Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KTJWhtuRLa...avid-bowie.jpg

David Bowie is one of my favorite musicians. Spent many years exploring his catalog and even after hearing everything many times over continue to find cool little surprises in his work.

For whatever reason I never got into Genesis or Peter Gabriel, even though it's seemingly right up my alley. Recently I bought the first four Gabriel solo albums and have been working my way through a new one every few weeks. Some of the songs on the first two albums were pretty fantastic but the entirety of "Melt" just blew me away. Every song is damn near amazing. Just started getting into "Security" and that one seems to be following suit.

Anyhow, enough about me. Both of these musicians followed their own path and had a pretty substantial amount of critical and commercial success.

So, the purpose of this thread:

In today's musical landscape will we ever see another musician push boundaries and also experience this type of commercial success?

Do any current artists even fit the bill? I'm guessing not. Hell, I'm struggling to even think of a similiar current musician that has found critical, much less commercial, success.

So, what do you think? Better yet, is their an artist out there today I'm missing?

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Very few artists could match the heady brew of intellectualism, theatricality, intrigue, and fucking fantastic songwriting as you get with David Bowie and Peter Gabriel (my number one and two favorite rock artists, coincidentally). I can't think of recent artists that can match them on all of those levels.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

No. No we will not.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

So not just history but music has also ended? What's next? Gynocology?

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

It's funny how this caliber of artist was taken for granted back in the 70s and 80s. We thought there'd always be a Bowie or a Gabriel that pushed music to the limits and also was a commercial blockbuster. We were wrong.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

No, and I'm not entirely sure why.

I think it's somewhere between having a music industry that doesn't value experimentation, the kind of audience that would be receptive to them is too cynical to appreciate them, and complete information overload (the internet is great, but there's so much information instantly available that it sort of kills any mystique that artists might have).

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Justin Bieber is this generation's David Bowie, right down to the androgyny.

Not sure who this generation's Peter Gabriel is, uh...Nick Jonas?

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Ah, the old "music was better back then".

First, lets talk about what was actually on the radio back then. I'll pick a year at the height of these guys' respective careers, here's the number ones in 1975. Take a long look at that list, it isn't pretty.


Secondly, I offer the following (very short) list of more current artists: Radiohead, Beck, Sonic Youth, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Steven Malkmus/Pavement, Jack White / White Stripes, My Bloody Valentine / Kevin Shields, Outkast, Wilco, Jay-Z, PJ Harvey, Pulp/Jarvis Cocker, Sigur Ros, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire

Also, if you're thinking that some of these bands aren't as popular as Bowie or Gabriel, remember that Bowie's "Berlin trilogy" or Gabriel's first four albums were hardly mainstream fare. You didn't hear too much off of "Berlin" or "Scratch" on the radio. Also remember that bands like Wilco, Sigur Ros or Arcade Fire regularly sell out stadiums and have for the better part of ten years.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

They don't sell out "stadiums" (those are around 100K seats), they sell out arenas, maybe.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Agree there's some great artists now (although some of the artists you mention don't even belong on the same page as Bowie and Gabriel). None of those artists has produced the depth and sustained brilliance of either of those guys.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Yeah, this is a completely different argument from the "music was better back then" thing. Overall, music is just as good and/or bad as it ever was. It's the sustained level of brilliant creativity that seems to be lacking these days, and it's more due to lack of support from labels than anything else. In addition to raw talent and creativity, Bowie and Gabriel had unprecedented support from all around them which helped nurture their inherent talent/creativity to make it flourish. There are people like that out there now, but that support system is not, or at least not like it used to be.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Not even that. I don't know about the other two but Wilco is a large theater (2-3,000 seat) band.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

More importantly, will we ever experience another Irving Berlin or George Gershwin?

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

I don't necessarily agree. I do think you're right in that the industry will be smaller and less profitable. Iy's likely that the amount of money Gabriel and Bowie made is gone for future artists.

However, I disagree that there's no "sustained level of brilliant creativity" that compares with these two artists. For example, Bowie's creative peak was from about "Space Oddity" through "Scary Monsters". 1969-1980. Even that includes a couple of questionable albums like "Diamond Dogs" or "Young Americans". Lots of bands these days have been good for 11 years, many for far longer.

Gabriel's peak was (if you include Genesis) from about 1972's "Foxtrot" through 1985s 'So". Again, a 13 year career producing top quality music is hardly unapproachable for today's best artists. Even Arcade Fire's debut is 10 years old at this point.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Arcade Fire has released 3 very good albums in 10 years.

In those 13 years you mentioned, Gabriel was involved with or released 5 Genesis albums and 5 solo albums all of which were very good to brilliant.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Have you seen Lady Gaga? Pretty close.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

I agree that few artists have produced as much good stuff as Gabriel or Bowie (obviously), but I wasn't talking about how relatively prolific these artists are. I thought we were talking about the length of their respective creative highs.

If you want to talk prolific, someone like Jack White qualifies. Huge body of work, lots of album sales, long term career etc. More edgy: Aphex Twin has been as (arguably) revolutionary as either of these guys, unbelievably prolific (including all of his alter egos), hugely popular (at least in Europe) and had a very long career. Damon Albarn/Blur/Gorillaz might be another example. Prince is another. Maybe.

Clearly guys like Bowie and Gabriel are pretty rare, but they do still happen.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Agreed. However there may be some current artist who could match Bowie's cocaine consumption. :banana: Then again maybe not.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Uhh, David Bowie is on that list. Fame September 27th.

Also, can anyone tell me more about that picture the OP posted? That looks like circa 1982. Did they tour together at that time? Is that the Cat Fancy Artist of the Millennium award?

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Also, what about someone like Trent Reznor? His trajectory is similar to these guys. Maybe never had the major hits but his sound and music permeates the culture and is very well known.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Beck was the first one to come to mind.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Damon Albarn. Blur, Gorillaz, The Good the Bad the Queen, Mali Music are all very different and great. He also did a Chinese opera.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

This is turning into really good artists that don't come anywhere near approaching the original artists mentioned thread.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

Agreed.

Re: Will we ever experience another David Bowie or Peter Gabriel?
 

This is a subjective argument. Part of this is that Bowie and Gabriel have ascended into a "legendary" status that gives their work an untouchable quality. This is partially due to the passage of time and the repeated heaping of praise on their work by older rock critics.

Will people look back at "OK Computer" or "Odelay" the same way eventually? Probably. It has already started with something like "Nevermind" or "Purple Rain". Also, is even Bowie's best work (say, "Ziggy Stardust" or "Low") "better" than something amazing like "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"? Is it "better" than the unbelievably good "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Nightmare"? I have no idea how you'd even measure that.

Also, "Fame" by David Bowie sucks.