Okay, get this. Nick Troop, the Principal Lecturer in Health Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, wrote what he considers to be the ideal David Bowie song. He used an program called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count to analyze the words and emotional processes in the lyrics of the songs on Bowie’s most commercially successful albums. Then, he fed them through a randomizer program, a thing that Bowie has done himself many times throughout his career, and developed the ‘ideal’ Bowie song. Interesting, no? Okay, maybe not to some but I am fascinated. My background is in psychology and this is the type of stuff that I spend many hours pondering, except I don’t get paid for doing so like like Dr. Troop does. His findings were….interesting. And totally not what I expected. He says, “I found that the songs with positive emotion and social processes were more successful than the songs that talked about mortality.” Given that the character of Ziggy Stardust was obsessed with his own mortality and dramatic demise, I didn’t expect for Dr. Troop to find that positivity is the emotion that makes David Bowie albums sell like there is no tomorrow.
The title of Dr. Troop’s ‘ideal’ Bowie song is “Team, Meet Girls; Girls, Meet Team.” It rolls off the tongue like “Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Sola” does but that is where the similarities end, given the subject matter.
Is it good? Hm, I don’t know if that is the point of the song. But it is intriguing. And, you can’t deny the fact that Dr. Troop knows his Bowie. Respect.
Posted in News | 1 Comment »As is the case with David Bowie’s back catalog up to this point, Station to Station will get the make-over treatment sometime early in 2010. Completists like us will own the following set: Disc 1 – original album, Disc 2 – 5.1 surround sound and original stereo DVD of original album, Discs 3 and 4 – Uniondale, Nassau Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum March 23rd, 1976 official bootleg. As much as I bitch about all the re-releases and compilations it will be nice to have a good-quality recording of that Nassau Coliseum show. In fact, that’s a pretty good thing to include in an album…..other than 15 new songs, that is.
Posted in News | 2 Comments »I’ve seen a lot of reviews or Bandslam floating around on the intertubes. Usually, I read anything that has David Bowie’s name in it, just to see what it is about. With this, however, I held out. I didn’t want to read anything until my favorite movie review site had spoken. Without further ado, the Pajiba review of Bandslam. Given the fact that the tagline for the site is “Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People” and the fact that this movie is aimed squarely at the tween and teen audience, you can imagine how the review reads. But, it is a hell of an entertaining review. Check it out!
Posted in News | 1 Comment »For those of you who are going to be in London on August 28, you might want to hop on the tube and attend a fun David Bowie themed party. The press release follows!
Kill your Idols presents…
A Night with the Thin White Duke: DAVID BOWIE
DATE: 28th August 2009
ADDRESS: Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, Bedford Way, London, WC1H 9EU
NEAREST TUBE: Russell Square 9PM to 3AM / £3
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of David Bowie’s Space Oddity Bloomsbury Bowling is proud to present a night of Bowiecentric fun with Live performances by The Thin White Dukes, cinema screenings of Bowie’s best films thought the night and much much more. The usual Bloomsbury favourites of dancing, drinking an bowling will be enhanced with a ‘strictly glam’ dress code and music policy. Prizes for the best lookalike.
I wish I lived near a big city that did this sort of stuff! Or at least happened to be in one on vacation at the right time…
Posted in Circle Of Friends | 3 Comments »