Mickey Mouse has Grown Up a Cow: David Bowie and the Society of the Spectacle

Abstract

From the gender-bending alien rock messiah, Ziggy Stardust, to the elder statesman of rock, David Bowie redefined what it meant to be a rock star with his ever-changing personae and theatrical stage shows. Yet Bowie was more than a rock star. This paper presents a critical analysis of Bowie's five-decade career, drawing connections with Situationist revolutionary theory and Bowie's subversive approach to his art. While some have argued that Situationism died with the dissolution of the Situationist International, I argue that David Bowie claimed the theory and kept it alive by turning his own life into a work of art.