Electronic Music - David Bowie.

There were many artists who were a part of the electronic music world. One that I am choosing to write about today would be one of my favorite artists of all-time, David Bowie. He is a huge influential artist, who has been able to perceive musical trends and reinvent himself over and over since the late 60's. He has been responsible for creating of furthering several major trends in rock and roll (Rock and Roll). 

Born David Jones, Bowie began performing music when he was 13 on the saxophone. Upon graduation, he played the sax as a commercial artist for multiple bands. After years of performing, he joined a Buddihst monastery, formed a mime company, and formed an experimental art group (Erlewine). To finance the project, Bowie signed with Mercury, and released multiple albums, including Space Oddity (Kemp). At this point, David Bowie was fully submerged in the recording world, and was very popular. He was also lost in drug addiction. After a controversial drug-fueled moment involving a Nazi salute, Bowie left England and went to Berlin, where he lived and worked with a big name in electronic music: Brian Eno.

In Berlin, Bowie became sober and studied art. He also grew in fascination with German electronic music (Erlewine). Along with Brian Eno,  Bowie created the "Berlin trilogy," which included the three largely experimental, atmospheric albums Low, Heroes, and Lodger. Bowie reinvented himself creating these albums (Rock and Roll). Low was a mixture of electronics, pop, and avant-garde techniques. They used AKS synthesizers and it's use of creating drum sounds with an Eventide Harmonizer. Low and Heroes became influential albums of the 1970's. Heroes used synthesizers, keyboards, and guitar treatments. Lodger created several innovative videos, which became staples on early MTV (Erlewine). 

After his reinvention, Bowie went off to create more albums, star in films, and become an even bigger star. In the 1990's, David Bowie moved back into the electronic world in the way of electronica. He reunited with Brian Eno to create Outside- The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper Cycle, which was a concept album that wasn't very successful. However, he began to tour with Nine Inch Nails, who were a big name in modern electronic music at the time (Kemp). 

David Bowie has always been an inspiration of  mine. As a listener, I loved how he could effortlessly hop from genre to genre, and master everything as he went along. He helped define experimental rock, glam rock, art rock, pop, Krautrock, electronic music, avant-garde, and indie rock. He was able to reinvent himself multiple times, and become one of the hugest names of the 20th century. As a professional, I loved seeing one musician branch out so much and remain successful. His work with Brain Eno aided him into the height of his career. With how influential of a musician and artist Bowie was, I feel he made a huge contribution to electronic music.