It's July 6,1972.In Tops of the Pops,David Bowie performs 'Starman'.As the song progresses to its chorus,"There's a Starman waiting in the sky…",Bowie clears his throat and Mick Ronson comes in close to the mic and David,shocking the entire country,drapes an arm over Mick Ronson and drags him close.They sing the Chorus together,their body language openly, outrageously flirtatious and provocative.That instance was a definitive moment for Bowie's career and from a greater perspective for the World.Well,to put it succinctly"A star was born".

                   Dyed red spiked hair, quilted two piece suit,face dabbled in rice powder,one hand gently caressing his cheek ; unashamedly flaunting his own sexuality.A quintessential Bowie image.David Bowie was a revolutionary in anything he touched,creating big and small but equally impactful ripples.His influence stretched far beyond than just being a rockstar.He was a shining presence,a ray of hope of queer people in the 70s and 80s and everafter.He openly flirted with guitarist Mick Ronson on stage and wore outrageous costumes.Ashes to ashes music videos inspired male musicians to wear more feminine attire to express themselves.In "Let's Dance"in 1980,produced by Nile Rodgers, Bowie addresses the cat and mouse game people play with the concept of honesty in their life.His influence stretched to fashion,hip hop culture and to an extent even technology.Bowie,at 24,was already changing the World.

      David Bowie was born in Brixton,1947.Brixton was still suffering from the careless damage dealt by the Second World War.But it was not all bad.Some popular and some not so very popular artistic influences were scattered across Brixton.There was the Empire's theatre with the likes of Hardy and Laurel and also Sharon Osbourne,a failed comedian living in David's neighborhood.Like many other notable singers,David Bowie wasn't expected to become the cultural icon he became.Nevertheless,his ambitious and obsession with music outstripped most musicians.His wide palette of listening helped him gain a perspective his peers lacked.David was fascinated by rock music in his formative years,viewing Little Richard as his role model.

David however didn't rocket to stardom.He had an on off path to fame.However he always persisted,in his gimmicks and schemes.In 1964,he produced "Liza Jones",his first single.It was an modification of the traditional folk song "Little Liza Jones" and was produced by Leslie Conn.He worked with many bands upto his breakout-Manish Boys(where he was selected for his punctuality), Lowers third.Despite being slightly embittered by the constant mediocre feedback of his work,he remained in Lowers importantly enough,in 1966,he finally shed off his previous stage name 'Davy Jones' and took on the mantle of David Bowie.He later joined Buzz.His solo single "The Laughing Gnome" and his 

debut album "David Bowie" flopped.A couple of his singles was rejected by Deram.He didn't release new music in the next two years.However,he met Linsey Kemp who influenced him to take in theatrical alter egos.

     Space Oddity was produced by Gus Dudgeon after the song was rejected by Tony Visconti.It was a blatantly commercial flick,taking advantage of the Apollo Launch and Bowie was not unashamed of admitting such.However this is one of the first times we see Bowie jettisoning usual pop songs structure and instead fashioning the song as a story,a stirring,if rather detached, rendition of Major Tom's death in space.

     He got his big break when he was 24 with the release of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.Space oddity in 1969 had seemed it would open the gates but it hadn't.Hunky Dory" despite possessing classics like "Life in Mars" and "Oh, You Pretty Things" in its repertoire, didn't cut it due to its lacking promotion.

    While intelligent,Bowie wasn't naturally talented in music like Elvis Presley,with whom he shared a birthday.It took self-confidence bordering on narcissism and obsessive hard work to become the musician he became.He made himself up from scratch and in doing that transcended his own inspirations.

      "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" was the beginning of an era.Itbwoulf go on to be one of the most influential albums ever.Ziggy Stardust was an alien messiah who came to Earth in its dying days with his band,the Spiders from Mars,as a message of hope.He smashed through social stigmas and freed the youth from the shackles of self-destruction torpor.But ultimately,the wild fervour of his followers and the glory consumed him.In "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide",he dies, his identity torn apart,the very real consequences of decadence and an attestation to the necessity of change.

        Ziggy Stardust was inspired by artists like Iggy Pop and 

Vince Taylor.It is eventually a tribute to rock n' roll drama.It was a symbol through which David could live on,as an effulgent focal point for everything absurd and bizarre.Also,it was a skin Bowie could easily shed off when it became obsolete and thus escape the clutches of time which many of his other contemporaries fell trapped in.

     Showmanship was something Bowie excelled at.Bowie's visuals played a huge part in the ultimate result.He was perhaps the first musician to incorporate showmanship so thoroughly into his performance.There was something so obviously exotic and inherently otherworldly about Bowie's figure that made it easy to keep the attention to himself.Languidly moving about with an an almost catlike grace,Bowie had an unquestionably captivating stage presence.

  Unlike other artists like Elton John,Ian Anderson, Bowie's performance continued well beyond the stage.It was impossible to know when he wasn't pretending and was actually being himself and not a character.Some ask what is Bowie without his makeup and all the fancy clothes and the showmanship.I don't think that should be the question though .For when all is said and done the showmanship,public manipulation and marketing is just much a part of Bowie's innermost self as anything else.

         He had a near chameleonic ability to shift smoothly into the different personalities of the sundry personas he created and adapt his music.He was a restless artist who tried on musical roles like coats.“I watch the ripples change their size, but never leave the stream of warm impermanence".He ranged from pyschdelic folk to dance rock to soul and jazz.Fearlessy fusing genres and revolutionizing them simultaneously.His astonishing creativity and his neoteric talents propelled him to the height of stardom.Even then Bowie didn't shy from taking brazen risks.He came out as Gay to the Melody Maker in 1972 as an attention stunt when homosexuality was illegal in most countries.

       His songwriting was unparalleled in its flexible interpretations and simple genius.Dramatic and extravagant at first glance,it only became more dramatic and labyrinthlike as one goes deeper into the lyrics."Heroes" was an poignant,a over the top tale of two self deceptive lovers torn apart by their own limitations and social stratifications.And yet they dream."Suffragate City" could mean numerous things,from Bowie's confusion with his bisexuality to his addiction to cocaine.

      There was a dramatic dystopian element to his works.Diamond Dogs,The Man Who Sold the World are prime testaments to that.And yet he manages to warp it and brandish the dying of the society and like a thrilling and extravagant event."All the Madmen",written for his brother,talks of a desperate patient who would rather stay in the asylum rather than in the real world which is too forbidding and cold for him.

       Bowie's drug addiction has been the talk of many a show.His drug addiction cost him his first wife Angela Barnett (even though it was a marriage of convenience).She left their kid with Bowie hoping the boys' presence will motivate him to exert more control over himself.At one point his weight dropped below hundred pounds.He started making incredible, sensationalizing claims in interviews, particularly in the Dick Cavett show in 1974.His mental health was severely affected by the drugs.By his own admission,the drugs fed his addictive personality.“I used to slip easily into deep, deep depressions, really manically depressed. I’d then swing the other way and become incredibly euphoric. I wasn’t in control of it at all. I often get pangs of isolation and all that, particularly in the very early morning, but it doesn’t haunt me as such anymore.”

    Bowie doesn't remember making his 1976 album"Station to Station".However,the desperate anguish of Bowie translated well into the album,lending it a dark melancholy to the album.The album opener 'Stay' is the last cry of help from a tragically,self-aware artist.David eventually went to Berlin and became clean.

   One key aspect of Bowie's character was his ability to shift between eras seamlessly without losing himself.David Bowie in 1980s with his suits and dyed blonde hair never lost any of the magnetism and charm he had as Ziggy Stardust or Aladdin Sane.

     David in the late 70s adopted a more muted and abstract approach."Heroes was an extraordinarily singular song, integrating the ambient sounds of various instruments.It went on to be catalogued as one of the best love songs ever.Most of his 80s work was much more mainstream and direct than his previous projects.

"Under Pressure" was perhaps Bowie's best vocal performance ever.The outcome of his famous collaboration with Queen is often held as one of the best songs.There he plays the role of the cynical,defeated character who is ready to write humanity off.But even as he considers society as a lost cause,he cannot resist the spectacle of a "last dance".

   "Under Pressure" led Bowie to produce his album "Let's Dance in 1983.Despite the album being a huge hit,Bowie expressed acute disappointment over it over the years, regretting his pandering to the common audience.Despite the era being commercially successful for Bowie,it was a period of low creativity for Bowie.He finally regained his originality with Tin Machine in the early 90s and the release of Sound+Vision.The Outside is a remarkably dark concept album,concerning Art crimes.The Earthling is an electronica album,innovatively playing with drum and bass elements.

  Without Bowie,Nirvana wouldn't be the giants they were.The Smiths may have never taken off without him.Even modern day giants like Calvin Harris or Adam Lambert are heavily influenced by Bowie's art."Her whole career feels like a tribute to David Bowie.",the NPR staff reported about Lady Gaga in 2016.

      He was something other than just a musician.He came and broke us out of the grey walled cages we had locked ourselves in,and allowed us to be free and weird.

      Nobody managed to ever quite imitate Bowie.Musicians like the Beatles or Michael Jackson have been replicated with success over the.However Bowie was a performance art in of itself, full of glam and puzzles and dazzling ethereality

In the brilliant,raucous scene of light and sound,there he will always be, immortalized by space aliens and mad aristocrats.