Oh Dear, She's Gonna Make Another David Bowie Connection!

Good ol' Number 21- “If artists like writers and musicians make a lot of money at what they do, they are “selling out” and aren’t really serious about what they do”

I could not disagree more. First off, I’m mainly talking about musicians because I am a music-obsessive. I will say, there are some few musicians/artists who are really only in it for the money, and don’t care about their art. However, most musicians wouldn’t even be making music if they weren’t serious about it on some level.

I’ll give you a prime example of one musician who has made millions and millions of dollars for his music. This musician is serious about his work in all conceivable meanings of the word. Let me introduce you to a man named David Robert Jones. This man had considerable trouble breaking through the surface between anonymity and superstardom in the sixties. “David Jones wasn’t the only seventies British rock superstar to fail to channel the sixties Beat boom into glory” (Spitz, 52). David was in numerous bands throughout his struggle; The King Bees, The Hooker Brothers, The Manish Boys, Davy Jones and the Lower Third. Have you ever heard of these bands? (Awkward pause that normally occurs when people haven’t a clue what you’re talking about) Yeah, I didn’t think so. A lot of people would just throw in the towel, but not David Jones. He kept carrying on with his art, and never once looked back. Finally, in 1969 David Jones had his first hit single about a lost astronaut. The song is called Space Oddity, and David Jones became David Bowie. The man made money, but was he selling out? No, it’s achieving success.

I’m not going to write you all a lovely biography, though it would prove my point quite nicely. David Bowie has staying power, he morphed his style. He became “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Chameleon”, adapting to different genres and styles, while remaining completely “Bowie” and cutting edge. His career has spanned almost 4 decades, and the man is still going. Let me ask everyone, if he wasn’t serious, would he still be progressing and making music? No, he wouldn’t.

Of course, you’re going to make money. If you’re good at what you do and people like your music, you will make lots of money. Are you selling out? Not by any means. To me, that’s successful. Sure, sometimes it may seem that they might be “selling out”, but after that, they’d be done. Musicians wouldn’t make a second album unless they were serious about their work. Being phony, not taking it seriously, and “selling out”? No, it’s being successful, and “making it” in the pop culture world.