Ziggy Stardust Ideology

The hippie aesthetic era was an important time in rock and roll during the late 60’s and on into the early 80’s. It was a time were rock had a sense of purpose. They sung about the issues that plagued the country. It was also a time where technology would play an important roll in the sound of music, with the advancement in recording and synthesizer technology (Covach, “The Hippie Aesthetic”). The hippie aesthetic was not immune to the advancement of music. This essay will go over three songs that represent the different aspects of this era. It’ll will review a song that is predominately hippie aesthetic, a song that is a little of both, and finally a song that has no trace of hippie aesthetic.

The main reasons for the major reformations of the religions occurred in the fifteen century were based on the freedom of beliefs, the disruptive of the pope to intervene people?s life and the pope?s ultimate power in the roman church system which restricted freedom of beliefs. Thus, the three beliefs arrived, the Lutheranism, the Zwinglianism, and the Anabaptism. Each of the belief represent its own unique characteristics, religious concerns, and the

The track deals with the aftermath of a death of a friend and the pain that comes with it. With such a personal story like this, an intimate connection between the singer and audience is developed. The lines, “Wishing I was someone else/ Feeling sorry for myself/ And I remembered someone’s kid is dead” hit you with with reality and are possibly the most powerful on the whole record. Some of the tracks make you wonder if the twenty two year old singer songwriter is okay and for me it was “Killer”. The main theme of the song is about the lack of control people have over others and the loneliness felt when feelings are not reciprocated by those we love.

Through the eyes of someone who sees the world as being a cold, sorrowful place. Bowie suggests that once one is “sitting alone in a tin can,” or alone one’s mind and reality, that it’s impossible to communicate with anyone about one’s thoughts or emotions. In a melancholy tone David Bowie writes both to himself and to others experiencing the same or similar situations.

Bowie was revolutionary in music, specifically Rock and Pop,and he had a history of tapping into many genres, like Heavy Rock and Folk. Bowie’s time in Heavy Rock had some secession with the albums The Moon Who Sold The World

The albums’ title track and its reprise bookend the album with the ending of the album on vinyl will end with a reversed loop of a conversation on the run-out groove, much like how the album starts (Rolling Stone). In turn, the widespread attention of such a conceptual album helped form the music genre “Progressive Rock.” In the early stages of the genre, the albums released by these type of bands would be built around a unified concept , while also incorporating an eccentric twist on Rock, most commonly in the form of a fluctuating time signature (“Unusual Time Signatures in Music”). The lyrics of King Crimson’s 1969 debut album In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation by King Crimson is laced with surreal, fantastical lyrics with an underlying theme of anti-war, while the instrumentation incorporates a strong jazz influence (Cook). This theme of anti-war can most notably be found in the album’s opening song “21st Century Schizoid Man,” which makes a blatant stab at the Vietnamese War in the lyric “Innocents raped with napalm fire” (Cook).

Their mash-up of rock and rap was very cool in the 1990s. I’m sure I was drawn to their party like atmosphere as well as unabated humor. The Grammy winning instrumental album The Mix-up was an interesting listen. I was unaware that this album even existed. It was a pleasant surprise to learn about their instrumental talent.

Bob Dylan goes through multiple sounds, styles, and genres over the years, but after observing them over the course of the semester, my favorite album of his is Nashville Skyline. The sound, lyrics, and the emotion of the songs in this album related to be the most, and they capture so much in them that just attracted my attention. The songs in this album showed a different side of Dylan, a happier side. When looking at this album I looked at the genre, physical elements, specific songs, and the overall description of the album.

Dramatic sound, emphatic beats, head-banging, long hair, tight clothing, and black eye-liner were just the surface of the first’s that Ozzy Osbourne presented to the world in his 1969 performance in Workington, England. The life journey of John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne and his vision spread across the 60’s like a virus, infecting the such a uniform and controlled society. Ozzy Osbourne had a mission to influence people through his music by voicing his beliefs against patriarchy and conformity. Osbourne’s birth of a new sound landed him the name, Prince of Darkness. (Schafer) His dark thoughts and bold actions broke cultural norms and left a legacy in the music world that would live on and carry out his mission of channeling his listener’s internal

The album I chose to review was Chameleon by David Bowie. I chose Chameleon because of its variety of genres and tempos. Chameleon tempos include fast, medium and slow. There are also happy and sad genres. The songs in this album are: "Heroes", "D.J.", "Sorrow", "Aladdin Sane", "Diamond Dogs". The album also includes "Starman", "1984", "Boys keep Swinging", "Beauty and the Beast", "V2 Schneider", "Look Back in Anger", and "Breaking Glass".

These transformations had a great impact for the future generations, even though the sixties had a lot of negative influence due to the use of drugs. The four songs listed above give a clear picture to how, the sixties made the society think on their feet as they were challenged in every negative aspect like political issues, war, drugs and many more. To overcome these challenges, the society had to be united and work as a unit for its betterment. This was achieved by eradicating negative effects and focusing on a plan to accomplish a positive aftermath. Moreover, these songs had a great influence on mass audiences around the world as the lyrics had a huge impact on them. The people were deeply affected by the performance of these rock artists, as they paved a path to expressing their views on the society. Furthermore, these artists expressed themselves through concerts, which drew the attention of audiences in mass numbers. This lead to people being connected to these artists, which help them express their views by being unified. However, these social transformations took decades to deliver a positive environment in the society, even though the era had a lot of negative air around

The unique ways Nirvana and Polyphonic Spree express their ideas of the song Lithium are shown in each bands’ music videos. From Nirvana's violence to the celebration of Polyphonic Spree, the difference in tone of the music videos is use to establish different emotions linked to the song Lithium. The contrast between each music video is how each band interprets the lyrics of Lithium

The very first album that I owned was Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.” In my opinion, it is the best album the Britpop band has yet to release. I couldn’t wait to come home after school to drop my bag at the door, run up the stairs and listen to Viva la Vida on my brother’s hand-me-down iPod. Each track had a different blend of guitar bridges, catchy melodies, and booming drumbeats. Everything down to the cover artwork of an old French painting of a battle during the first French Revolution was amazing.

This song utilizes a complex mix of melody, harmony, and beats. It is also paired with creative lyrics, and phrases that have become popular because of the song, such as, “Darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.” This song was such an epic success because it completely succeeded at being accessible, relatable, creative, original, but yet easy to understand. Good music is often a reflection of culture and society at the time, which is what makes it is so successful.

It was a pinnacle in its time and it changed the landscape of music as it was and as it would be.