“This whole new sound”: the artists David Bowie said showed him the future
Nostalgia is big business in the present day, as audiences reject modernity and yearn for a simpler time period. Often, we look back to the 1960s and 1970s as a golden age, but the artists operating in that period rarely – if ever – looked to the past with a sense of nostalgia. David Bowie, for instance, often used ideas of forward-looking futurism to fuel his art and music, rejecting the banality of 1970s society in search of something far more exciting and innovative.
Bowie arrived on the scene during the golden age of futurism, as the world was transfixed by intergalactic exploration and the race for space. These themes provided the songwriter with his first mainstream hit, 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’, the song that perfectly soundtracked the space age. In the years that followed, the Brixton-born songwriter would continue this otherworldly atmosphere with his Ziggy Stardust persona, backed with The Spiders from Mars (or, more accurately, The Spiders from Hull).
His Ziggy Stardust period was certainly among Bowie’s most prolific and beloved eras in terms of songwriting, but he was not content with staying in that alien persona forever. Bowie was always looking for the next big thing, embracing modernity and refusing to bow down to ideas of nostalgia. He was a true artist, and he had a constant need for innovation. As the 1970s progressed, therefore, Bowie killed off his Stardust persona and reinvented his career, seeking out new sounds and influences.
Relocating to Berlin in the summer of 1976, Bowie found a wealth of this futurist inspiration he so desperately craved. The German capital was awash with trailblazing artists at that time, and although he originally moved to the city with Iggy Pop to overcome their respective drug addictions, Bowie soon found himself obsessively listening to groups like Kraftwerk, Can, and Neu. In fact, it was those groups that first inspired Bowie to travel to the divided capital in the first place.
“I had an import of Autobahn in the States, probably in the year it came out, 1974,” Bowie once revealed, sharing his adoration for the pioneering electronic outfit and their groundbreaking fourth studio album. “I just got so hooked on this band: Who are they? Who are they connected to?” Kraftwerk were always an enigmatic band, with their otherworldly electronic sounds and robotic personas, so much so that Bowie moved to Berlin to immerse himself in this bold new era of expression.
Kraftwerk led Boiwe onto multiple other pioneering groups. “I came across Tangerine Dream and Can and eventually Neu and this whole new sound happening in Germany,” he shared. “I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve seen the future, and it sounds like this.’ I very much wanted to be in the swim.” Before too long, the songwriter achieved those aims, embracing electronic music long before many other mainstream artists of the period.
These electronic influences provided the songwriter with some of his most memorable works, particularly during the early 1980s, on records like Scary Monsters. Even his much-maligned drum-and-bass period years later arguably has its roots in the sounds of Kraftwerk.
Bowie’s endless appetite for musical experimentation and innovation may not have always produced his most popular tracks, but it was reflective of his forward-thinking approach to music making, which never wavered throughout his long and illustrious career. So, you can add David Bowie to the ever-growing list of artists and sounds that we have to thank Kraftwerk for inspiring.
