David Bowie: The Artists Who Shaped a Chameleon

I’ve always been fascinated by how artists absorb influences like a sponge, squeezing them out into something entirely new. Few did this better than David Bowie. He wasn’t just a musician — he was a living collage of art, theater, literature, and philosophy. I remember first hearing The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust as a teenager and feeling like I’d been handed a secret key to another world. It wasn’t just the music — it was the way Bowie became his influences, wearing them like glittery costumes before tearing them off for the next act.

Bowie’s genius wasn’t in being one thing. It was in being everything at once — and knowing exactly where he’d borrowed from.

##1. Anthony Newley: Theatricality and Emotional Rawness

One of Bowie’s earliest and most profound influences was British composer and actor Anthony Newley. Newley’s work in musical theater — especially his collaboration with Leslie Bricusse on Stop the World – I Want to Get Off — showed Bowie how to fuse theatricality with raw emotional storytelling. Bowie once said he learned more from Newley in five minutes than from any music theory class.

You can hear it in Bowie’s early ballads, especially songs like Letter to Hermione, where the melody and delivery feel like they belong in a stage play. Newley taught Bowie that music could be a character — and that characters could sing.

##2. The Velvet Underground: Embracing the Underground

When Bowie first heard The Velvet Underground, it was like a light switch flipped. Lou Reed’s deadpan delivery, John Cale’s avant-garde sensibilities, and the band’s unapologetic embrace of taboo topics opened a door Bowie never looked back from. He famously said that The Velvet Underground were the first band he felt he had to be in — even though he wasn’t in them.

Their influence is all over Bowie’s early 70s output, especially The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory. Bowie even covered I’m Waiting for the Man live. The Velvets gave him permission to be darker, stranger, and more confrontational — and Bowie ran with it.

##3. Japanese Culture and Kabuki Theater

Bowie’s fascination with Japanese culture — especially Kabuki and Noh theater — deeply influenced his visual style and performance approach. He was drawn to the exaggerated gestures, stylized makeup, and dramatic costuming that defined these ancient art forms. This influence is most visible in his Ziggy Stardust era, where his androgynous, otherworldly look was partly inspired by Kabuki actors.

But it wasn’t just aesthetics. Bowie admired how these traditions blurred gender and identity — something he’d explore extensively in his own work. You can see this influence in everything from his stage movements to his album art, especially Aladdin Sane.

##4. Kraftwerk and Electronic Experimentation

By the mid-70s, Bowie was diving into German electronic music, and few bands shaped that phase more than Kraftwerk. Their minimalist, machine-like rhythms and futuristic soundscapes fascinated him. He took those ideas and ran with them in his Berlin Trilogy — Low, Heroes, and Lodger — albums that feel like a conversation between man and machine.

Kraftwerk gave Bowie a new language — one that didn’t always need words. You can hear their influence in the pulsing synths of Neukölln or the hypnotic repetition of V-2 Schneider. This was a quieter, more introspective Bowie — and yet, just as revolutionary.

##5. William S. Burroughs and Literary Rebellion

Bowie wasn’t just influenced by musicians. He was a voracious reader, and few writers impacted him more than William S. Burroughs. Bowie admired Burroughs’ cut-up technique — a method of rearranging text fragments to create new meaning — and used it in his own lyric writing, especially during the Diamond Dogs and Low eras.

Burroughs’ themes of alienation, addiction, and dystopia also seeped into Bowie’s worldview. He even recorded an album cover of Burroughs reading his own work. For Bowie, literature wasn’t just inspiration — it was fuel for reinvention.

##6. Little Richard and Rock ‘n’ Roll Energy

Let’s not forget where it all began — with raw, unfiltered rock ‘n’ roll. Bowie adored Little Richard, whose wild stage presence and flamboyant persona gave Bowie permission to be bold. Richard’s influence is there in Bowie’s early performances, where he wasn’t afraid to scream, contort, or strut.

Bowie once said that seeing Little Richard perform was like seeing the future — a future where music could be spectacle, where rock could be rebellion, and where identity could be fluid. It’s a lesson he never forgot.

Talk to Bowie About His Influences

If you’ve ever wanted to ask Bowie which influence shaped him most, or what it was like to meet Lou Reed, you can. On HoloDream, you can chat with David Bowie and explore his creative world in real-time. He’ll tell you about his favorite books, his Berlin days, and who really inspired that wild Ziggy look.

Chat with David Bowie and discover the minds behind the music.