--- title: David Bowie 1970s: How He Became a Superstar description: How the 1970s launched the career of David Bowie, who died on Jan. 10 at the age of 69 canonical: https://time.com/4183603/david-bowie-1970s/ author: Jim Farber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-17T13:00:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:35.118Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: How the 1970s Launched David Bowie's Career og:description: He ignored boundaries of gender and genre og:url: https://time.com/4183603/david-bowie-1970s/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53539e89a847cd43/6988796ecf40a836a3c4181e/timebowiebaz-noupc-front.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 1_BowieCover-noUPC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the 1970s Launched David Bowie's Career twitter:description: He ignored boundaries of gender and genre twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53539e89a847cd43/6988796ecf40a836a3c4181e/timebowiebaz-noupc-front.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Decade That Made David Bowie a Superstar > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Jim Farber](https://time.com/author/jim-farber/) ## Jim Farber Jan 17, 2016 1:00 PM UTC  David Bowie: His Life on Earth. David Bowie: His Life on Earth.Time Books by [Jim Farber](https://time.com/author/jim-farber/) ## Jim Farber Jan 17, 2016 1:00 PM UTC _Excerpted from TIME’s_ David Bowie: His Life on Earth_, an 80-page, fully illustrated commemorative edition. Available at retailers and at_ [_Amazon.com_](http://amzn.to/1RrOR7I)_._ Call him clairvoyant: Way back in the 1970s, [David Bowie](http://time.com/4179348/david-bowie-cover-story/) envisioned key parts of our culture today. During the most crucial decade in Bowie’s career, his forward-thinking approach to sexual identity, celebrity image and musical presentation tipped off many of the hot-button issues that currently obsess us. Think about it: the way social media allows us to create alternate selves at will, the manner in which society increasingly views gender as fluid, as well as the theatrical identities of modern stars from Daft Punk to the hip-hop collective Odd Future all have seeds in Bowie’s quick-change run of characters in the ’70s. Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke and the Man Who Fell to Earth, taken together, made a statement that rejected the very notion of a fixed self. At the same time, they gave rock a wholly new theatrical flourish. [**Read more**](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwjp8qiY%5Fq7KAhVG8j4KHdoMB40QFgglMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F4179348%2Fdavid-bowie-cover-story%2F&usg=AFQjCNHestxs8Gy2EkYpv78h%5FfAQmkvP%5FA&sig2=K8%5Ft7yRR52wwwjdnjdkY5Q&bvm=bv.112064104,d.cWw)[: See TIME’s David Bowie cover.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwjp8qiY%5Fq7KAhVG8j4KHdoMB40QFgglMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F4179348%2Fdavid-bowie-cover-story%2F&usg=AFQjCNHestxs8Gy2EkYpv78h%5FfAQmkvP%5FA&sig2=K8%5Ft7yRR52wwwjdnjdkY5Q&bvm=bv.112064104,d.cWw) Just as prime-time Bowie tried on and discarded characters as blithely as one would clothes, so he ran mad through a dizzying range of musical styles. He made innovations in art pop, glam rock, German industrial music and more, along the way minting a dense discography of classics. During that pivotal decade, he didn’t release a single less than defining work, creating a dozen successive touchstones. While Bowie’s lithe figure and pretty face gave him an androgynous aura from the start, he didn’t use that role in so focused, and shocking, a way until the U.K. cover of his 1970 album The Man Who Sold the World. It found him draped over a chaise longue wearing a dress and sporting long tresses that seemed less like the hippie casual norm of the day than like something out of old Hollywood. When he appeared in a similar fashion for an interview with Rolling Stone, its writer described him as “ravishing” and “almost disconcertingly reminiscent of Lauren Bacall.” Even so, Bowie’s U.S. label of the era, RCA, reissued the album in a less provocative cover, depicting Bowie in a more common rockstar pose: a macho kick. The music inside led Bowie in a harder-rocking direction than its folk and pop-leaning predecessors. The title track proved enduring enough to inspire an aching cover version by Nirvana on their 1994 concert album, _MTV Unplugged in New York_. It was Bowie’s next work, _Hunky Dory_, that kicked off his classic run. On one level, that 1971 album seemed to boldface the star’s influences, with one track titled “Song for Bob Dylan” and another “Andy Warhol.” A third cut, “Queen Bitch,” nodded to the decadent rock flash of the Velvet Underground. At the same time, Bowie transformed those references into a sound very much his own, marked by high-drama vocals and a deep melodic command. “Life on Mars?” had such a theatrical flair, it later provided a suitable cover for Barbra Streisand. Bowie advertised his ability to move swiftly between all these styles with the album’s opening proclamation, “Changes,” a song that doubled as a mantra. To that end, _The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardus_t and the _Spiders from Mars_ found him performing in an entirely new guise, as the title character backed by his raging Spiders rock band. “Offstage, I’m a robot; onstage, I achieve emotion,” Bowie said back then of his love of assuming characters. “It’s probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David.” Bowie’s decision to do so, along with his costumed and highly stylized live show, offered a total rebuke to the naturalist approach of the previous hippie era. He presented artifice as the new authenticity, while also holding to rock’s ballsy power in tracks like “Suffragette City.” His mix of the arch and the primal blueprinted a new scene in music: glam rock. It wasn’t just the sound that had a fresh edge. In a 1972 interview with _Melody Maker_, Bowie declared himself to be gay, an extremely daring move at the time. During his live show, Bowie sometimes simulated giving oral sex to his guitarist, Mick Ronson. In a 1976 interview with _Playboy_, Bowie hedged, labeling himself “bisexual,” though in a talk with _Rolling Stone_ in ’83, he switched things up again, saying he’d always been a “closeted heterosexual.” Twenty years later, he lamented having to discuss it at all, telling a U.K. talk show that most journalists still wanted to rehash the same issues. “David Bowie: bisexual. Drugs. Likes cats. Whatever it is they have on their checklist.” The ultimate truth of Bowie’s personal life (cats? dogs?) mattered less than his insistence on publicly blurring the definitions of sexual identity, or even giving them an otherworldly allure. The music, however, could not have been more potent, from the glam-rock slap of “Watch That Man” to the hip-shaking ode to one of his rock heroes, Iggy Pop, “The Jean Genie.” ### The Many Faces of David Bowie  David Bowie is seen c. 1965. CA—Redferns/Getty Images  David Bowie during a portrait session in 1966 in London. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  David Bowie in his "Ziggy Stardust" guise in June, 1972 in London. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  Twiggy poses with David Bowie for the cover of his Pin Ups album in 1973 in Paris. Justin de Villeneuve—Getty Images  David Bowie performs c. 1973. Archive Photos/Getty Images  From left: Angie Bowie, his son Zowie Bowie (Duncan Jones) and David Bowie, appear at a press conference at the Amstel Hotel on Feb. 7, 1974 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Gijsbert Hanekroot—Redferns/Getty Images  David Bowie is seen with a large barking dog while working on the artwork for his album Diamond Dogs in London in 1974. Terry O'Neill—Getty Images  From left: David Bowie, Yoko Ono and John Lennon at the 17th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 28, 1975 in New York City. Ron Galella—Getty Images  David Bowie during the filming of The Man Who Fell To Earth in Los Angeles in 1976. Terry O'Neill—Getty Images  Iggy Pop and David Bowie in Germany in March 1977. Evening Standard/Getty Images  David Bowie performs on Saturday Night Live on Dec. 15, 1979 in New York City. NBC/Getty Images  From left: Carmine Rojas, David Bowie, and Carlos Alomar perform during the Serious Moonlight tour in 1983 at Wembley Arena in London. Phil Dent—Redferns/Getty Images  Paul McCartney and David Bowie backstage at Live Aid on July 13, 1985 in London. Dave Hogan—Getty Images  David Bowie plays an acoustic guitar while being photographed at a press conference in Tokyo on May 19, 1990. AP  Annie Lennox and David Bowie perform "Under Pressure" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on April 20, 1992 in London. Kevin Mazur—Getty Images  David Bowie onstage at Madison Square Garden for his 50th Birthday Concert in New York City on Jan. 9, 1997. Kevin Mazur—Getty Images  David Bowie is seen while being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, Calif. on Feb. 12, 1997. Jim Smeal—Getty Images  David Bowie performs during the Isle of Wight Festival at Seaclose Park on June 13, 2004 in Newport, U.K. Jo Hale—Getty Images  David Bowie performs with Arcade Fire at Conde Nast's 2005 Fashion Rocks Show on Sept. 8, 2005 in New York City. Kevin Mazur—Getty Images  David Bowie during his last live performance on Nov. 09, 2006 in New York City. Kevin Mazur—Getty Images  David Bowie attends the 2010 CFDA Fashion Awards at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on June 7, 2010 in New York City. Andrew H. Walker—Getty Images  David Bowie and Iman are seen on April 28, 2011 in New York City. Andrew H. Walker—Getty Images  David Bowie in 2015. Jimmy King Bowie could have tarried longer on the glam-rock bandwagon he had helped create, but he changed yet again on 1975’s _Young Americans_. Enlisting a talented but then little known singer, Luther Vandross, who co-wrote a track and helped with arrangements, Bowie offered what he called “plastic soul,” a cheeky label for his co-opting of African-American R&B and funk, heard in hits like the title track and the No. 1 dance standard “Fame.” Bowie’s description of the music may have advertised its inauthenticity, but that only enhanced his consistent outsider stance. In 1976 he varied his new dance-funk sound on Station to Station, adding elements of avant-garde German rock, an interest he would elaborate exponentially on in his next three releases, together known as the “Berlin trilogy.” Collaborating with Brian Eno on the albums _Low, Heroes and Lodger,_ Bowie nudged the avant-garde a little closer to the mainstream. The albums also produced pop mainstays, from the track “Heroes” to the bisexual ode “Boys Keep Swinging.” After the equally creative _Scary Monsters_ in 1980, Bowie would head off into a far slicker direction while, in future decades, he swung back to darker and more challenging sounds, keeping him new to the end. Yet for all the vividness and daring of his subsequent recordings, the ’70s remains Bowie’s most visionary era, the time when he established himself as the Nostradamus of modern pop. _Excerpted from TIME’s_ David Bowie: His Life on Earth_, an 80-page, fully illustrated commemorative edition. Available at retailers and at_ [_Amazon.com_](http://amzn.to/1RrOR7I)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4183603/david-bowie-1970s/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4183603/david-bowie-1970s/"},"headline":"The Decade That Made David Bowie a Superstar","datePublished":"2016-01-17T13:00:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:35.118Z","description":"How the 1970s launched the career of David Bowie, who died on Jan. 10 at the age of 69","url":"https://time.com/4183603/david-bowie-1970s/","keywords":["David Bowie topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53539e89a847cd43/6988796ecf40a836a3c4181e/timebowiebaz-noupc-front.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jim Farber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jim-farber/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53539e89a847cd43/6988796ecf40a836a3c4181e/timebowiebaz-noupc-front.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"1_BowieCover-noUPC","caption":"1_BowieCover-noUPC","creditText":"Time Books","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4183603/david-bowie-1970s/","name":"The Decade That Made David Bowie a Superstar"}}]}] ```