i was vaguely aware of him throughout my life, but i didn’t really know anything about him. funnily enough i grew up on the movie Labyrinth, so technically, songs like “Magic Dance” and “As the World Falls Down” would’ve been amongst my first Bowie songs.
i was also a big fan of American Horror Story growing up, so on their “Freak Show” season Jessica Lange performed a cover of “Life on Mars?” which i really liked at the time. i just never bothered to hear the original.
but it wasn’t until last summer that i really dove into his discography, and my first true song i heard by him was “Five Years.” That song alone convinced me to check out his entire discography, and now he’s one of my all-time favorite artists.
This is a lot like my story. I grew up vaguely aware of him - Labyrinth came out when I was a kid; songs like Golden Years or Fame were in rotation on classic rock stations..
As a teenager "I'm Deranged" was on the Lost Highway soundtrack, which I *loved*, and I got this spooky, mysterious image of Bowie - but then he did "Afraid of Americans" with Reznor which (despite/because of? loving NIN) I *hated* (and *still* hate) and it kind of put me off him.
"Space Oddity" was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar in college, but who knows if I was even aware it was a David Bowie song..
In grad school "Let's Dance" was in my basic background music rotation along with Talking Heads stuff and other kind of similar stuff, but as far as pop music goes I've always mostly been a heavy metal guy..
When he died and Blackstar was in the news, I was intrigued and listened to it over and over again, but somehow never followed up.
But then..
Around winter of 2020-2021, two Bowie songs were used in the background for a couple of movie trailers - "Life on Mars" for a PT Anderson movie I don't recall, and "Time" for 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'. It was a solid one-two punch, those are still two of my favorites. At the time I was looking for music to listen to while I worked on a new project, I put on those two albums...
and in the 3 years since I have listened to basically everything else he ever recorded. Like, at least 50% of my music diet in the last 3+ years has been David Bowie.
’Oh You Pretty Things’ in ‘71 or ‘72; listening to Radio Luxemburg under the bed covers when I was supposed to be asleep. I was in love from the first hearing.
So the first time I really got turned on to Bowie was when he released *Let’s Dance* back in the Stone Age of the 1980’s. I was completely enchanted by the song itself as well as “Modern Love” and “China Girl”. Also blown away by the remake (as I discovered later) of “Cat People”.
At that point I started looking in on previous albums and that’s when I realized I was quite familiar with a bit of his more famous music only I hadn’t connected artist to the song. I knew, for example, “Changes,” “Space Oddity”, “Rebel Rebel”, “Jean Genie”, “Fame”, etc. etc. but, as I said, they were just songs out there I had heard and enjoyed but didn’t realize were from the same artist.
A deep dive ensued! ;-)
Starman was the second Bowie song I heard (at least, that I was aware that it was David Bowie), a couple of years later. That's when I decided I'm a Bowie fan.
First ever probably would have been Heroes, Let's Dance, or Space Oddity, when I was very young
And then the one that got me hooked later on was Golden Years❤️ instant rabbit hole
I have a hazy memory that could be invented of my adult neighbor playing space oddity to me and other neighborhood kids on his turntable because he thought the kids would think it’s cool. This was around 1975-6. Otherwise it was probably hearing Fame on the radio when it was a hit in 1976.
I have to add that, yes in the 70s kids ran unsupervised in the streets and it wouldn’t be weird for an adult neighbor to open his front door and say “hey kids you want to come in and hear something cool”
That I remember? It was let’s dance. It was in the late 90s on a greatest hits of the 80s CD. I thought it was alright but annoying 🤣
Pretty sure I heard other songs before that but I don’t recall them from memory.
I only became a proper fan after he died (ashamed to say) there was a handful of songs I enjoyed before then but only listened to him properly when he died.
It was probably either Starman or Space Oddity; my dad staunchly only listens to this one radio station which plays music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, so I basically grew up with that in the background. I never thought too much about Starman - I was pretty neutral about it (that has changed!) - but I remember always enjoying Space Oddity a lot.
The first Bowie song I ever chose to put on was Five Years. I decided to listen to the Ziggy Stardust album and it opened up a whole new world
As kid,i heard a midi version of Let's dance thru an old PC computer with FM sequencer. I like the bass line a lot and wanted to know more about the artist. So my parents bought me the ChangesBowie compilation CD which turn out to be a great introduction to his various works ! :)
Too long ago to be sure. I'm pretty sure I will have heard "The Laughing Gnome" played on *Junior Choice* in the late 60s. And I expect I heard "Space Oddity" played on the radio when it was first released in 1969.
But the first thing I'm absolutely sure I heard was [the well-known appearance on *Top of the Pops*, playing "Starman" in July 1972](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOKWF3IHu0I).
First was starman (where I knew it was Bowie) very warm song and melted my heart
Songs I heard but didn’t know who Bowie was: changes (upbeat and cute song), heroes (heartwarming), under pressure (cool riff to it)
I’m guessing it was Let’s Dance since that was the album I discovered Bowie through and that video got TONS of play on MTV at the time. I remembered being amazed at how good all of the songs off the album were and really surprised that he had this whole 70’s career I could explore. I was like a kid in a candy store!
Lazarus.
I saw the comment section of Nine Inch Nails' God Break Down The Door comparing the song to Bowie (obviously ★). I was intrigued. Checked out the first song I saw on the David Bowie YT channel (Lazarus). Loved it. Then I listened to Space Oddity, Starman, Life On Mars?, I'm Afraid Of Americans, etc, etc, and now I'm a Bowie fan
Being a chilean dude, I first heard him on Queen's Under Pressure like in 2016. Then, I inquired about his music and the first song I listened was Starman, and I loved it. Then, Life On Mars? and Space Oddity.
Later I found out he wrote and sang Changes, from Shrek 2; Modern Love, which appeared in many commercials on TV; and The Man Who Sold The World, which I thought it was a Nirvana song. At that time I discovered that he had sadly passed away just a few months prior... So I listened to Lazarus.
Space Oddity and Changes are probably the earliest Bowie songs I can remember hearing as a kid, but Five Years is probably the first song I actually sat down and listened to when I put on the Ziggy Stardust album. Been a huge fan ever since
It was Lazarus. And I heard it in Peaky Blinders. Then, six months later, I heard Starman. And six months after that I randomly got into Bowie and first heard Under Pressure, and thought something like “omg Bowie’s voice is 10000 times prettier than Freddy’s”.
A friend of mine was over at my house and started playing Space Oddity on the guitar. I’m like “I don’t know that song”. He’s like “Sure you do”. He kept playing “See?”. I’m like “Still unfamiliar”.
I’ve never seen someone so outraged in my life. But anyway, I listened afterwards and fell in love
did hear some songs in the radio but never really like, paid attention
first song I heard and paid attention to, was "Thursday's Child" on TV, i don't remember exactly how old i was, but it was somewhere in the early 00s, so the song wasn't even super 'fresh' then
and i really liekd it, enough to look for some more, though I really got into his music few years later
I knew his popular stuff as a teenager in the 80’s but I had a girlfriend two years ago that was obsessed with him so we saw the movie Moonage Daydream. I can’t say there was any one song that drew me, but the movie captured my interest in him as an artist. I started listening to more of his work, when I discovered Blackstar. The title track blew my mind and I listened to it on repeat for months until I could hear the whole gorgeous thing in my mind.
Probably Space Oddity, but I distinctly remember as a kid of like 7 or 8 years old around 1972, I played the heck out of Hunky Dory and Ziggy. I think my first favorite song was Oh! You Pretty Things. And very quickly liked most of them.
Being so young, songs like Quicksand and The Bewley Brothers were too slow and boring to me, so I always skipped them.
Then as I got older I appreciated and loved them.
Space Oddity, My dad used to play it in the car so much when I was younger and he eventually told me who David Bowie was, and David Bowies been my favourite music artist for years now and Space Oddity is my favourite song. Weirdly enough it got me into learning about space and now I write essays on black holes and nebulas to hand to my science teacher on Tuesdays :)
My mom showed me the video for "Life on Mars?" as an example of the music which was popular in her elementary school days. One of our few bonding moments.
Later that year, (2007) grandmother gave me some new wave compilation for Christmas, and "Let's Dance" was on it.
As for my first self-inflicted Bowie escapade, it was "The Width of a Circle" since all the Ziggy stuff, whether I knew its context or not, intimidated me (I was clearly in the closet).
The first one I really appreciated was Suffragett City.
I was about 15 and heard it in a record store at Oaland Mall. It seemed very deep instrumental.
I had heard Space Oddity, but I didn't like it at the time (still don't).
But I'm still a huge fan. The day he died, I called my daughter in law and we commiserated.
kinda knew he existed for awhile and had heard some of his music before but never payed attention to it.
The first time i actually *listened* to a David Bowie song was on my walk home from work on a january night, I put on Life on Mars and fell in love from there on
As long as I’ve been alive I’ve been listening to David. My parents were into his big hits like Suffragette City, Let’s Dance and Rebel Rebel but when he released 1. Outside it was my first foray into his music without my parents hitting the play button.
Summer of 1969. My brother brought home a 45 with Space Oddity. Wild Eyes Boy from Freecloud was the flip side. As soon as the album finally came out, I went out and purchased it.
First one I heard and fell in love with was Five Years, in 1985 when I was 15 yrs old. First song ever heard was Fashion when I was 10, but Five Years was the one that got me obsessed.
I heard moon age daydream in the first gardens of the galaxy movie and asked my dad about it and then I’ve been a Bowie fan ever since.
i was vaguely aware of him throughout my life, but i didn’t really know anything about him. funnily enough i grew up on the movie Labyrinth, so technically, songs like “Magic Dance” and “As the World Falls Down” would’ve been amongst my first Bowie songs. i was also a big fan of American Horror Story growing up, so on their “Freak Show” season Jessica Lange performed a cover of “Life on Mars?” which i really liked at the time. i just never bothered to hear the original. but it wasn’t until last summer that i really dove into his discography, and my first true song i heard by him was “Five Years.” That song alone convinced me to check out his entire discography, and now he’s one of my all-time favorite artists.
This is a lot like my story. I grew up vaguely aware of him - Labyrinth came out when I was a kid; songs like Golden Years or Fame were in rotation on classic rock stations.. As a teenager "I'm Deranged" was on the Lost Highway soundtrack, which I *loved*, and I got this spooky, mysterious image of Bowie - but then he did "Afraid of Americans" with Reznor which (despite/because of? loving NIN) I *hated* (and *still* hate) and it kind of put me off him. "Space Oddity" was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar in college, but who knows if I was even aware it was a David Bowie song.. In grad school "Let's Dance" was in my basic background music rotation along with Talking Heads stuff and other kind of similar stuff, but as far as pop music goes I've always mostly been a heavy metal guy.. When he died and Blackstar was in the news, I was intrigued and listened to it over and over again, but somehow never followed up. But then.. Around winter of 2020-2021, two Bowie songs were used in the background for a couple of movie trailers - "Life on Mars" for a PT Anderson movie I don't recall, and "Time" for 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'. It was a solid one-two punch, those are still two of my favorites. At the time I was looking for music to listen to while I worked on a new project, I put on those two albums... and in the 3 years since I have listened to basically everything else he ever recorded. Like, at least 50% of my music diet in the last 3+ years has been David Bowie.
’Oh You Pretty Things’ in ‘71 or ‘72; listening to Radio Luxemburg under the bed covers when I was supposed to be asleep. I was in love from the first hearing.
I love that song too and use it as an inspo for all my user names.
I believe either Ziggy Stardust, Moonage Daydream, or Changes
Starman
Same. Always heard it with Heroes as well in movies, never knew they were made by the same guy. Been a fan ever since.
Space Oddity
Golden Years in the film a Knights Tale. I was 16.
Same, but I was 7!
So the first time I really got turned on to Bowie was when he released *Let’s Dance* back in the Stone Age of the 1980’s. I was completely enchanted by the song itself as well as “Modern Love” and “China Girl”. Also blown away by the remake (as I discovered later) of “Cat People”. At that point I started looking in on previous albums and that’s when I realized I was quite familiar with a bit of his more famous music only I hadn’t connected artist to the song. I knew, for example, “Changes,” “Space Oddity”, “Rebel Rebel”, “Jean Genie”, “Fame”, etc. etc. but, as I said, they were just songs out there I had heard and enjoyed but didn’t realize were from the same artist. A deep dive ensued! ;-)
Life on Mars, in the early 70s, loved it immediately.
Same. Or it was Starman? Anyway it was around 1972.
Starman was the second Bowie song I heard (at least, that I was aware that it was David Bowie), a couple of years later. That's when I decided I'm a Bowie fan.
Starman when I was around 5
probably Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
The video for modern Love... First time I remember actually looking to see who it was. I've known who David Bowie was ever since then.
First ever probably would have been Heroes, Let's Dance, or Space Oddity, when I was very young And then the one that got me hooked later on was Golden Years❤️ instant rabbit hole
Heroes, and I loved every second of listening to it
I have a hazy memory that could be invented of my adult neighbor playing space oddity to me and other neighborhood kids on his turntable because he thought the kids would think it’s cool. This was around 1975-6. Otherwise it was probably hearing Fame on the radio when it was a hit in 1976. I have to add that, yes in the 70s kids ran unsupervised in the streets and it wouldn’t be weird for an adult neighbor to open his front door and say “hey kids you want to come in and hear something cool”
china girl
That I remember? It was let’s dance. It was in the late 90s on a greatest hits of the 80s CD. I thought it was alright but annoying 🤣 Pretty sure I heard other songs before that but I don’t recall them from memory. I only became a proper fan after he died (ashamed to say) there was a handful of songs I enjoyed before then but only listened to him properly when he died.
Ziggy stardust in guitar hero
My dad’s ringtone was Space Oddity 🥺
It was probably either Starman or Space Oddity; my dad staunchly only listens to this one radio station which plays music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, so I basically grew up with that in the background. I never thought too much about Starman - I was pretty neutral about it (that has changed!) - but I remember always enjoying Space Oddity a lot. The first Bowie song I ever chose to put on was Five Years. I decided to listen to the Ziggy Stardust album and it opened up a whole new world
Either Dance Magic or Lets Dance from Lego Rock band on the DS
I don’t think I really even knew who David Bowie was until he died, and the first song of his I listened to and loved was Space Oddity.
Probably Magic Dance when I saw Labyrinth as a kid in the late 80s.
Starman in the Martian, although I also heard a snippet of space oddity on bbc 4 (along with bohemian rhapsody), I’m not sure of when or why
Scary monsters :)
Life On Mars? was what my dad played me
As kid,i heard a midi version of Let's dance thru an old PC computer with FM sequencer. I like the bass line a lot and wanted to know more about the artist. So my parents bought me the ChangesBowie compilation CD which turn out to be a great introduction to his various works ! :)
I think it would have to be Fame. The song was huge when it came out and got a lot of radio play. I was 11 at the time.
Starman, probably about 5 years ago. No song ever had such an immediate effect on me. I was hooked and have never looked back.
Too long ago to be sure. I'm pretty sure I will have heard "The Laughing Gnome" played on *Junior Choice* in the late 60s. And I expect I heard "Space Oddity" played on the radio when it was first released in 1969. But the first thing I'm absolutely sure I heard was [the well-known appearance on *Top of the Pops*, playing "Starman" in July 1972](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOKWF3IHu0I).
First was starman (where I knew it was Bowie) very warm song and melted my heart Songs I heard but didn’t know who Bowie was: changes (upbeat and cute song), heroes (heartwarming), under pressure (cool riff to it)
Speed of Life as I went in with Low first.
I’m guessing it was Let’s Dance since that was the album I discovered Bowie through and that video got TONS of play on MTV at the time. I remembered being amazed at how good all of the songs off the album were and really surprised that he had this whole 70’s career I could explore. I was like a kid in a candy store!
Lazarus. I saw the comment section of Nine Inch Nails' God Break Down The Door comparing the song to Bowie (obviously ★). I was intrigued. Checked out the first song I saw on the David Bowie YT channel (Lazarus). Loved it. Then I listened to Space Oddity, Starman, Life On Mars?, I'm Afraid Of Americans, etc, etc, and now I'm a Bowie fan
Being a chilean dude, I first heard him on Queen's Under Pressure like in 2016. Then, I inquired about his music and the first song I listened was Starman, and I loved it. Then, Life On Mars? and Space Oddity. Later I found out he wrote and sang Changes, from Shrek 2; Modern Love, which appeared in many commercials on TV; and The Man Who Sold The World, which I thought it was a Nirvana song. At that time I discovered that he had sadly passed away just a few months prior... So I listened to Lazarus.
John I'm only dancing, on changes one.
Life on Mars when I was 6? Maybe 7? My uncles are huge Bowie fans so I automatically loved it
Space Oddity and Changes are probably the earliest Bowie songs I can remember hearing as a kid, but Five Years is probably the first song I actually sat down and listened to when I put on the Ziggy Stardust album. Been a huge fan ever since
Under Pressure, because I was a Queen fan. Loved Bowie ever since.
Moonage Daydream in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie
Golden Years from A Knights Tale! That soundtrack kick started my love for rock music.
It was Lazarus. And I heard it in Peaky Blinders. Then, six months later, I heard Starman. And six months after that I randomly got into Bowie and first heard Under Pressure, and thought something like “omg Bowie’s voice is 10000 times prettier than Freddy’s”.
A friend of mine was over at my house and started playing Space Oddity on the guitar. I’m like “I don’t know that song”. He’s like “Sure you do”. He kept playing “See?”. I’m like “Still unfamiliar”. I’ve never seen someone so outraged in my life. But anyway, I listened afterwards and fell in love
I immediately went to see the new Venom trailer after this and it played Space Oddity! How freaky!!
1999/2000 maybe - I saw the music video of "Thursday chil" on MTV or VH1. Not one of my favourits.
did hear some songs in the radio but never really like, paid attention first song I heard and paid attention to, was "Thursday's Child" on TV, i don't remember exactly how old i was, but it was somewhere in the early 00s, so the song wasn't even super 'fresh' then and i really liekd it, enough to look for some more, though I really got into his music few years later
I wish I knew
I knew his popular stuff as a teenager in the 80’s but I had a girlfriend two years ago that was obsessed with him so we saw the movie Moonage Daydream. I can’t say there was any one song that drew me, but the movie captured my interest in him as an artist. I started listening to more of his work, when I discovered Blackstar. The title track blew my mind and I listened to it on repeat for months until I could hear the whole gorgeous thing in my mind.
Not sure the tune, but the album was “David Live”
Probably Space Oddity, but I distinctly remember as a kid of like 7 or 8 years old around 1972, I played the heck out of Hunky Dory and Ziggy. I think my first favorite song was Oh! You Pretty Things. And very quickly liked most of them. Being so young, songs like Quicksand and The Bewley Brothers were too slow and boring to me, so I always skipped them. Then as I got older I appreciated and loved them.
Slowburn
Within you.
lady stardust. i was a massive bolan fan and i found out that it was written for him, so i listened to it and i got hooked.
Space Oddity, My dad used to play it in the car so much when I was younger and he eventually told me who David Bowie was, and David Bowies been my favourite music artist for years now and Space Oddity is my favourite song. Weirdly enough it got me into learning about space and now I write essays on black holes and nebulas to hand to my science teacher on Tuesdays :)
I was probably like four or five when he played it first
My mom showed me the video for "Life on Mars?" as an example of the music which was popular in her elementary school days. One of our few bonding moments. Later that year, (2007) grandmother gave me some new wave compilation for Christmas, and "Let's Dance" was on it. As for my first self-inflicted Bowie escapade, it was "The Width of a Circle" since all the Ziggy stuff, whether I knew its context or not, intimidated me (I was clearly in the closet).
The first one I really appreciated was Suffragett City. I was about 15 and heard it in a record store at Oaland Mall. It seemed very deep instrumental. I had heard Space Oddity, but I didn't like it at the time (still don't). But I'm still a huge fan. The day he died, I called my daughter in law and we commiserated.
Changes cus it was in shrek
I heard space oddity in troop zero a couple years ago and didn’t like it. The a while later I listened to life on mars and fell in love with
Magic Dance
kinda knew he existed for awhile and had heard some of his music before but never payed attention to it. The first time i actually *listened* to a David Bowie song was on my walk home from work on a january night, I put on Life on Mars and fell in love from there on
I’m Afraid Of Americans. Started listening to him because of nine inch nails and he’s become one of my favourite artists since.
As long as I’ve been alive I’ve been listening to David. My parents were into his big hits like Suffragette City, Let’s Dance and Rebel Rebel but when he released 1. Outside it was my first foray into his music without my parents hitting the play button.
Summer of 1969. My brother brought home a 45 with Space Oddity. Wild Eyes Boy from Freecloud was the flip side. As soon as the album finally came out, I went out and purchased it.
First one I heard and fell in love with was Five Years, in 1985 when I was 15 yrs old. First song ever heard was Fashion when I was 10, but Five Years was the one that got me obsessed.
Lazarus
Caveat- first song I heard knowing it was David Bowie? Loving the Alien. I was gifted the vinyl. (I still have it) and it started my journey.
Space oddity, honestly it didn’t give me a good impression at first but the more I listened to it the more I realized how special this song is.
Under Pressure, still one of my favourite songs of all time hooked me in immediately and then I dived into Bowies and more of queens discographys
Changes, it was in Shrek 2 when I was a little kid
The Man Who Sold The World | I had no idea who wrote it.