David Bowie Changed My Life
 
 
 
 
 
Dene October asked about the singer's influence on your life and you answered. A small army of writers and researchers conducted interviews and analysed the results. Here are the results then, of how David Bowie changed your life.
 
 
 
As evidenced elsewhere on this site, there are already studies on Bowie in the form of books, symposiums and exhibitions, but here was one with a difference. It was all about you. For this was an oral history project that put your life under the Bowiescope. While there are plenty of studies into Bowie's influences on music, fashion and pop culture, this one is was less interested in critical commentary as a generator for ideas than in starting with the voices of the people.

Three months into the project, the FBIspy researchers and writers have listened to you, sorted your responses and compiled an overview of the results, setting it into an historical and social context. Although many voices resulted in many different experiences and perceptions, common themes did recur, and these were largely where Bowie's influence was felt in the areas of identity, particularly gender and sexuality, and personal dress style.

The uncompromising sexuality of Ziggy Stardust was seen as hugely important in allowing you to confront and overcome sexual taboos regardless of whether you considered yourself as gay, straight or undecided. And while many journalists are cynical about the myth of Bowie's bisexuality, interestingly it continues to be significant to even the youngest of respondents.

Where Ziggy opened doors to liminal identity, it was snappy soul rebel dress that most influenced your wardrobe. GQ's Nick Carvell is not the only one who engaged with the crisp masculine tailoring of the Thin White Duke. And it was a seminal sartorial moment for women as much as it was for men. Above all, it was Bowie's embrace of ch-ch-changes, in music fashion and identity, that you felt changed your life, giving you courage and permission to be the person you are today.

If you're feeling left out, there's still time to have your say. So if have you been influenced by Bowie, in your dress or lifestyle, either now or in the past, please get in contact. Perhaps you are a fan. Perhaps you used to dress like him. Perhaps you are or were in a group and was influenced by his music. Perhaps he helped shape your identity.

 Here, then, are the results. As well as a summary of key themes, there are articles on selected respondants and a few interviews in their entirity.

 
 

 
 

Nick Carvell talks Bowie Style
Jeena Bal takes notes from British GQ’s Online Fashion Editor

‘Having grown up in the mid-Eighties, the first thing I think of when someone mentions Bowie is his infamous turn as the Goblin King in Labyrinth. Then it’s his brilliant back catalogue and his iconic looks, especially the razor-sharp tailoring in his ‘Thin White Duke’ period. Whilst I don't aspire to dress (or have hairstyles!) like many of David Bowie's incarnations, I think his style as the Thin White Duke was the epitome of cool. His slicked back hair, his crisp white shirt, his relaxed tailoring - it just worked.

It's hard to tell where Bowie ended and his personas began.  His personas were generally outside of popular culture but the glam rock phase was informed by drag culture. He was part of an entire musical movement – it wasn’t just him. But I think as an artist he pushed boundaries by doing and dressing however he wanted. That sort of devil-may-care attitude has to be respected - it's what true rock stars are meant to be.

Of course, his counter-culture status is what contributes to his long-lived impact on popular culture. The fact that he continues to impact fashion, art and music shows his originality. We still see fashion shoots, collections (Galliano last season) and magazine covers (such as Emma Stone on Interview) dedicated to him - these continue to concretise his status as a revolutionary artist