more bearable (it doesn’t work – nothing does) and the second is a compilation of David Bowie’s greatest hits.
I’m not one for having musical heroes, but Bowie is about as close as you’ll get for me. His music and his presence permeated and punctuated my adolescence. I remember watching him on Top Of The Pops for the first time, and being both excited and confused by what I was seeing. I remember sitting in a music lesson listening to a song called Time from the Aladdin Sane album and wondering why last week I was listening to Mozart and this week I was listening to the words ‘Flexing like a whore, he fell wanking to the floor’ (and how this was even allowed in school). And even today, I can’t listen to the song Changes without being transported to a time a place and an emotional state that is long gone.
When David Bowie died this week, it soon became pretty clear that I was far from alone. I don’t recall the level of media coverage and public grief and shock over the death of someone from the music world since John Lennon and Elvis passed away. But not everyone was feeling shock, grief or indeed anything at all. When I arrived at work on the morning that Bowie died it became apparent that at least one young member of staff had never heard of him or his music.
I should have been amazed, but I wasn’t. I’ve become accustomed to talking about someone or something to young people that I thought was part of all of our shared knowledge or experience, only to find that it isn’t. The excuse given is always the same…”It’s before my time”. This is of course, nonsense.
Most of history is ‘before my time’, as it is yours. People like Charlie Chaplin, Stanley Matthews, Mario Lanza, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill,, Lord Nelson, Adolf Hitler William Shakespeare…I could go on for ever…made their impact on the world before my time. But that doesn’t mean I have no knowledge of who they were or what they did. In fact we live in an age where it has never been easier to find out what happened ‘before my time’. Details of the lives and achievements of anyone of note are there online at the click of a mouse. And yet paradoxically, I think that’s precisely the reason why people seem to know less and less.
Modern technology and communications have the potential to open up the world, and everything in it, but often have the effect of shutting it out.
When I was growing up there was no internet, just three TV channels and a handful of radio stations that anyone listened to. There were pretty much the same number of newspapers as there are today. As a result, our common experience was substantial. We all watched the same TV programmes, listened to the same radio shows and read the same newspapers. And because these media outlets were few in number, their output had to be both varied and wide ranging. So we were all exposed to a wide variety of material, and the same material. The result was a breadth (rather than depth) of knowledge which most people shared to some degree.
Contrast that situation with today. It’s possible to squeeze our viewing, browsing and listening down very narrow personalised channels. That can be positive, in that it enables us to investigate or immerse ourselves in an interest or passion as deeply as we like, but there’s a strong negative potential too. It makes building a breadth of knowledge something we need to do consciously, rather than something that happens in the normal order of things. And if you’re not pre-disposed to build that knowledge, it’s never going to happen. It’s perfectly possible to live in your own highly personalised informational and cultural world, and side-step ‘common knowledge’ altogether. Which is how someone reaches the age of 22 having never encountered David Bowie.
Now it might not matter much that you don’t know who David Bowie is, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s possible to block out anything which doesn’t appear of immediate interest or personal concern. And if we reach a point where everyone is living inside their own ultra-narrow informational and cultural bubble, that can’t be a good thing can it? It’s ironic that something that carries so much potential to educate is, in reality, delivering a completely new type of ignorance.
But enough of the negativity – what can the life of David Bowie teach us that might help us in our quest for success and fulfillment? Well, I’d pick out a couple of things.
The first is that it’s okay to be different. More than that, being different brings with it huge advantages and disproportionate rewards. Do what everyone else does and you get what everyone else gets – which isn’t usually much! There are thousands of highly talented singers and musicians in the world who are barely scraping a living. Bowie dared to be different, and as a result, stood out from the crowd. Combine talent with a unique twist and you have a winning combination.
The second ‘secret’ he tapped into was the benefits of adapting, evolving and changing. Some success can be had by finding a winning approach and sticking to it, but to really hit the heights you need to keep improving, changing and adapting what you offer in line with how the world is changing. Bowie, of course, went one better than this by bringing about the changes which others would adopt and follow in an attempt to keep up. For most of us though, just keeping up will yield sufficient rewards. Standing still is impossible. If you stand still, you go backwards as the world moves forward under your feet.
I’ll leave you with a line from the aforementioned Changes’from Bowie’s Hunky Dory album..
“And every time I thought I’d got it made It seemed the taste was not so sweet.”
Maybe there’s a clue there to what drove him to keep developing, evolving and pressing on. It carries some resonance with me, and perhaps it does with you too.
Good post John.
I grew up on Bowie too, and remember the lyrics to ‘Time’ well. We never had that played to us at school but we had a Steely Dan fan in one teacher and in a lesson (English or maybe Drama) he played a track called Show Biz Kids, from their album Countdown to Ecstasy from about 1972/3. One lyric of which went, ‘Show biz kids makin’ movies of themselves, you know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else.’ This caused a great deal of collective tittering and we often wondered did he realise what we’d heard.
Plus, it seems, not much has changed in the Show Biz arena since 1972/3, has it?
One other thing in relation to your post. I was reading t’other day that social media is indeed making us all more narrow minded as we are virtually always offered posts and links by these systems based upon our previous searches and consumption. So we rarely see outside of our small box, let alone think outside of it.
That can’t be good for us as individuals or wider society.
Cheers
Kevin
Although not a follower of Bowie I could listen to him and likened him to my favourite Frank Sinatra with his song MY WAY , which gave the message of endurance which is needed to get any where in life .
Very good post with valid points.
Talking of people being ‘narrow minded’ in their knowledge reminds me of a few years back when I was doing some freelance work in an office where the majority were a lot younger than myself. It was nearing Christmas time when one of the youngsters – a University qualified lady with qualifications coming out of her ears was asked by one of us ‘old uns’ what she knew about Christmas and what was being celebrated. Her answer which caused the office to go deathly quiet was ‘ Well yer Christmas, ain’t that summin to do with someone dying or summin like that!!
I kid you not
Mind boggling………..
Anyway David Bowie – a never to be repeated icon – I would think the current record bosses would have a fit if any of their acts tried to attempt 10% of what DB achieved.
Regards
Mike
Well said, John. You’ve hit the nail on the head. All this information at our fingertips and yet the youngsters are missing so much. I’m an Old ‘Un and just glad I lived through WW2 and after. I think we had the best of times, not a lot of money but a freedom kids don’t have now. I won’t go on but I wouldn’t want to be a youngster now even though they have so many ‘things’ and so much technology. I’m beginning to sound like Mum!
Regards,
June
He was not one of my idols as I grew up but his attitude to life was that “change is good.” I would agree for life is a journey an it is the journey that is important. The destiny is a goal to be achieved and the journey determines it..
Don’t like this post at all. You’re just jumping on a bandwagon. All of your points could have been made without bringing DB into it. He only died on Monday!
If you don’t like it that’s fine, but jumping on a bandwagon? This is a blog, which means it’s going to refer and relate to current events. That’s the idea. I don’t think there’s anything disrespectful here.
Some very perceptive musing here, John. I’ve heard of David Bowie, of course, because I’m about 8 years older and always considered him one of the come-lately-on-the-downward-path community and never took much notice of him. Incidentally, on reading this I asked my 22 year old son whether he had heard of the man before hearing of his death, to which he replied “Yes, of course, I knew the name but I didn’t know any of his songs and so on,” and he has a wider range of interests than most youngsters these days.
…………………… When the news of Bowie’s death came of the Today programme and went on and one for a seemingly interminable time, I was appalled. There were people in a town in Syria literally starving to death, people at home cut off by snowdrifts or floods and without power, and the BBC thought that Bowie’s past “achievements” were of far greater importance. And then on the 10pm TV news they did it all over again!!!
……………………..Yes, it seems so sad that so many ignore so much information so easily found on the internet, so much history, philosophy, religion, political theory, astronomy and other sciences; all things about reality but folk would rather watch X Factor!!
…………………….. Your comments on “re-targeting” on social media were very thought provoking. Looked at like that it does help folk into a mental whirlpool, round and round faster and faster and down and further down. “Don’t look now, there’s nothing to see and nothing you can do about anything” – which, come to think about it, is what the “Stay IN” campaign are saying.
Well said john,
I’ve just had my 59th birthday and I’ve been surprised how much Bowie’s death has affected me. His music and creative genius have been a backdrop to my life and millions of others. When I was a teenager I met him during the Ziggy period and saw him several times on stage. In the flesh he was a humble and welcoming person. Every encounter with this man was unforgettable and he will be sadly missed.
Nice one John
Can’t help but be amazed at the man and like a funeral I went to today, there’s always so much more to know about someone than what you actually thought you knew.
Seems like Bowie was a fantastic person, very intelligent and thought his way to his position.
We have a local chap (about 65 years old) who most weeks regails us (53-72 yr olds) with his collected wisdom (although claiming dyslexia and being just “a lad from the fells”) after our weekly squash matches and he maintains that modern society is raising people up to ‘eat and shit’ and not know how to do anything else for themselves. I could go on of course but I do believe like him that there are an awful lot of people on autopilot who do not know how to think for themselves. More opportunity for the rest I’d say.
I’m a 55 year old, heterosexual father of two, and I’m not ashamed to say that I cried when Bowie died. No youngster of today can possibly comprehend the cultural and social impact that David Bowie had on Britain in the early seventies. As for modern day narrow-mindedness John, you are absolutely correct. People use social media to engage only with people who share their views. Same politics, same football team, same bands, etc. Any disagreement and they will “unfriend” that person rather than engage in a mature debate.
Modern society is certainly advancing technologically but not socially. God I’m feeling old now. Rant over!! All the best John.
I think when something like this happens, the emotion is as much about the loss of an age, a time and a place as it is about the person who has died. For many who grew up in the 1970’s, Bowie was a big part of the delicate transition from child to adult.
Like him or not, he was a free thinking, mould breaking, Human being and we need a lot more like him
Thank you from me too. For broadening the significance of an event that had an impact on so many people into a relevant social comment. It demonstrated as much as anything else, your argument about the importance of having a broad range of interests and points of reference.
Good post, John. I won’t add to the debate but the memories of ‘inappropriate’ tracks being played in school, reminded me of how amused we were when someone brought in a copy of T.Rex’s Electric Warrior and asked our music teacher to play Jeepster, just so we titter at Bolan singing “Girl I’m just a vampire for your love. And I’m gonna suck ya’
Simple pleasures!
There was a concert on Nov. 5th in Cardiff, at the Millenium Centre. It was Jonathan Antoine, who came second in Britain’s Got Talent, I believe. How he didn’t win it is beyond me, but after the concert I said to one of his team ‘He’s better than Pavarotti.’ He is better than Pavarotti, who I saw a few times many years ago when he was at his best. This guy is better at 20 than the great one was and will be better when he’s a bit older. David Bowie? Maybe quite good in his own genre. Stupid makeup and hair, but a great singer? NO! Not on the same planet as Jonathan Antoine, who received a standing ovation after the concert.
Hello John firstly, What a shock to hear of David Bowie, I didn’t like all his songs but he did write some great stuff. Sad news for me. I just wanted to reply to your comment about one of you staff saying “its before my time” or another I get, in my case is, “its an old song”. I get this all the time as a guitar teacher. Student, under like 25 seem to think its “old fashion” to like old songs. A good song is a good song regardless of time. or age. But, I do get this a lot. Until I educate them 🙂 For a 25 year old… old is like 10 years.