David Bowie developed a love, admiration, and propensity for the latest musical trends in childhood. Inspired by performers like Elvis Presley and Little Richard, Bowie showed off his musical prowess in primary school and, by the age of 15, had formed his first band. His love of music would continue to morph throughout his late teens and into his early 20s, eventually landing him in the platform boots and glitzy jumpsuits of his alien rock star persona, Ziggy Stardust.
From the outside looking in, Ziggy Stardust seemed like a natural progression of an intrinsically creative artist. But for Bowie, Ziggy was more of a protective shield than a chance to show off his eccentricity. In hindsight, Bowie would also come to find that Ziggy ushered in a musical trend he wasn't particularly fond of facilitating.
From his eponymous debut in 1967 to Hunky Dory in 1971, David Bowie made a point to experiment with different musical flavors from record to record. Whereas his first album lived somewhere in the Baroque pop realm, his second album explored psychedelia and folk-rock. Bowie's sound grew heavier still in the 1970 album, The Man Who Sold the World. By 1971, he moved on to a more pop-sensible sound with Hunky Dory. When the time came to release his fifth album, he combined his previous sonic influences to create a record that pioneered the glam rock movement.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars introduced a new character into Bowie's career: an extraterrestrial, fiery-haired rock star named Ziggy Stardust. Ziggy allowed Bowie to escape the reputation of his previous works and dive into something a bit more off-kilter. "It became apparent to me that I had an unbearable shyness," Bowie later said in an interview with Paul Du Noyer.
He continued, "It was much easier for me to keep on with the Ziggy thing, off the stage as well as on the stage. It also seemed a lot of fun, a really fun deceit. Who was David Bowie, and who was Ziggy Stardust? I think it was motivated by shyness as much as anything. It was so much easier for me to be Ziggy."
With his flamboyant attire and androgynous sexuality, Ziggy Stardust helped define the growing trend of "glam rock" in the early 1970s. David Bowie's career took off after he debuted Ziggy at a February 1972 show in Kingston upon Thames. From there, the allure and influence of Ziggy continued to spread throughout the musical world. In hindsight, however, Bowie was able to see the downfalls of the trend he helped kickstart.
In his interview with Paul Du Noyer, Bowie called the overarching trend of glam rock "bloody awful. Some of the stuff that we encouraged...good Lord, we should be ashamed of ourselves. It was so dire. It lent itself to really despicable performances because you had to move into really outré areas to make it work. And if it didn't work, well, my God, it came crashing down."
Ziggy Stardust would eventually leave this earthly realm as quickly as he arrived. After behind-the-scenes troubles and general boredom started to taint Bowie's love of his alter ego, he announced the dissolution of the Spiders and the retirement of Ziggy on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on July 3, 1973. The effects of Ziggy's legacy, of course, would last far longer.