David Bowie Predicts the Good & Unhealthy of the Web in 1999: “We’re on the Cusp of One thing Exhilarating and Terrifying”

“We’re on the cusp of some­factor exhil­a­rat­ing and ter­ri­fy­ing.”

The yr is 1999 and David Bowie, in shag­gy hair and groovy glass­es, has seen the long run and it’s the Inter­internet.

On this quick however fas­ci­nat­ing inter­view with BBC’s stal­wart and with­er­ing inter­roga­tor cum inter­view­er Jere­my Pax­man, Bowie provides a fore­solid of the a long time to return, and will get most of it proper, if not all. Pax­man dole­ful­ly performs satan’s advo­cate, though I sus­pect he did actual­ly see the Internet as a “instrument”– sim­ply a repack­ag­ing of an exist­ing medi­um.

“It’s an alien life kind that simply land­ed,” Bowie coun­ters.

Bowie, who had arrange his personal bowie.internet as a pri­vate ISP the pre­vi­ous yr, begins by say­ing that if he had begin­ed his profession in 1999, he wouldn’t have been a musi­cian, however a “fan col­lect­ing information.”

It sound­ed provoca­tive on the time, however Bowie makes some extent right here that has tak­en on extra cre­dence in recent times–that the rev­o­lu­tion­ary sta­tus of rock within the ‘60s and ‘70s was tied to its rar­i­ty, that the inabil­i­ty to learn­i­ly hear music gave it pow­er and cur­ren­cy. Rock is now “a profession oppor­tu­ni­ty,” he says, and the Inter­internet now has the attract that rock as soon as did.

What Bowie won’t have seen is how fast­ly that attract would put on off. The Inter­internet not has a mys­tery to it. It’s clos­er to a pub­lic util­i­ty, odd­ly some extent that Bowie makes lat­er when discuss­ing in regards to the inven­tion of the tele­cellphone.

Bowie additionally accepted of the demys­ti­fi­ca­tion between the artist and audi­ence that the Inter­internet was professional­vid­ing. In his ultimate decade, how­ev­er, he would hunt down anonymi­ty and pri­va­cy, drop­ping his ultimate two albums sud­den­ly with­out fan­fare and refus­ing all inter­views. He additionally didn’t fore­see the type of trolling that sends celebri­ties and artists off of social media.

Pax­man sees the frag­males­ta­tion of the Inter­internet as a prob­lem; Bowie sees it as a plus.

“The poten­tial of what the Inter­internet goes to do to soci­ety, each good and dangerous, is unimag­in­in a position.”

There’s much more to unpack on this seg­ment, and let your dif­fer­ing view­factors be recognized within the com­ments. It’s what Bowie would have need­ed.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

David Bowie Presents Recommendation for Aspir­ing Artists: “Go a Lit­tle Out of Your Depth,” “Nev­er Ful­fill Oth­er Individuals’s Expec­ta­tions”

David Bowie on Why It’s Loopy to Make Artwork–and We Do It Any­means (1998)

Watch David Bowie Per­kind “Star­man” on Prime of the Pops: Vot­ed the Nice­est Music Per­for­mance Ever on the BBC (1972)

How David Bowie Used William S. Bur­roughs’ Reduce-Up Methodology to Write His Unfor­get­desk Lyrics

Ted Mills is a free­lance author on the humanities who cur­hire­ly hosts the artist inter­view-based FunkZone Pod­solid. You may also fol­low him on Twit­ter at @tedmills, learn his oth­er arts writ­ing at tedmills.com and/or watch his movies right here.