Tony Defries was interviewed in 1972 by Rolling Stone journalist Timothy Ferris about David Bowie, who Defries began to manage right before the release and U.S. tour of Bowie’s breakout classic, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
“Bowie is setting a standard in rock & roll which other people are going to have to get to if they want to stay around in the Seventies,” said the self-assured manager. “I think most of the artists who are with us at the moment are Sixties artists, and Bowie, certainly to me, is going to be the major artist of the Seventies.”
If this thinking was applied to modern-day hip-hop, who is setting the standard for rap in this new decade? Who, on the contrary, won’t keep up with said standard? These are the questions that I’ve been asking myself.
The answer may lie in the way Defries described the soon-to-be rockstar under his management. “He is one person of many facets and many talents who can be and will be an industry on his own,” followed by, “I’ve always seen David as a building. I visualize him as a building. Something rather like the Pan Am building on Park Avenue.”
Tyler, The Creator came to mind as a suitable example of an artist as an industry. He built his Odd Future enterprise last decade and now it's moving toward becoming an empire. With music conquered, cinema will be his next conquest. He’s already been a television mainstay and received noteworthy attention for directing daring commercials and music videos. The right feature film will send him into another stratosphere of stardom.
Someone else that has the creative flexibility to be an industry of himself is Lil Nas X. In a short time, the Georgia-born genius has disrupted the entire record business with music videos and memes. He is a marketing mastermind who understands shock value and tasteful chaos. More than a one-hit-wonder, Lil Nas has the potential to usher in a new world order built on the back of tweets.
A counterpart to both The Creator and X is Doja Cat, another eclectic character of immense talent and electrifying personality. Doja has reached the point of completeness. Fully developed as a pop chameleon of musical styles and artistic vision. Her music videos forecast an actress-in-the-making. No ceiling is high enough to limit where she can climb following the release of Planet Her, Doja’s third studio album. The name itself speaks to the world she has built over the years.
What all three have in common is their ability to build worlds. I believe the 2020s will be the era of the world-builders. Artists who are able to construct more than songs but extensive experiences. That’s what Bowie produced as Ziggy Stardust, a character within a character; a world inside a world.
The stage is what allowed Ziggy Stardust to become a three-dimensional reality. Music isn’t enough, artists will need live performances to survive this current age of saturation. That’s what makes the 2020s so uncertain, when will touring return? Not just a few spot dates, but full on theatrical live shows? Because without them, David Bowie wouldn’t have been the rockstar of the Seventies.
Regardless, the decade has changed. It may not seem like it, but as I type, there’s artists who rolled over from the 2010s who are aging out. Fossils. They will slowly slip away into the foreground of our minds. Yesterday acts. Soon to be remembered in the past tense. Not because they aren’t good, but they aren’t current. Unable to keep up with the new standard.
If you have any guesses on who will be here and who won’t be, feel free to share. We’ll see who was right in 2030.
by Yoh