Book by UL academics examines 'complex' icon David Bowie

MARKING the first anniversary of David Bowie’s death, a new book by three University of Limerick academics has examined the rock icon’s work and its impact.

The paperback book of essays – David Bowie: Critical Perspectives – focusses on the legendary musician and performer and is edited by Professor Eoin Devereux, Dr Aileen Dillane and Dr Martin J Power.

It includes 18 essays on Bowie’s work as a singer, songwriter, performer, actor and artist and a preface, which examines fan responses to Bowie’s death on January 10, 2016.

It was launched at the 2017 Dublin David Bowie Festival on Monday by Undertones frontman and Today FM broadcaster Paul McLoone, while singer and actor Gavin Friday provides the book’s foreword.

“Bowie was truly an iconic figure. Our book examines in detail one of the most complex figures within the history of popular music. Being true to the subject matter of our book, it crosses a number of academic disciplines in attempting to unpack what David Bowie was all about,” said Dr Dillane.

David Bowie: Critical Perspectives contains essays by a range of international scholars on Bowie’s work including the noted Bowie biographer Dr David Buckley, Professor Shelton Waldrep and Dr Nick Stevenson.

Dr Power said the book “contains a wealth of new material”.

“It examines Bowie’s more recent recording work and it provides new details on the making of his 1980 ground-breaking video for the song Ashes to Ashes. The book will appeal to academics but will also be of interest to Bowie fans.”

The book emerged from the 2012 Strange Fascination? conference organised by the Popular Music and Popular Culture Research Cluster at UL.

David Bowie: Critical Perspectives is published by Routledge (New York) and available to order online from Routledge, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.