David Bowie's 1972 appearance on BBC's Top of the Pops was a breakout performance that won him a mass UK audience.

David Bowie's 1972 appearance on BBC's Top of the Pops was a breakout performance that won him a mass UK audience. 

Captivated by the garish theatrical flourishes and sexual ambiguity of Bowie's character Ziggy Stardust --- a glamorous, messianic space alien --- the public subsequently remembered him primarily in that role and judged his later work in reference to Ziggy. 

This fallacy --- the inability to perceive Bowie's subsequent work as a series of entirely different artistic personas --- could be called a Starman argument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYej6RTmICo&feature=player_embedded

The New York Times notes that for the last 25 years, David Bowie was a regular though ultrawealthy Manhattanite who...

The New York Times notes that for the last 25 years, David Bowie was a regular though ultrawealthy Manhattanite who managed to move through the masses almost invisibly.

[Bowie's wife] Iman once described Mr. Bowie as a “homebody”;The Onion imagined him as a “pansexual alien” staying in to “do lasagna for dinner.” He led a pretty normal-seeming life. He shopped for groceries once a week at Dean & DeLuca. He loved the chicken sandwich with watercress and tomatoes at Olive’s on Prince Street. He liked to rise at 6 a.m. and get his “buzz” by walking the still-empty streets of Chinatown.


http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/fashion/david-bowie-invisible-new-yorker.html?referer=

David Bowie and Brian Eno's finest hour.

David Bowie and Brian Eno's finest hour. 
http://www.davidbowie.com/video/heroes-1977-50826

The video is even weirder than the song.

The video is even weirder than the song. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw&feature=share

Happy 69th birthday, David Bowie​​. Your new album is excellent and fits well in this Collection.

Happy 69th birthday, David Bowie​​. Your new album is excellent and fits well in this Collection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_%28David_Bowie_album%29

Happy 90th birthday to George Martin, the producer of the entire Beatles catalogue.

Happy 90th birthday to George Martin, the producer of the entire Beatles catalogue. My household has resounded with the sound of the Beatles for days, as they have recently become available on the music streaming services. Martin's wizardry accounts for at least 20% of the Beatles' brilliance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Martin