Bowie's 2002 Predictions Eerily Close

I remember reading this article back in 2002, when my first spat of “I love David Bowie” was culminating in the bewilderingly exciting fact of Heathen being released. In it, as brief summary, Bowie basically proves he’s Paul Atreides and predicts what the 2012 music industry will be like. Which is fine, except he’s right on the money.

“Music itself is going to become like water or electricity.” A poetic way to describe what actually happen. Even the part about copyright not existing, while not exactly true, still gets the direction down. In music especially, in a download/mashup/mixtape culture, how does copyright figure into it? How would Girl Talk exist if copyright actually applied to music anymore?

The sad thing, retroactively inherent in anything Bowie said in the early 00s, is that he didn’t stick around to enter the conversation. I mean, basically was an ‘internet savvy artist’ in like, what,  1999? Way too early. Ahead of the curve. Like always. 

Notes

  1. circlingskeleton posted this