 | The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: Encyclopedia II - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - The influence of Ziggy Stardust within the history of music
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - The influence of Ziggy Stardust within the history of music
Ziggy Stardust was a monumental album in music history. Its sound has changed the way heavy metal, punk music, hard rock, glam rock, and prog rock sound. The direct descendants were later glam musicians like the glam-metal of Alice Cooper (Billion Dollar Babies - 1973), the glam-disco of Labelle (Nightbirds - 1974), and the glam-pop of Gary Glitter (Touch Me - 1973).
Heavy metal began with bands like Blue Cheer (Vincebus Eruptum - 1968) and the Yardbirds (Five Live Yardbirds - 1964); in the post Ziggy Stardust world, heavy metal evolved towards glam metal bands like Mötley Crüe (Too Fast For Love - 1981) and Van Halen (Van Halen - 1978) through the occult bands of the mid to late 1970s, like Blue Öyster Cult (Tyranny and Mutation - 1973) and Black Sabbath (Sabotage - 1975), and prog rock like Yes (Tales From Topographic Oceans - 1974).
Ziggy Stardust (along with other notable albums, such as The New York Dolls - 1973) also combined the two types of proto-punk, the energetic power of the Stooges and the avante-garde lyrical and musical aspects of the Velvet Underground, resulting in early punk musicians like Elvis Costello & the Attractions (My Aim Is True - 1977), Adam & the Ants (Kings of the Wild Frontier - 1980), and Graham Parker (Howlin' Wind - 1976) before the first wave of true punk music, with the Jam (In the City - 1977), the Clash (The Clash - 1977), and the Ramones (The Ramones - 1976), as well as the more artistic punk of Patti Smith (Horses - 1975) and Television (Marquee Moon - 1977).
In the 1990s, shoegazing and Britpop bands like Suede (Dog Man Star - 1994), Morrissey (Viva Hate - 1988), and My Bloody Valentine (Isn't Anything - 1988) showed a strong Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie influence.
Bauhaus, one of the first English gothic rock bands, incorporated much Ziggy-era style & nuance into their own music. It is easy to see a very direct evolution in the musical sound & spirit of the English glam rock movement in all of the early English Goth bands. It is of interesting note that the Bauhaus cover version of 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' is still played very regularly in Gothic nightclubs. But the influence stretches much further throughout the entire Bauhaus discography, and the solo recordings of Daniel Ash, the guitarist of Bauhaus. Anyone who appreciates English glam will find a goldmine in the recordings of Bauhaus.
On a more recent note, notorious shock rocker Marilyn Manson openly admits to being heavily inspired by Ziggy Stardust. This is most apparent in the Glitter-Rock opus Mechanical Animals, as the album is, aesthetically, very similar to Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. However, the earlier album, Antichrist Superstar, has a plotline that follows the same pattern as Ziggy (both are 'rise and fall' stories), and the songs "Minute of Decay" and "Man That you Fear" both have musical elements similar to Bowie's works.
On Moby's latest album, there is song called Spiders, which was influenced by Moby's deep love for David Bowie's music. It is thought the title is a reference to this album, and Ziggy's backing band, the Spiders From Mars.
The anarchist punk rock band Crass were so named as a reference to the song "Ziggy Stardust", specifically the line "The kids was (sic) just crass". (Reference; Shibboleth by Penny Rimbaud, AK Press, 1999).
In the song "Ziggy Stardust", reference is made to Ziggy's backup band, the Spiders From Mars. As a result of that reference, Bowie's backup band also became known as the Spiders From Mars.
In 2004 Wes Anderson's film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou features the character of Pelé dos Santos (played by Seu Jorge), a Brasilian mariner who sits alone with his guitar and plays several songs from "Ziggy Stardust" (in addition to songs from other albums) singing in Portuguese.
The Smashing Pumpkins make a reference to the Spiders From Mars on the song "If There Is a God" from their unsigned album Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music: "He likes his loud guitars/And his spiders from Mars"
Other related archives1964, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970s, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1988, 1990s, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, Q magazine, AK Press, Abbey Road, Adam & the Ants, Aladdin Sane, Alice Cooper, All Music Guide, Antichrist Superstar, April 28, Arrangement, Artwork, Bass guitar, Baudelaire, Bauhaus, Biblical, Billboard Music Charts, Billion Dollar Babies, Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Blue Öyster Cult, Bob Marley, Britpop, Channel 4, Classic FM, Crass, Dana Gillespie, Daniel Ash, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Dog Man Star, Drums, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Five Live Yardbirds, Gary Glitter, Goth, Gothic, Graham Parker, Guitar, HMV, Heathen, Horses, Hunky Dory, Iggy Pop, In the City, Isn't Anything, Jesus, Jimi Hendrix, June 6, Keyboards, Kings of the Wild Frontier, Labelle, Legendary Stardust Cowboy, London, Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music, Marc Bolan, Marilyn Manson, Marquee Moon, Martian, Mechanical Animals, Melody Maker, Mick "Ronno" Ronson, Mick "Woody" Woodmansey, Mick Ronson, Moby, Morrissey, Mott the Hoople, Musicians, My Aim Is True, My Bloody Valentine, Mötley Crüe, Nightbirds, Patti Smith, Penny Rimbaud, Peter, Photography, Piano, Queen, Ray Davies, Remastering, Rolling Stone, SACD, Sabotage, Saxophone, September 1, Seu Jorge, Smashing Pumpkins, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Space Oddity, Spiders, Starman, Suede, T. Rex, TV network, Tales From Topographic Oceans, Television, The Beach Boys, The Clash, The Doors, The Guardian, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The New York Dolls, The Ramones, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, The Who, Tommy, Too Fast For Love, Touch Me, Trevor Bolder, Twiggy, Tyranny and Mutation, United Kingdom, United States, VH1, Van Halen, Vince Taylor, Vincebus Eruptum, Viva Hate, Vocals, Wes Anderson, White Light/White Heat, Yes, Ziggy Marley, Ziggy Stardust, anarchist, concept album, concept albums, folk, glam metal, glam rock, gothic rock, guitar, hard rock, heavy metal, heroin, jazzy, mod, prog rock, punk, punk music, punk rock, rock and roll, saxophone, shoegazing, surf rock, the Clash, the Doors, the Jam, the Ramones, the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, the Who, the Yardbirds
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The influence of Ziggy Stardust within the history of music", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
