David Bowie is one of the most influential artists in musical history, his widespread global
success and ability to intertwine the commercial aspects of music with more pioneering forms
of musical experimentation has had a profound influence upon a wide variety of both cultural
and creative ideas from all over the globe.
The main focus of my project will be David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy - which is perhaps, his
most innovative period, sonically speaking. But perhaps his most influential, culturally
speaking. Here are three albums that not only incorporate a huge variety of musical styles but
began to explore the innovative sounds of German electronica. Bowie helped inject them into
the Western popular consciousness – whilst also commenting on the tense political landscape
of Berlin and by extension, of Britain in the 1970’s. This will be one of my main focuses
throughout the essay - I will be exploring the ways in which the albums Low, “Heroes” and
Lodger illustrate the social and by extension, the political landscape of the divided Berlin of
the 1970’s in the shadow of Bowie’s own existence lying in tatters by the time he had arrived
in Berlin in 1976.
Firstly, I will explore the ways in which the concept of “Berlinism” resonates with David
Bowie’s view of his life in the divided capital from a western perspective. I will be paying
particular attention to how his life and upbringing in Britain socio-political context of 1970’s
Britain may dictate his interpretation of Berlin and its socio-political context in the 1970’s
and how the language of declinism is incorporated to not only articulate Bowie’s experience