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David Bowie Has Died

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Re: David Bowie Has Died

#121

Post by philh »

will_pseudonym wrote: post #106
pmontra wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people want to hear what most people hear, to be able to talk about it and don't be cut off from their group of friends. Same thing about TV, movies, cloths, phones, books, games etc.

I'm a non-sports person, but I had a dawning realization earlier this week. We crave shared, tribal experiences, and that's why we seek out those shared events. On the same topic, sports is a religion. If you disagree, or don't yet understand, please compare and contrast the two for me.

What do you mean by 'religion', and why does it matter whether sports is a religion under this meaning?

Here are some differences: sports fans don't think that their team is capable of supernatural feats. I don't think I've ever seen a fan of one team try to convince a fan of another to change allegiance, or proselytizing on a street corner. Sports fans know that the teams of the other fans exist, while religious people usually deny that other gods exist. Similarly, religious people don't have to worry about whether Yahweh could beat up Vishnu, but sports fans get to actually see what happens when their teams compete.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#122

Post by joshschreuder »

avolcano wrote: post #49

It's funny, these threads always devolve into comparisons to modern day pop stars, how none of them compare. And you're all right, of course, no one could ever compare. He was the best, period, in my mind, and while he may not be in your mind, but his accomplishments and career are undeniable. But every rock and pop singer today has something from Bowie. Kanye and Gaga found ways to navigate both pop stardom and the…

Beautifully put. Thank you.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#123

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

wyclif wrote: post #65

If you listen to Bowie's new album "Blackstar" now, it has to rank as one of the greatest "going out with class" artistic moments in pop music. The lead single is called "Lazarus" and the first line of the song is "Look up here, I'm in heaven."

The video for Lazarus came out a few days ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8

That's one hell of an exit.

The video and song for Blackstar are even more astonishing.

For various reasons I was never a big Bowie fan, but Blackstar was one of the few tracks from anyone ever that made me think "WTF did I just hear/watch?!" - and I mean that in a good way.

Some people make music. Bowie invented mythologies, turned them into sung performance art, and put them out on vinyl and CD.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#124

Post by davidgerard »

cageface wrote: post #44
synthmeat wrote: post #21

I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyrigh…

If anything labels are more important than ever and music sales are driven by the kind of marketing campaigns that only big records labels can afford. There's a ton of interesting music being made outside their domain but most people will never hear any of it.

Not really. They are important to the ever-shrinking mainstream pop industry ... but here in the Great Cultural Fragmentation, that's a smaller and smaller slice of a larger and larger pie.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#125

Post by zo1 »

gbog wrote: post #115
ycosynot wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God, you're more Asperger than me. When it's like that, I often download the last album, and I appreciate what the person gave to the world, whatever the way I feel, or don't feel. Some are more involved than others, but this is like an appreciation, and a global thanking to people who had notably a global impact. I just listened to the album and personally I'm actually in a 'good' mood, when I think he couldn't have…

Not sure what Asperger is. I am very sensitive: I cry at almost all movies I'm watching even the silliest ones, when the guy kiss the girl, or the father finds his son back. Maybe I'm weird, or just too influenced by Eastern philosophy, but when someone old dies I feel it is ok, it is supposed to be like that, it is the normal course of nature. My preferred living writer died some time ago. It was ok too, even if I r…

>"[...]it is supposed to be like that, it is the normal course of nature."

Just because it is the normal course of nature doesn't mean it's okay. Nor does it mean that we should not be upset about it, or mourn it.

A person accumulates a life-time's worth of knowledge and experience and insight. And in an instant, it's taken away from the world. It's a loss in every sense of the word.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#126

Post by arethuza »

I think this tweet from David Baddiel, read out on BBC Radio 4 this morning, sums it up for me:

"Not just upset by Bowie's death but disorientated: like I've woken up and the ... I think I assumed he was immortal."

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#128

Post by will_pseudonym »

philh wrote: post #121
will_pseudonym wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a non-sports person, but I had a dawning realization earlier this week. We crave shared, tribal experiences, and that's why we seek out those shared events. On the same topic, sports is a religion. If you disagree, or don't yet understand, please compare and contrast the two for me.

What do you mean by 'religion', and why does it matter whether sports is a religion under this meaning? Here are some differences: sports fans don't think that their team is capable of supernatural feats. I don't think I've ever seen a fan of one team try to convince a fan of another to change allegiance, or proselytizing on a street corner. Sports fans know that the teams of the other fans exist, while religious peo…

I mean that it is a shared obsession that can intensify our better and worse natures, but the worse outweighs the better.

Re: David Bowie Has Died

#129

Post by barrkel »

philh wrote: post #121
will_pseudonym wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a non-sports person, but I had a dawning realization earlier this week. We crave shared, tribal experiences, and that's why we seek out those shared events. On the same topic, sports is a religion. If you disagree, or don't yet understand, please compare and contrast the two for me.

What do you mean by 'religion', and why does it matter whether sports is a religion under this meaning? Here are some differences: sports fans don't think that their team is capable of supernatural feats. I don't think I've ever seen a fan of one team try to convince a fan of another to change allegiance, or proselytizing on a street corner. Sports fans know that the teams of the other fans exist, while religious peo…

Religion is about in-group / out-group distinction through shared beliefs and costly, exclusionary displays of membership.

It's a social and organizational concept, not theological or philosophical, relating to gods or otherwise. For example, environmentalism is a type of religion.

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