David Bowie — The Thin White Duke, 1976

January 8, 1947 — January 10, 2016

David
Bowie

Starman • Rebel • Icon

Brixton, London 26 Albums 140M+ Records
Explore His Journey
Space Oddity Ziggy Stardust Heroes Let's Dance Starman Life on Mars Rebel Rebel Fame Golden Years Under Pressure Lazarus Blackstar Space Oddity Ziggy Stardust Heroes Let's Dance Starman Life on Mars Rebel Rebel Fame Golden Years Under Pressure Lazarus Blackstar

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Art
of Eternal
Reinvention

David Robert Jones — born in Brixton, London — transcended the very concept of a "rock star." He was a chameleon who invented and shed identities as fluidly as he breathed; a painter who used music as his canvas; a futurist who glimpsed the 21st century from the 1970s.

Across six decades, Bowie produced some of the most boundary-dissolving music in history — glam rock, soul, electronic, industrial, jazz — always arriving before everyone else, always moving on just as the world caught up. His final album Blackstar, released two days before his death, was his final and perhaps most astonishing act: a farewell composed as a gift.

Explore the Timeline →
26
Studio Albums
140M+
Records Sold
69
Years of Life

A Life in Music

The Starman's Journey

Brixton, London
Origin
1947
Born in Brixton
David Robert Jones enters the world on January 8th in Brixton, South London — a neighbourhood that would later bear a memorial mural in his honour.
Moon Landing 1969
Breakthrough
1969
Space Oddity
Released to coincide with Apollo 11's Moon landing, "Space Oddity" propelled Bowie into the stratosphere. Major Tom became rock's first cosmonaut-poet.
Reinvention
1972
Ziggy Stardust Is Born
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars debuts. Bowie invents an androgynous alien rock messiah — and rock music changes forever.
ALADDIN SANE
Icon
1973
Aladdin Sane & The Lightning Bolt
The iconic lightning bolt painted across his face on the Aladdin Sane cover becomes one of the most recognisable images in pop culture history.
Berlin
Evolution
1977
The Berlin Trilogy
Relocating to Berlin with Brian Eno, Bowie crafts Low, "Heroes", and Lodger — three experimental masterpieces that anticipate ambient, electronic, and post-punk.
Let's Dance
Commercial Peak
1983
Let's Dance & Global Fame
Produced by Nile Rodgers, Let's Dance becomes his best-selling album. The Serious Moonlight Tour plays to millions — Bowie reaches true global superstardom.
Comeback
2013
The Next Day
After a decade of silence, Bowie releases The Next Day with zero announcement. No interviews, no promotion. The album debuts at #1 in 17 countries.
Swan Song
2016
Blackstar — A Final Gift
Released on his 69th birthday, Blackstar is a jazz-inflected meditation on death and transcendence. Two days later, on January 10th, Bowie passed away — leaving the world his most profound farewell.

Shape-shifter

The Many Faces of Bowie

Each persona was a fully realised character — a costume for his soul, a new frequency for the world to tune into.

David Bowie Major Tom
Major Tom
1969 — 1980
David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 1972
Ziggy Stardust
1972 — 1973
David Bowie Aladdin Sane era TopPop 1974
Aladdin Sane
1973 — 1974
David Bowie Halloween Jack era 1975
Halloween Jack
1974 — 1975
David Bowie as The Thin White Duke 1976
Thin White Duke
1976
David Bowie The Blind Prophet
The Blind Prophet
2015 — 2016

Essential Listening

Three Masterpieces

Space Oddity Album Cover
1969
Space Oddity
A meditation on isolation and the human condition — voiced through a fictional astronaut's farewell transmission. The song that launched Bowie into orbit.
Space Oddity Letter to Hermione Wild Eyed Boy
Heroes Album Cover
1977 · Berlin Trilogy
"Heroes"
Recorded in a West Berlin studio in the shadow of the Wall, this is Bowie and Eno at their most transcendent. The title track remains one of the greatest songs ever written.
Heroes Joe the Lion Sons of the Silent Age Beauty and the Beast
Blackstar Album Cover
2016 · Final Album
Blackstar ★
A parting gift. A requiem. A mystery. Released on his 69th birthday, Bowie described it as "a piece of music." Two days later, we understood what he meant.
★ Blackstar Lazarus Sue I Can't Give Everything Away
"

I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. I felt very puny as a human. I thought, "Fuck that. I want to be a superhuman."

— David Bowie

What He Left Behind

The Eternal Legacy

David Bowie on stage
Live Performer

The Starman
Who Changed Everything

More than a musician — Bowie was a philosophy of self-reinvention, a permission slip for every misfit and dreamer who ever felt too strange for this world. He showed us that identity is not a cage but a canvas.

Musical Visionary

26 studio albums across five decades. Glam, soul, electronic, funk, ambient, jazz. No two albums the same. Always arriving before the genre had a name.

Cultural Icon

Actor, painter, mime artist, fashion pioneer. Bowie transcended music to become one of the 20th century's most influential cultural figures.

Permission to Be

For every outsider, misfit, queer kid, and dreamer: Bowie's greatest legacy is the radical permission he gave the world to be authentically, defiantly, magnificently yourself.

"The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time."

— David Bowie