Comment: Ziggy Stardust Published on: 12 July 2024 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Adam Behr examines how David Bowie developed the role that would bring him undying fame. , In 1964, a bunch of mop-topped young men appeared on the BBC’s early evening by a mildly bemused, but not unfriendly, Cliff Michelmore to promote the “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men”. Their spokesman, making his first television appearance, was 17-year-old David Jones. Within a decade, and better known as David Bowie, his on Top of the Pops, as Ziggy Stardust, would make his previous appearance seem tame. As the Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust period demonstrates, this was part of a prolific, and productive, period when he was evolving rapidly as an artist, experimenting with his image as well as his music. And the album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, alongside the associated “Ziggy” persona, was the centrepiece of a strategy that cast a decades-long shadow still evident in pop performance today. At the vanguard of glam rock, Bowie took androgyny into living rooms around Britain. He and his band, bedecked in bright colours, satin jumpsuits and makeup, were a deliberate shock to the mainstream of the early 1970s, not least since Bowie chose this point to as bisexual to the music press, only five years after homosexuality had been legalised. He would on this, but alongside the non-conformist clothing and make-up, the sense of a liberatory moment at the time was clear. Those who followed in his wake, from The Cure’s Robert Smith, to Siouxie Sioux and Gary Numan, all emerging. The Spiders from Mars weren’t the only glam rockers to wear make-up and push the boundaries of onstage apparel. Bowie, though, managed to synthesise the surface aesthetic into a longer trajectory. The likes of The Sweet, Alvin Stardust, and many other glam rockers (including Gary Glitter before his predatory behaviour brought about public disgrace), were essentially performing with time-honoured male - or even macho - stances and outlooks. Bowie introduced an element of ambiguity, even as the music – at that stage – was guitar-driven rock. Indeed, the Ziggy box-set reveals plenty of connections to his antecedents, with versions of The Who’s I Can’t Explain and Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat. In the same period, Bowie and his musical lieutenant from the Spiders, guitarist Mick Ronson, would , which explored themes of sexual and gender orientation, and . While Bowie/Ziggy was indelibly associated with glam, his musical lineage was deeper, and his vision more calculated than the costumes suggested. Pushing the envelope of stardom Bowie wasn’t alone in this. It’s hard to know how – another influential glam rocker – would have progressed in the long-term, due to his tragic premature 1977 death in a car accident. But others who took on some of the trappings of glam – Elton John and Queen, for example – evolved their images, alongside their music, over time. Ziggy stood out for the suddenness of his arrival, and departure. Bowie’s journey from folk-influenced sounds as a late 1960s singer-songwriter, through the novelty of in 1969 to the melodic orchestrations of ’s Changes and Life on Mars didn’t prepare audiences for the alienness of the Spiders from Mars. Artists, of course, had changed their image previously – the Beatles being a prime example. But their metamorphosis from the smiley icons of Beatlemania to the experimental hippies of the late 1960s was gradual. Ziggy entered as if he was actually from Mars, burning brightly but briefly before Bowie killed him off, announcing at Hammersmith Odeon : “Not only is this the last show of the tour, but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do.” ZIggy Stardust says goodbye, Hammersmith Apollo, July 3, 1973. Rumours of his departure from the music industry were quickly laid to rest by a flurry of releases – another five albums between 1973 and 1977. The role of Ziggy was retired in his restless pursuit of new territory. This, as much as the androgyny, was to be a lasting contribution to the very idea of pop stardom. Aladdin Sane (“a lad insane”), the “” singer of Young Americans, of Station to Station all followed in quick succession, a series of guises blurring the line between performer, person and musician. It was arguably this ambiguity that allowed him to step back from interview statements, made in the throes of a blizzard of cocaine and amphetamine abuse, that were . When you consider the breadth of his art over his whole career, his claim that ” doesn’t seem too outlandish. Through the 1980s and beyond, Bowie’s pivots became more overtly musical, less all-encompassing. He had nevertheless expanded the envelope for musical stardom. The extra-terrestrial landing and precipitous demise of Ziggy Stardust, and then the roster of facades that followed, shattered the idea that a pop star’s image was static. Beyond the finery of in the 1980s, his legacy could be seen in the ease with which the likes of Madonna and Prince glided across different images in successive albums. The idea of transformation is now embedded in the vocabulary of pop careers. Taylor Swift is another case in point. , but his real impact lay in unlocking the relationship between artists and their work, increasing the distance that they could place between their personal and musical selves, and the scope that mainstream pop had for reinvention. , Senior Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . Share: Latest News Volunteers help turn Whitley Bay beach into maths experiment Members of the public joined mathematicians from Â鶹´«Ă˝ to create what organisers believe is the largest aperiodic tiling ever attempted on Whitley Bay beach. published on: 15 June 2026 Student leader drives misogyny law change A Â鶹´«Ă˝ student leader has helped change the law after creating a petition to make misogyny a hate crime, which gathered over 114,000 signatures, prompting action in Parliament. published on: 12 June 2026 Freemen of Â鶹´«Ă˝ see construction of new Castle Leazes The Freemen of Â鶹´«Ă˝ and other key stakeholders have become an indelible part of new student accommodation at Â鶹´«Ă˝â€™s Castle Leazes. published on: 12 June 2026 Facts and figures
![Â鶹´«Ă˝ logo](/gomobileassets/img/logo.svg" "Â鶹´«Ă˝"){kind=logo}