Balhorn: Way, way better than the Beatles

I am a complete and utter jerk when it comes to taste in music. More than likely, I think your favorite band is really bad. I can't help it, but I don't hold your music taste against you (it is quite subjective). Before I learned to keep my opinion to myself, I had a lot of conversations like this: "You had a great time at the Death Cab for Cutie concert two weeks ago? Wow. That's… unfortunate." To avoid arguments and hurt feelings, I tend to sidestep conversations about music in general.

That said, there is one mainstream artist whose brilliance and importance I think everyone should appreciate: David Bowie. Bowie is the kind of singer with whom most college students are vaguely familiar but don't really listen to regularly. This is really unfortunate, because to put things in plain English, David Bowie is totally awesome.

Bowie's greatness really becomes apparent when you compare him to other bands from his era. While Bowie was snorting cocaine and supposedly storing his urine in glass jars to protect himself from black magic, jam bands like the Grateful Dead were wearing tie-dye and inspiring legions of stoners to form drum circles. Based on my experience at a few Dillo Days, college culture in general would benefit greatly from less Jerry Garcia and more David Bowie.

White guys with shoulder-length hair can talk endlessly about the importance of the Beatles' "White Album" or how great the new Of Montreal/Built to Spill/Bloc Party/Wilco release is, but what about Bowie's "Low"? An album consisting of some of the catchiest pop-rock of the 1970s coupled with haunting, elaborate ambient music, years before ambient music was popular? Totally. Awesome.

Bowie remains such an exceptional artist because he never settled into a comfortable set of conventions. Even during some of the worst years of his career, his music was constantly exploring new musical territory and incorporating new concepts.

Compare this to the kinds of bands that grace NU students' Facebook profiles - scores of unremarkable emo and indie rock bands, whose self-conscious pretensions toward originality almost make the listener feel bad for them.

Elitist bashing of pop music aside, I will admit that Bowie has grown a bit rusty in recent years. A cynic could probably write off his artistic output after 1980 as commercial and uninspired. But to do this would be to ignore the occasional genius of albums like "Let's Dance" or the confident dad rock of "Heathen" and "Reality."

Northwestern, put some Bowie on your iPods. Because even if you do discount the last 25 years of Bowie's career, he's still got at least 10 or 11 really, really good albums to his name. What mediocre rock band of the week on Pitchfork can claim that?