ways_back_room | Questions for Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes muns

Hi!

I am taking a class on David Bowie (yeah, I know you're jealous), and I have successfully maneuvered myself into being able to write my final research paper on the use of his music in the LoM/A2A verse. I figured that people who RP in the verse would know more about it than I do right now, and so I turn to you for help for the research part of the paper.

What I am looking for: Information about how the shows use Bowie's music! Not just the title songs, but all the music. Interviews or other things I can put in a Works Cited would be best. If there are episode commentaries you think would be useful and you know how I can get hold of them (buying DVDs is right out, I just can't afford them and I don't even know if they're available in a format my DVD player can play anyway), that would also be awesome!

If you have thoughts yourself, or further questions I might explore, those are also welcome. I will credit you for your ideas if I use them!

If you are a mod who thinks this post should go away, that will happen too.

Thanks, guys. ♥

PS: Write, I am whooping with laughter at Gene and Angry Birds. WHOOPING.

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I am, by far, the new girl among the crew of awesome LoM/Ashes muns, so you'd probably be far better off with one of the others - particularly Write or Flynn, whom I know for a fact have put incredible thought into these details - but I'll be glad to help in any way that I can!

The symbolism in both series' soundtracks is something I noticed right off and have had several insightful discussions about over the past few months. The music was obviously picked very carefully, and plays a large part in telling the story.

Take a look at this page (http://tviv.org/Life_on_Mars/Music) for a list of what Bowie songs were used throughout LoM; Ashes to Ashes (http://tviv.org/Ashes_to_Ashes/Music) only used two Bowie songs - "Fame" and, obviously, "Ashes to Ashes." Additionally, advertisements and trailers used "Space Oddity" to promote LoM on the BBC.

Sadly, I have not seen any of the commentaries, so the others will have to let you know if there's anything interesting therein that might aid your paper. I know the music has come up in a handful of articles and interviews I've read, but I will have to search through my notes tomorrow (if I get a chance) or Sunday to get you links. But, if you can catch me on AIM, feel free to ask any questions or favors you like! IM: LordoLorien

I am also always reachable by e-mail or PM.

In sum: OMG, a class on David Bowie? I think my brain just exploded.

Yesss those lists. They don't look quite complete, but they're an awesome start for finding eps I'll need to rewatch. I'm on vacation this week, but that's still not enough time to plow my way through every ep of every series! I think it took me about three weeks to do it over the summer, and I was completely braindead by the end.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the music - my theory, after becoming more familiar with Bowie's music this semester, is the the world of the shows is defined by his music. For example, I've had this thing for months where I've thought that "Under Pressure" is a near-perfect summation of the little universe in the show, and the more I've learned about his work the less I think that's just me inventing connections.

I plan to go trawling through the source links at Wikipedia and suchlike, too, but I thought you guys would know even better places to look. Whenever you can look for those links is fine. The paper (and presentation of it, ha, can't wait to show clips) isn't due for another several weeks; I'm just using vacation to get the most time-consuming part of the research taken care of.

BEST CLASS EVER!

OK. So, I have very little brain just now due to illness, so I can't recall specifics of the DVD commentaries though I know there were things mentioned. An excuse to watch them again is A-OK with me!

I know there are articles where the writers talk about things like this - I will dig them out for you. :)

PS: Angry Birds was the bane of my life this week. I had to make Gene share the pain. *grin*

♥ That would be fab, thanks. I know I saw mention somewhere of one of the creators saying they didn't know what they would have done if they couldn't get the rights to "Life on Mars?", which is pretty much what kicked off my whole thesis. The shows are like a microcosm of how Bowie has influenced pop culture over the years - without his music, they would be very different, if they existed at all.

I'm sure I can find that bit through source links in Wikipedia or something, but it's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

I love that I get to take this class. My college is so freaking cool sometimes. :D

I shudder to even mention it, but if you're short on content you might consider looking at the American Life On Mars series as well. IIRC each episode's title is a song from that era—though not all necessarily Bowie—and they generally find a way to ham-fistedly make the plot mesh with the title or lyrics of the song.

God what an awful show.

~~I WON'T WATCH IT AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME~~ um, I mean. It might fit in with my thesis in an interesting manner, but I am pretty sure I can hit the minimum ten-page requirement without being reduced to discussing effing spaceships or whatever it was that ridiculous finale did.

I didn't know about the song title thing, though, thanks for pointing it out. It could well at least merit a passing mention.

I'm pretty sure one episode's called "Everyone knows it's Windy" and Windy is… the name of Sam's neighbour. Yup.

WHAT I WANT TO BE IN THIS CLASS.

... I'm sorry I can't contribute anything intelligent to the actual question because I have never seen these shows.

It is the best class.

Apparently Bowie fans are giant snobs about Labyrinth, though! My prof makes the best faces whenever it comes up. I was specifically forbidden to write anything about it, presumably because then he'd have to actually watch it. I've taken several classes with him, though, and he usually lets me write pretty much what I want, so I've forgiven him. *g*

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