Bowie: the creative force who changed Britain (original) (raw)

And in remaining a thoughtful guide to my generation, he continues to inspire my children and their peers. The crowds gathered around the shrine that has appeared close to his former home in Brixton include many who are in their teens and early 20s.

He was a self-publicist with a gift for reinvention, of course. That's how you survive in an industry that worships the new. But he was also socially relevant - pushing at the boundaries of acceptability and taste, challenging conformity and orthodoxy.

His questioning of sexual norms, his satire of superficiality, his obsessive search for originality in a digital copy-and-paste world - these are vital ideas that have shaped modern Britain.

Britain has become far more tolerant of difference. And David Bowie helped us reach that place. Could Eddie izzard or Grayson Perry or Boy George have thrived without him? I doubt it.

Would gay rights, gender equality legislation or same-sex marriage have enjoyed the broad support they do today without Bowie's androgynous challenge all those years ago? I suspect not. He gave space to oddity… and made it cool.