David Bowie Research Paper

Throughout the long and dynamic history of David Bowie’s career the musician explores a vast variety of themes, narratives, personas and musical identity. Yet throughout this longevity Bowie often returned to a themes or ideas, examining these themes again or meditating on the idea through a new perspective. Concepts of time, space, youth, melancholy, and gender are all theme and ideas David Bowie has explored and returned to multiple times in his creative process. Similar to these continuing themes of exploration David Bowie has commented that his work follows a returning theme that captures “a sense of yearning for a future that we all knew would never come to pass” . This notion which Bowie also refers to as future nostalgia is a significant
It is the wanting to return to a past memory or place in time, therefore when nostalgia is place in relation to the future the definition transforms. The notion of nostalgia becomes transforms to be a feeling of sentimental longing and affection for a future moment. Future nostalgia can be broken down into the concept that one is missing something that hasn’t happened yet. Although, one feel like it is something they’ve already experienced and missing or wishing to be back in that moment. Placed in relation to Bowie’s quoted thought on his work, the concept of future nostalgia grows one sept further into a yearning and missing of something that has yet to happen that one knows will never be
The song narrative express the frustration of making the same mistake over and over again. In the song describes a moment of driving at a high speed in a circle of a hotel garage and as the title alludes to, crashing the car. Although the song connected to an incident during the height of Bowie cocaine addiction in which he did repeatedly crash his own car into another. Although the song drives more meaning than simply a recounting of Bowie’s car crash. As the lyrics state; “Every chance/ every chance that I take/ I take it on the road/I was always looking left and right/ Oh, but I’m always crashing/ in the same car” . The song outlines how Bowie strives to change his path, to change the outcome – I look life and right, yet the same outcome keeps happening, he continues to crash the car. Always Crashing in the Same Car becomes a recognition that although he is yearning to change is course and stop making the same mistake he known that it is a yearning that will not come to pass. As Bowie will continue to crash in the same car the song truly outline the notion of future nostalgia. As the song outlines the wishing for different future outcome this will never fulfilled as the same outcome is doomed to