There has been so much written about this album, I almost don't know where to start. Let's just say that everything that I have read about it, I agree with 100%. Bowie took the glam from T-Rex and Mott the Hoople and the theatrical elements from Alice Cooper and the Art sensibilty of Andy Warhol and created Ziggy Stardust and possibly the whole of Art Rock with it.
It seems that Ziggy was created more from necessity than from being creative and clever. Bowie, feeling terribly inadequate and feeling that he just wasn't very entertaining to look at of listen too. Found that he was much more confidant if he hid behind a character. He had created them before, but never fleshed them out as much as Ziggy. It was his swan song of the period for sure and something that a lot of people tried to copy. From Kiss to Elton John, many great thing stemmed from this album.
Even though it is a litlle dated sounding, the album holds up remakable well. Written as a concept album, it sort of fails in that regard. As a story/Rock Opera, it falls pretty short of the mark. As a result there are lots of things going on in here that don't make a lot of sense, but are still very relavent commentaries on the world at the time. Be careful not to write off the lyrics too quickly, Bowie has something to say here and it's worth listening too.
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