Media blogger Richard Prince (Journal-isms, 1/11/16) quoted from Jim Naureckas’ review of David Bowie’s media criticism (1/11/16) in his roundup of reactions to Bowie’s death:
Media critics, too, registered their admiration. “It’s hard to think of an artist who has used the media as part of their art more than David Bowie did,” Jim Naureckas wrote for Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.
“To me the classic example is 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars: As an obscure singer/songwriter, Bowie wrote and recorded an album about an obscure singer/songwriter who rises to superstardom, succumbs to decadence and retires to obscurity — and he used it to rise to superstardom, only to succumb to decadence and retire to obscurity (for a time). It may be the greatest called shot in artistic history.
“Among many other things, Bowie was a shrewd observer and sharp critic of the media — from his earliest hit, 1969’s ‘Space Oddity,’ in which Major Tom is told that ‘the papers want to know whose shirts you wear.’
“It’s a central theme of his pre-Ziggy masterpiece ‘Life on Mars?’ (1971), a haunting meditation on the gap between the consumption (and creation) of media and the experience of life. . . .”
Naureckas’ Bowie piece was also reposted by Common Dreams (1/12/16).
