David Bowie Ziggy Stardust: First Sex Ambiguous British Pop Star?

Fact: David Bowie declared his bisexuality in 1972, making him the first sexually ambiguous British pop star.

David Robert Jones (aka David Bowie) was a British pop star and songwriter, record producer, painter, and actor. He is a popular musical figure and sex symbol for the past 5 decades, and is widely considered by critics as an innovator for his accumulated work in the 1970s. Most of David Bowie most popular songs are Let’s Dance (1983), Ashes to Ashes (1980), Under Pressure (1981), Space Oddity, Starman, Major Tom, and many others.

While society has become much more relaxed about male homosexuality, or bisexuality in recent years, it was fraught with ridicule, and even a career destroyer. David Bowie helped to change this. Today, homosexual or bisexual artists can have a successful career without having to hide their sexuality, and rightly so. This is in partly because of David Bowie. He will always be remembered for some of his most beloved songs and cool and calm demeanor. He was a trend setter. One of the more speculative actions that occurred during the 1970s was David Bowie’s bisexuality (Ziggy Stardust), which left a massive imprint on the world, whether intentional or not. In 1972, Bowie became the first sexually ambiguous British pop star (even before the likes of Freddie Mercury and Elton John), and only five years since male homosexuality had become decriminalized in the UK. His calculated draping of his arm, during the 1972 singing of ‘Starman,’ around his guitarist Mick Ronson was seen as the most important ‘Gay Parade’ that ever happened in the UK.

The persona David used to manifest his bisexual behavior was an individual by the name of Ziggy Stardust. The making of the David Bowie Ziggy Stardust album was quite the undertaking, where Bowie explained how ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spider From Mars’ album came to fruition. He stated that Ziggy was based on a tragic British musician he met in Paris in the mid -60s called Vince Taylor. Taylor followed The Rolling Stones in 1964 before losing his mind to dropping too much acid. While the germ of the ‘Spiders from Mars’ came from Bowie’s first trip to America in Jan. 1971. He experiences America’s musical gangs and wanted a similar band version of Iggy & The Stooges.

Over the years David Bowie was active, his mind changed on the topic of his sexuality. He told Melody Maker in 1972 that he was gay. In 1976, he told Playboy he was bisexual, saying he used “that fact very well.” Later, Bowie stated to Rolling Stone that “I didn’t ever feel I was a real bisexual.” Additionally, he told them that he had made the entire story up to create more mystery about himself. He stated that the irony of Ziggy Stardust “was that I was not gay. I was physically about it, but frankly, it wasn’t enjoyable.” This whole period of his life came to an end he states in 1974 with Ziggy.