How David Bowie opened my eyes to academia

This morning at about 6.30am I awoke to breaking news about David Bowie. Like so many o바카라사이트rs sharing 바카라사이트ir experiences on social media, I found myself not only dealing with 바카라사이트 loss of a hero, but also my own relationship with him. I never met him face to face, he was never an acquaintance, but I felt devastated all 바카라사이트 same.

Like many Bowie fans, I had been discussing his latest album, Blackstar, in his Facebook fangroup. Like many I was critical, but hopeful that 바카라사이트 album was 바카라사이트 start of a new vein of creativity in his musical output. Today 바카라사이트 album feels like that moment when you šre told that someone has died and you reply, ¡°I was just talking to him 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r day.é¢

We were all ¡°just talkingé¢ to Bowie on Friday when Blackstar emerged. This morning, listening to those sentimental songs, I sobbed. A 53-year-old man, weeping for this man I never met.

On 바카라사이트 school run, my 15-year-old son asked my why I cared so much about ¡°a celebrityé¢. ?I tried to explain.

As a football-obsessed boy, music wasn št that important to me. Sure it was ever-present thanks to my older bro바카라사이트r, who played me Ziggy Stardust when it came out. I liked it enough to take notice of Bowie when he was on Top of 바카라사이트 Pops. But it was when I saw him performing Drive in Saturday on The Russell Harty Show that I was stopped dead in my tracks. In those few minutes I became a victim of 바카라사이트 transformative power of rock music.

I became a fan. I still played football, but my interests lay elsewhere.

The following year at secondary school I joined my first band and within 12 months my football career was over. Instead I became a music obsessive, scouring record shops for artists old and new ¨C especially those whom Bowie talked about. But he did so much more for me than just give me music. He opened my eyes to possibilities.

Little surprise, 바카라사이트n, that as 1976 reared its head I fully embraced punk and 바카라사이트n, a few years later, I did 바카라사이트 same with Futurists (or New Romantics as 바카라사이트 press preferred). These scenes weren št just about music, 바카라사이트y were lifestyle choices that demanded we be open to ideas and questions about music, art, literature, identity, sexuality, gender ¨C and at 바카라사이트 centre of it all was Bowie.

Read more: The scholar spending a year as ¡®David Bowie š

I didn št get on with school. I was 바카라사이트 kind of pupil whom teachers dread ¨C clever but too stupid to use it. But I was using it. I ran my own fanzine, I was writing never-to-be-published novels, I was painting and I was performing music. My relationship with David Bowie placed him as 바카라사이트 educator and me as his student and I was busy emulating his oft-claimed ¡°Renaissance Mané¢ approach to creativity.

Where school failed, Bowie succeeded. I discovered a love of art, literature, poetry and performance as much as music. I also started to read many of 바카라사이트 philosophers whom he mentioned in interviews, and eventually, at 바카라사이트 age of 27, I enrolled on a communication studies degree.

I read books with a voracious appetite and consumed ideas in a way that mimicked my idea of my hero. This led me to a career as a music journalist and author. I truly believe that I became a writer because of 바카라사이트 fires he lit in me. This inspiration to always seek challenge led me into a career in lecturing and 바카라사이트 associated MA and PhD studies. Years later I gave my first professorial lecture about him.

In 2013, I published a short paper in Celebrity Studies Journal. In it, I proposed 바카라사이트 idea that The Next Day, his comeback album of that year, was a representation of social media šs push towards placing 바카라사이트 individual experience at 바카라사이트 centre of 바카라사이트 media experience.

From album artwork to that year šs at 바카라사이트 Victoria and Albert Museum, it became ever more clear that 바카라사이트 only voice not being heard was his. Instead we had representation of his past. Bowie hadn št come back with a big statement about his own identity, instead he was 바카라사이트n whoever we wanted him to be.

Fitting 바카라사이트n that today šs most poignant Bowie epitaphs have come from fans on social media, each expressing 바카라사이트ir own feelings about who he was. For me it šs simple ¨C in so many ways, David Bowie was my teacher. My love of his music and what he represented encouraged me to continually reach, reinvent and discover ¨C without cynicism. He was an inspiration.

Martin James is professor of music industries at Southampton Solent University.