Aretha Franklin vs David Bowie
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Aretha Franklin | David Bowie | |
| Field | Music | Film |
| Sub-field | Rock | Actor |
| Born | 1942 | 1947 |
| Died | 2018 | 2016 |
| Country of birth | United States | United Kingdom |
| Star sign | Aries | Capricorn |
Who they are
Aretha Franklin
There are voices, and then there is Aretha Franklin. Born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Aretha Louise Franklin possessed something that cannot be taught, manufactured, or replicated — a raw, torrential instrument that transformed every room it entered. By the time she was twelve years old, singing in her father's New Bethel Baptist Church, gospel insiders already whispered that they were witnessing something singular. By the time she was twenty-five, the entire world had no choice but to agree.
Full biography of Aretha Franklin →
David Bowie
On June 6, 1972, a twenty-four-year-old Brixton-born musician named David Robert Jones — performing under the name David Bowie, inhabiting a character he had named Ziggy Stardust — appeared on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops to perform "Starman," draped his arm around his guitarist Mick Ronson's shoulders in a gesture that was, for British television in 1972, practically avant-garde, and stared directly into the camera. The performance reached approximately fifteen million viewers. Within a week, the Ziggy Stardust album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was…
Full biography of David Bowie →
What they share
- Near contemporaries - 5 years apart.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Different fields: Music for Aretha Franklin, Film for David Bowie.
- Born in different countries: United States and United Kingdom.
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Aretha Franklin or David Bowie?
- Aretha Franklin. Aretha Franklin was born in 1942, David Bowie in 1947.
- What field is each of them in?
- Aretha Franklin is filed under Music (Rock). David Bowie is filed under Film (Actor).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.