David Bowie “Fashion” 1980. 12″ single b/w “Scream Like a Baby,” both from the album Scary Monsters. “Fashion” reached #5 in the UK and #70 on the US charts.

After learning of Bowie’s death yesterday and ruminating on what caused my emotional reaction, I realized why it meant so much more than other musicians who have died recently. After seeing the diversity of people posting and commenting about him and what he meant, I decided it was vastness of his impact on the mass of creative culture over the span of about 50 years: obviously musicians and music lovers felt the loss deeply, but also fashion designers, visual artists, makeup artists, crafters and knitters, those in film and television – basically anyone with an impulse to express themselves. And he did it with cool grace, not pandering to the base mass of pop culture (but sometimes pop culture would follow him). His celebrity was carefully crafted through art, not slick marketing, publicity stunts or social media.

And then this morning, in a yoga class where it’s true that emotions can be peeled raw, the teacher played the re-released Changesonebowie during class and I again found myself in tears by the third chord of “Space Oddity.” I went beyond the empathetic sorrow for the loss to the creative world and into what Bowie’s death meant to me, personally. Without Bowie, some of my other favorite musicians and bands probably would not have been, or at least in the way that they did (i.e. Duran Duran: yesterday Nick Rhodes, in a tribute to Bowie, said “He is probably the single person who is responsible for being a musician, certainly Duran Duran existing”). Bowie, and bands influenced by him, were a pivotal connection point for me and my friends, bringing us together and shaping our lives together. My life is truly better for Bowie’s music having been in it.