Will There Be Another Artist Like Bowie?

[leechris]

Been listening to a lot of Bowie, as lots of people and places have been playing Bowie since his death. Listening to the wide range of styles he produced I was wondering if there is another group or artist who had success in a wide range of styles. Does an artist or group come to mind?
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"Spring's a girl in the street at night"

[Applerill]

"Hey Charlie, apparently that one rockstar guy died this week. What made him so special?"
"I guess the thing he's most famous for is being a musical chameleon. All through his career he was jumping on new styles before the public cared about them."
"Ohh, so he's like Adele?"
-A conversation I had with my friend Timmy last week.

In all seriousness, it's hard to think about this without the 40+ years of hindsight. While Bowie was already sorta known as a chameleon 15 years into his career, this was done over nearly a dozen albums. You could argue that Radiohead has been like this for most of their career, and I think PJ Harvey almost has been that way, as well.

Then again, Bowie did repeat himself on several albums, so maybe our impression of him as a 100% one-and-done chameleon is overstated, especially compared to someone like Miles Davis.

[Pentagonal]

Jim O'Rourke

[benpaco]

I think it depends upon what you mean by this.

Will there be people that challenge musical norms like Bowie did? For sure. Same goes for fashion, probably.

But to have someone back then challenging gender roles, traditional music, traditional fashion, calling MTV out on not playing black artists way back in the 80s, he was just ahead of the curve in a much more traditionalist society, and while people will keep being weird, in a way it's not as frowned down upon to be weird today, and I think that's in part because of Bowie.
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. . . 2016 . . . 2015 . . .

Things I Make

[meccalecca]

[Satie]

If the question is whether there will be someone like Bowie who has massive, top tier commercial appeal and fairly wide credibility as a Serious Artist, at least in pop music circles, while also adapting a large variety of styles, I'd say that the only serious contender is Kanye West. Though there's lots of artists who do the individual things Kanye (and Bowie) does (did) on each record, few have as wide of a reach and as eclectic of movement album to album. The only thing standing in the way of Kanye's induction into this category is the decades Bowie had of rock music's biggest fans becoming the old fogeys who decide what does and doesn't count as serious art that we make serious documentaries about with still black and white photos, zooms, and voiceovers from impressive Hollywood types to play before their X0th Anniversary Performance at a major arena. I wouldn't be surprised to see his earlier soul-sampling stuff be seen as his glam rock era and 808s and Yeezus to be held in similar esteem to the Berlin Trilogy when all is said and done.

If the question is whether an artist, regardless of popularity or cultural sway, has covered a wide variety of styles and succeeded at them - that is, you want recommendations of discographies with the wide horizons of Bowie's - there are some, I'm sure. Unfortunately, my own proclivities with artists like Bowie or Kanye tend to point me in the direction of a sliver of their discography that I like a lot to the neglect or outright distaste for the rest of the material, so scanning through my music library at a glance, nothing pops out at me.

[Pentagonal]

[Grzywa]

There won't a new Bowie, unless (s)he comes from space.
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[paladisiac]

no
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[babyBlueSedan]

Short answer: No

Long answer: In terms of number of styles I think Sufjan has the track record / potential to be on that level of experimentation someday. He's mostly associated with indie folk but Illinois is a more varied listen (his Station to Station?) and he's dabbled in electronic/noise a bit too. He doesn't have the popular appeal though and has 20+ years to go until he can match Bowie's consistency.

Kanye is probably the best comparison, but again he's got a ways to go. Let's check back in after SWISH.

Revisiting Bowie's discography really has made me better appreciate just how impressive his career was. I've come to think of him not as just having one of the most varied career's ever, but also possibly being the single most influential musical artist of the 20th century.
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