David Bowie turned marketing into the essence of his art. All great phenomena of popular music, from Elvis Presley to the Beatles, had been, first and foremost, marketing phenomena (just like Coca Cola and Barbie before them); however, Bowie turned that into an art of its own. With Bowie the science of marketing becomes art; art and marketing become one. There were intellectuals who had proclaimed this theory in rebellious terms. Bowie was, in many ways, the heir, no matter how perverted, of Andy Warhol's pop art and of the underground culture of the 1960s. He adopted some of the most blaspheme issues and turned them upside down to make them precisely what they had been designed to fight: a commodity.
Bowie was a protagonist of his times, although a poor musician: to say that Bowie is a musician is like saying that Nero was a harp player (a fact that is technically true, but misleading). Bowie embodies the quintessence of artificial art, raises futulity to paradigm, focuses on the phenomenon rather than the content, makes irrelevant the relevant, and, thus, is the epitome of everything that went wrong with rock music.
FUCK OFF
this just proves that sometimes scruffy is wrong
>>61646622
He's wrong about The Beatles, too.
>>61646789
his general point about them is right but he goes a bit too far
Exactly, he turned his own fucking death into marketing for his art. A genius masterstroke that will never be duplicated.
This is even more artistically profound than the Joy Division faggot killing himself.
good thread op
Is that conan obrien?
>>61646881
this tbqh family
even if you don't like his music, you HAVE to admit timing the release of his (pretty good) album with his death to terminal cancer was pretty clever
>>61647398
It goes deeper my friend, the music video for Lazarus was put out four days ago, Saint Lazarus of the Four Days
Bowie was a living meme
>>61647398
>even if you don't like his music, you HAVE to admit timing the release of his (pretty good) album with his death to terminal cancer was pretty clever
>pretty clever
A dude just died, and your parting words for him is that he was a good marketer?
Why is everyone on this site such a post-ironic fuck, obsessed with shit going viral, instead of actually discussing musical quality?
I bet you felt so smart when you typed that, you fucking high schooler.
>>61647695
There's more to music than the soundwaves emitted by the record. It's an art with many others layers, such as the persona of the frontman, the album art, the antics of the group.
Bowie just showed an complete fucking mastery of those aspects that we will likely never see again. What a genius and madman.
Go take your pea brain and go vote for Bernie :^)
>>61646510
http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/bowie.html
http://scaruffi.com/vol1/beatles.html
Scaruffi gave Bowie a higher score on Heroes than he did any Beatles album.
He's 100% right.
>>61647695
Nigga you take shit way too seriously. You can appreciate both his music and his cleverness, you know. Tell me you don't think it's dope that he realized "Oh shit, I'm gonna within a year to terminal cancer, but my album is almost done, hmm..." and decided to make those two events coincide.
>>61647890
>There's more to music than the soundwaves emitted by the record.
Not much more.
>Bowie just showed an complete fucking mastery of those aspects that we will likely never see again.
Okay, but how is the actual album? This is my problem with you people, you don't actually know what you like. You've been sucked into a mob, run by publications like Pitchfork that care more about what's hip than the actual art. You've essentially romanticized Bowie into being a 'genius', and a rock legend, not realizing that you're just a shill.
>>61648475
Are you trying to say Bowie WASN'T a genius and a rock legend? Anyone who's listened to his music, especially his stuff from the late sixties and the seventies would know he has talent and the charts show that he was very popular and impactful.
When an idol like Bowie dies, he tends to get romanticized for a while, deal with it. "Speak well of the dead or do not speak at all." as the saying goes.
>>61646510
Bowie is overrated. Ziggy, Hunky, Low, Heroes, Station to Station, all overrated albums.
>>61648776
>Are you trying to say Bowie WASN'T a genius and a rock legend?
No, just that those words are arbitrary and have no merit on actual musical talent.
>When an idol like Bowie dies, he tends to get romanticized for a while, deal with it.
Oh I'll deal with. Doesn't mean I have to buy into this rock and roll legend act, bullshit. It's toxic to other musicians, like they have to sell more or live like him. There are loads of people still alive making music that are better than Bowie. It sucks that he died, but I'm not going to act like this has any profound effect on the musical medium like the memers are implying.
>>61649106
>There are loads of people still alive making music that are better than Bowie.
Name a few.
>People that actually consider "important" piero scaruffi's opinion about music-
>>61647695
But it literally had to be his intention. He had cancer for 18 months apparently, so he knew his days were numbered and that this particular album would carry this particular legacy. It's not cynical to point that out.
>>61646510
why don't you post something that isn't copy paste on some shitty clickbait website OP?
>>61649106
I bet your favorite musicians look like high school principles.
>>61646510
So that's a person's opinion you can't expect him to correct every time.
Bowie was well respected by his peers and other music reviewers.
His 5 albums are of top notch quality and few others good.
When i heard bowie released a new album this year, on top of the constant beatles ads on my rhapsody acct, i was thinking that there is no way an old fart can write "fresh and new" material that could be compared to music that isnt even from the 80s. The only way he could have is through ghost writers who are basically bowie 2.0
Then he dies. Fucken good move there..
>>61648017
Scaruffi doesnt count MJ let alone the beatles, as actual music..
>>61649434
Michael Gira
Foetus
Glenn Branca
Steve Albini
Nurse With Wound
Phil Elverum
Britt Walford
Wire
The Residents
>>61646510
This is a perfectly valid opinion. Not one that I agree with, but a valid opinion.
Are you just posting it here to make him look like an asshole now that he's passed away?
His right to an opinion does not change.
How old were you when you realized Scruffy was a hack?
>>61649106
FUCKING KILL YOURSELF.
Contrarians like yourself make me cringe hard. I bet you wouldn't say this to anyone in real life you fucking pussy faggot.
>>61650251
>Britt Walford
Watter is shit
>Gira
Swans haven't been good since the 90s
>Wire
kek they haven't been good in decades
All the acts you named are washed up
>>61650354
I realized it recently. I've read a lot of his writings, as he has a point of view only a European who immigrated to America could really have. But after reading enough you realize there is a reason that he doesn't cite any sources for anything he writes - it's mostly opinion, and often fictional.
>>61646510
100% accurate
>>61650598
Yeah because Bowie totally wasn't
>>61650400
I was pointing out how you people are taking this viral marketing stuff way too seriously, I don't even care about Bowie, I just hate this meme stuff all over the board. And yet not a single one of you have actually talked about the music without revolving to lyric posting in feels threads. Seriously, if you look at my first post I'm defending Bowie's death from this post ironic mentality. It's dehumanizing and fucking stupid, acting like a mans death is some form of high art.
If you seriously believe that, you can off yourself buddy. Do it for "high art".
>>61650648
I was in another thread discussing his music. Don't make assumptions friend.
>>61650710
>I was in another thread discussing his music. Don't make assumptions friend.
Then shouldn't that be more important then proving something?
>>61650633
>two most recent albums among his most highly regarded
?????????
>>61651034
>TND among his most highly regarded
lol?
>>61651034
>two most recent swans albums among their most highly regarded
see two can play that game
>>61651080
I've talked to a lot of people who think that TND is one of his best.
>>61651034
his albums after black tie white noise (which is underrated) are sub-par to mediocre at best. get acclaim for nostalgia factor mostly, if not being late to the party.
WHY DIDN'T GOD TAKE THIS GUY FROM EARTH INSTEAD
>>61646510
>is the epitome of everything that went wrong with rock music.
this is where he's wrong. rock music was about pussy and selling ads
a hack DJ in Ohio came up with the term Rock'n'Roll
>>61651142
I have also talked to many retards
HE'S RIGHT PLEBS
>>61646510
The shit he's saying doesn't apply to Bowie at all. Bowie was an artist of rare substance, and this halfwit seems to take an exactly ass-backward view of this fact. Read the paragraph and substitute 'Madonna' and see how much more sense it makes.
>>61646881
>>61647890
>>61649618
It's not for "marketing" it's for a final great work you pieces of shit.
Friendly reminder that Scruffy gave Korn a 7.5.
http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/korn.html
>>61654439
you haven't really grasped what they were saying
>>61651583
>>61646510
>the epitome of everything that went wrong with rock music.
He might as well be talking about politics, sports or any form of arts or entertainment. As these expressions become accessible they become commodified and the experience of taking them in and subsequent analysis becomes its own commodity among spectators. The vast majority of people who express themselves and do not market their expressions (and I mean their smallest expressions, like going out to eat at a restaurant) in these days and in recent history, you have never heard of.
4chan's anonymous expressions are actually one of the last bastions of the antithesis. They allow to manifest the underbelly of repressed, unacceptable expressions. 4chan's legacy is racism, sexism, terrorism, harrassment, exploitation and wanton exploration of perverse sexualities and interactive fantasy obsessions.
