David Bowie — New romantic and pop era David Bowie, artistic name of David Robert Jones, (London, January 8, 1947 - Nova Iorque, January 10, 2016), was a British singer, composer, actor and musical producer. Sometimes referred to as "Rock Chameleon" for his ability to always renew his image, he was an important figure in popular music for five decades. Being considered one of the most innovative and influential popular musicians of all times, especially for his work in the 1970s and 1980s, in addition to being distinguished by a characteristic vocal and the intellectual depth of his work. In 1980, the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was released, featuring the song "Ashes to Ashes", which reached the first place on the stops. A revisited music by Major Tom's character from "Space Oddity". The video clip of the song was one of two most expensive — and also one of the most innovative — of all times. Visage) to act in the video clip. Scary Monsters has used established principles on Berlin's albums, and was considered by critics to be much more direct, musically and lyrically. The hard rock of the album included notable guitar contributions from Fripp and Pete Townshend. Scary Monster (and Super Creeps) led the UK album chart for the first time since Diamond Dogs. com Scary Monsters, Bowie strikes the perfect balance between creativity and mainstream success. Bowie joined Queen in 1981 for the release of a one-off single, "Under Pressure." The duet was a success, becoming Bowie's third number-one single in the UK. Later that year, he appeared in the German film Christiane F, based on true events about a drug-addicted teenager in 1970s Berlin. The soundtrack consisted primarily of songs previously written by Bowie. Months later, Bowie was given the lead role in the 1982 BBC television adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play Baal. Coinciding with its broadcast, a five-track EP of songs from the play, titled David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht's Baal, was released. Baal was the first full-length play written by German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht (February 10, 1898–August 14, 1956). It concerns a young spendthrift who engages in several sexual affairs and at least one murder. It was written in 1918, when Brecht was a 20-year-old student at the University of Munich, in response to the expressionist drama The Lonely One (Der Einsame) by the playwright who later became a Nazi. Hanns Johst (July 8, 1890 – November 23, 1978) was a German poet and playwright, directly aligned with Nazi philosophy. In March 1982, Bowie's title song for Paul Schrader's film Cat People was released as a single. A collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, it became a minor hit in the US and reached the top 30 in the UK. Cat People is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, and Annette O'Toole. It is a remake of the 1942 film of the same name and was produced by RKO Radio Pictures, the same studio that produced the original film. That same year, Bowie left RCA, having become increasingly dissatisfied with them, and signed a new contract with EMI America Records for $17 million. Bowie reached the height of his popularity and commercial success in 1983 with Let's Dance. Co-produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers, the album went platinum in the UK and US. Its three lead singles became top-twenty hits in both countries, and its title track reached number one. "Modern Love" and "China Girl" both reached number two in the UK and spawned two acclaimed music videos that, as biographer David Buckley writes, "were utterly absorbing and activated fundamental archetypes in the pop world. The video for 'Let's Dance,' with its narrative surrounding a young Aboriginal couple, targeted 'youth,' and 'China Girl,' with its (later partially censored) nude beach romancing scene (an homage to the film From Here to Eternity), was sexually provocative enough to secure high airplay on MTV. By 1983, Bowie was emerging as one of the most important music video artists of the era." The then-unknown Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan appeared on the album. Let's Dance was followed by the enormously successful six-month Serious Moonlight Tour. At the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, Bowie received two awards, including the inaugural Video Vanguard Award. Tonight (1984), another dance album, featured Tina Turner singing with Bowie on the title track, written with Iggy Pop. Co-produced by Hugh Charles Padgham (born February 15, 1955), he is an English music producer and audio engineer. He won four Grammy Awards: Producer of the Year and Album of the Year in 1985, Record of the Year in 1990, and Engineer of the Year in 1993. Padgham's co-productions include hits by Phil Collins, XTC, Genesis, the Human League, Sting, and the Police. He pioneered (with Peter Gabriel and producer Steve Lillywhite) the "gated reverb" drum sound, most famously used on Collins's song "In the Air Tonight." Tonight included a number of covers, including three Iggy Pop covers and the Beach Boys' 1966 hit "God Only Knows." The album featured the transatlantic top 10 hit "Blue Jean," which inspired Julien Temple's 21-minute short film, Jazzin' for Blue Jean, created to promote Bowie's 1984 single "Blue Jean." Julien Temple (born November 26, 1953) is a British director of films, documentaries, and music videos. He grew up with little interest in cinema until, as a student at Cambridge, he discovered the works of French anarchist director Jean Vigo. This, along with his interest in the early London punk scene of 1976, led to his friendship with the Sex Pistols, leading him to document many of their early shows. Jean Vigo (26 April 1905 – 5 October 1934) was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in cinema in the 1930s. His work influenced Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In early 1985, Bowie's collaboration with the Pat Metheny Group, "This Is Not America," for the soundtrack to The Falcon and the Snowman, was released as a single and became a top 40 hit in the UK and US. In July of that year, Bowie performed at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid, a multi-venue benefit concert for famine relief in Ethiopia. Bowie and Mick Jagger duetted on a cover of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street" as a fundraising single, which reached number one in the UK and number seven in the US; its video premiered during Live Aid. Martha and the Vandellas were an American girl group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s as a major Motown Records artist. Bowie had an acting role in the 1986 film Absolute Beginners, directed by Julien Temple, and its title song reached number two on the UK charts. He also worked with composer Trevor Jones and wrote five original songs for the 1986 film Labyrinth, in which he starred. His final solo album of the decade was 1987's Never Let Me Down, in which he abandoned the lighthearted sound of his previous two albums, combining pop rock with a harder rock sound. Reaching number six in the UK, the album yielded the hits "Day-In Day-Out," "Time Will Crawl," and "Never Let Me Down." Bowie later described it as his "nadir," calling it "a horrible album." He supported the album on the 1986-date Glass Spider Tour. The backing band included Peter Frampton on lead guitar. Contemporary critics decried the tour as overproduced, saying it bowed to current stadium rock trends with its special effects and dancing. Although in recent years critics have recognized the tour's strengths and its influence on concert tours by other artists such as Prince, Madonna, and U2. Alex