Why David Bowie hated country music
David Bowie is one of the most eminent musicians of all time, with a vast mythos surrounding his life and work. Born in Brixton in 1947, the early stages of his career would be comprised of many artistic failures, before he finally made his mark after the release of 1969’s iconic single ‘Space Oddity’.
After releasing such a brilliant track, Bowie started to refine the art that he would become famous for, releasing the albums The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory in the early stages of the 1970s, which saw him develop his creative vision past the elementary stages.
Then, it all came together in the form of 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. A taboo-busting glam rock masterpiece, off the back of the record, David Bowie signalled his real arrival, and over the rest of the decade, he would go from strength to strength, confirming himself as one of the most influential artists of his generation and of all time.
He released the likes of Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs in the years that followed Ziggy Stardust, and towards the end of the decade, in the form of his refined character The Thin White Duke, he released the pioneering Berlin Trilogy, which showed to everyone that he wasn’t going anywhere, and that perhaps, the best was to come.
Moving into the 1980s, Bowie carried on his artistic odyssey and on the likes of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and Let’s Dance, he expanded his oeuvre even further, starting to experiment with a broader range of genres. Duly, by the dawn of the new millennium, he was hailed as one of the greatest innovators in music and had touched on everything from industrial to disco.
Despite Bowie drawing on every genre under the sun, there was one he was open about his disdain for, and that he never utilised in his work; country music. When speaking with Terri Gross on NPR, Bowie explained that he’s always disliked the genre since he was growing up, it would seem that even for Bowie the far reaches of southern American culture couldn’t connect with his upbringing.
Bowie said: “I think the only music I didn’t listen to was country and western, and that holds to this day. It’s much easier for me to say that, the kind of music I didn’t listen to was pretty much that. I mean everything, from jazz to classical to popular. And Tibetan horns were a great part of it in 1966, ’67.”
