Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie

by Leah Kardos

Blackstar Theory takes a close look at David Bowie's ambitious last his surprise 'comeback' project The Next Day (2013), the off-Broadway musical Lazarus (2015) and the album that preceded the artist's death in 2016 by two days, Blackstar. The book explores the swirl of themes that orbit and entangle these projects from a starting point in musical analysis and features new interviews with key collaborators from the producer Tony Visconti, graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook, musical director Henry Hey, saxophonist Donny McCaslin and assistant sound engineer Erin Tonkon.

These works tackle the biggest of identity, creativity, chaos, transience and immortality. They enact a process of individuation for the Bowie meta-persona and invite us to consider what happens when a star dies. In our universe, dying stars do not disappear - they transform into new stellar objects, remnants and gravitational forces. The radical potential of the Blackstar is demonstrated in the rock star supernova that creates a singularity resulting in cultural iconicity. It is how a man approaching his own death can create art that illuminates the immortal potential of all matter in the known universe.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

265 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 16, 2021

About the author

Leah Kardos is a senior lecturer in music at Kingston University London, UK, where she co-founded the Visconti Studio with music producer Tony Visconti. She specialises in the areas of record production, pop aesthetics, and exploring interdisciplinary approaches to creative practice. Critical and musicological study of the work of David Bowie is an area of special interest. In 2019 she started the Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra, the only ensemble of its kind in the world. Leah also writes music criticism and book reviews for The Wire.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read for Bowie fans. It's a wonderfully written, deeply researched look at Bowie's last chapter of work (The Next Day, Lazarus, Blackstar, and related EPs and singles). Leah Kardos combines critical/textual analysis and music theory to place Bowie's late-period output in the context of his entire career as well as the wealth of artistic, literary, musical, and philosophical works that influenced him.

This is easily one of the best music books I've read in years. Well done, Leah.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing I love more than thinking too much about the last Bowie album so this book was bliss.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely outstanding. My - so far - book of the year. It is the best of cultural studies. The best of popular cultural studies. The best of popular music studies.

It offers resonance for scholars in death studies and also popular memory studies.

Taking Bowie's 'late work,' Kardos is able to match high theory and granular tonality, fandom and post-fandom, memory and death. Yes, there are track-by-track analyses, and they are strong. But it is the sweep - the ambition - the scope - of the book that renders it powerful.

This is a book of courage. Of gumption. In tough times, this book reminds us how the humanities can shift our mind furniture. Love. Life. Death. Music. Four words of power, that empower this book.

[Claes-Fredrik Helgesson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blackstar Theory centres on “the interconnected webs of meaning that are observable in the work” (xiv) rather than on the private life of the artist. Well held together and a highly rewarding read (without giving everything away).

[Douglas Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, very interesting take on Bowie's last works. There's a 3 part podcast with Leah and Donny McCaskin talking about Blackstar on https://pca.st/podcast/3b6b6ff0-0072-...

[Paul Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound yet very readable. Recommended for any Bowie fan.

[Robbie Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous. An analysis of the latter 3 big works by Bowie which comes off as respectful, thoughtful, and non-pretentious in the least. Merits rereads.

[sheenewood68 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the David Bowie / Dennis Potter connections and think Kardos is indisputably correct on that

[Matti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarkkakatseinen sukellus Bowien uran (ja elämän) loppusuoraan. Hyvää tekstiä, kiehtovia pohdintoja, jännittävää Bowien taiteen kontekstualisointia suhteessa elämään, maailmankaikkeuteen ja kaikkeen.