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Artist News Top Stories
Tributes flood in as David Bowie dies
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 11 January 2016
The British music industry woke this morning to the news that one of its true greats had died. A short statement on the official social channels of David Bowie read: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous eighteen month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief”.
As some fans, in a state of disbelief, questioned whether the news was indeed true – despite it appearing on verified social media – a spokesperson for the singer provided confirmation to news agencies, while Bowie’s son Duncan Jones tweeted: “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all”.
Few artists will ever unite the wider music community – from artists to industry to fans – in the way that Bowie did across his six decade career, all of which makes the flood of tributes on social networks and across conventional media this morning entirely unsurprising.
Bowie was a truly great popstar, but also a constant innovator, whose creative twists and turns resulted in an incredibly eclectic oeuvre. While some chapters in that long career gained more momentum than others, every bit of it was, in its own way, fascinating.
Of course, Bowie’s passing comes in the wake of the singer’s most recent comeback, with the surprise 2013 release ‘The Next Day’ and last week’s ‘Blackstar’, a record which, it turns out, was in development in the months after the singer’s cancer diagnosis. In some ways Bowie’s death now, with him back on top creative form, is all the sadder, though, at the same time, it’s fitting that he was creating and innovating to the very end.
Much of the music community will surely unite today in dipping a little into the best of Bowie’s output which – it being so wide – allows each listener much freedom in deciding what constitutes “best”. David Bowie, may you rest in peace.
