ENTERTAINMENT

BOWIE AND GLITTER EXPLOITATION OR REJUVENATION?

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So the days flow through my eyes But the days still seem the same And these children that you spit on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consolations They're immune to your consolations

They're quite aware of what they're going thru Ch-ch-chchChanges

BOWIE 1971

In 1971 a young Englishman named David Bowie hit the rock scene like a thundering bolt. With what Gentleman's Quarterly described as a refreshing new face sporting a "surprisingly tough musical style, "Bowie incited a wide range of reactions from every arena of the musical industry. Some heralded him as the "new Beatles" the provocative force behind the innovation of music in the seventies; others dismissed him as "just, a lot of hype." Still others, conservatively pre-occupied as they were, expressed fear of Bowie as the Bowie as the anti-Christ, preaching self-indulgence and immorality. And then there were those who viewed him as the propagator of political apathy and promoter of a social environment similar to that of pre-Nazi Germany.

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All of these charges seem rather severe but indicate how passionately people either love or hate this space oddity from the unleveled future. tainly there is no question that Bowie is a romantic. He freely sings of gay love, rock n' roll suicides and Big Brothers; flaunts an outrageous wardrobe, and openly admits he is bisexual. Interestingly, when Bowie was first causing a rumble in Cleveland, (his "home town" in the States,. many gays greeted him with hostility and rejection. I can recall many of my brothers accusing Bowie of exploitation. Bowie, they claimed, through his campy routines was re-inforcing the stereotype of the effeminate, "frivolous fag" that most straight people have had for years. Secondly, many gays who were reared in the "hippie, back to nature, love and peace" school of thought reacted along with their straight brothers and sisters to Bowie's gimmickry. Glitter and lavish stage productions were judged as phony, superficial artifacts to distract from the "fact" that people who sported such wares had no talent. I can't help but remember how people leveled those same accusations toward the now legendary Beatles. Funny how we continue repeating the same tired behaviours over the years, A third reason Bowie did not receive initial acceptance from gaysand this is definately an "impor tant" one was that we just could not dance to his music, or at least we weren't willing to try. Times certainly have chchchanged. Today, Bowie is somewhat of a cultural heroespecially among younger gays. Looking at the Bowie phenomenon objectively, we can conclude that he does in fact

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