Even at 66 years of age, David Bowie is the paragon of cool – not that his ever credentials were ever really in doubt.
Need proof? (You know, aside from changing the face of the cultural landscape several times over), well the man of many musical monikers has just been bestowed with two unique accolades following in the wake of The Next Day, his first album in a decade.
Following on from giving the world a peek into his personal library and reading habits with his essential book list, the famously fashionable musician has topped a poll to become the ‘Best-Dressed Briton Ever’.
Bowie comfortably dominated the BBC History Magazine poll, claiming 48.5% of the 4,067 votes from a pool of 10 snappy dressers named by fashion experts and leading academics, with the muso making the cut for his wide range of influential wardrobe choices from Ziggy Stardust and Earthling, some of which feature in the globetrotting V&A Exhibition David Bowie Is exhibition. (And who could forget his unique look as Jareth The Goblin King in Labyrinth?)
The music legend beat out British aristocracy (including two queens, a king, and a duchess), and historical figures like Whig politician Charles James Fox and stage actress Ellen Terry to the fashion throne, fitting given that he gave the style world its unofficial anthem ‘Fashion’ in 1980.
“Bowie has profoundly influenced so many of us,” says designer Wayne Hemingway, who first put the forward-thinking musician up for the Best-Dressed Briton Ever gong. “Here was a creative genius who understood art and design, looked cool, inspired us and upset the establishment. All these attributes lead to things that drive humankind forward… change”
As if reigning supreme as fashion vogue among the trend-setters wasn’t enough, Bowie has also been named one of the hippest artists of the year as the top-selling artist of 2013 so far among the UK’s independent record stores.
The stat comes via The Official Record Store Chart showing that The Next Day – already named as one of the year’s highest selling vinyl releases – is now recognised as the highest-selling release of the year in the UK’s independent shops, as NME reports. The annual chart, which was officially launched as part of last year’s Record Store Day, is compiled of sales of albums from approximately 100 independent music retailers across Great Britain.
Fans clamouring to grab The Next Day, which was made in secret over two years before its release this past January, have pushed independent record store sales of Bowie’s 24th studio album ahead of the year’s blockbuster releases like Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories (the year’s second highest selling), as well as Nick Cave & The Bad Seed’s ARIA nominated Push The Sky Away, forthcoming Nine Inch Nails Australian co-headliners Queens Of The Stone Age (at #3 with Like Clockwork…) as well as releases from Arctic Monkeys, the National, Boards Of Canada, and more.
Bowie’s superior sales are only set to continue with the forthcoming deluxe edition of The Next Day; a three-disc set that compiles the original album with new material (presumably the leftover sessions that were being touted as a new Bowie album earlier this year) as well as a host of remixes, as Consequence Of Sound reports.
The new mixes also includes James ‘LCD Soundsystem’ Murphy’s intense, 10-minute Bowie reconstruction, ‘Love Is Lost’ (as featured in Tone Deaf’s ReMixtape), the former DFA Records linchpin given access to Bowie’s archives following working with the icon whilst recording in New York with Arcade Fire on their new album, Reflektor.
The Top-Selling Releases Of 2013 So Far In UK Indie Record Stores
according Official Record Store Chart 2013 year-to-date (January to September) via NME
1. David Bowie ‘The Next Day’
2. Daft Punk ‘Random Access Memories’
3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ‘Push The Sky Away’
4. Queens Of The Stone Age ‘Like Clockwork’
5. Arctic Monkeys ‘AM’
6. The National ‘Trouble Will Find Me’
7. Boards Of Canada ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’
8. Vampire Weekend ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’
9. Savages ‘Silence Yourself’
10. Mumford & Sons ‘Babel’
11. Jake Bugg ‘Jake Bugg’
12. Emeli Sande ‘Our Version Of Events’
13. John Grant ‘Pale Green Ghosts’
14. Atoms For Peace ‘AMOK’
15. Kurt Vile ‘Walkin’ On A Pretty Daze’
16. Rod Stewart ‘Time’
17. Black Sabbath ’13’
18. Foals ‘Holy Fire’
19. Johnny Cash ‘The Classics’
20. Public Service Broadcasting ‘Inform Educate Entertain’
