David Bowie vs Dmitri Shostakovich
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| David Bowie | Dmitri Shostakovich | |
| Field | Film | Music |
| Sub-field | Actor | Composer |
| Born | 1947 | 1906 |
| Died | 2016 | 1975 |
| Country of birth | United Kingdom | Russia |
| Star sign | Capricorn | Libra |
Who they are
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 →
Dmitri Shostakovich
In January 1936, Josef Stalin attended a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Bolshoi Theatre and left before the final act. Two days later, Pravda published an unsigned editorial — almost certainly authorized at the highest level — titled "Muddle Instead of Music." The article attacked the opera as "formalist" and "bourgeois," its dissonances described as deliberate assaults on Soviet socialist culture. Shostakovich was twenty-nine years old, the most celebrated composer in the Soviet Union, and now suddenly in danger. He had a new symphony nearly finished —…
Full biography of Dmitri Shostakovich →
What they share
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Different fields: Film for David Bowie, Music for Dmitri Shostakovich.
- Born in different countries: United Kingdom and Russia.
- 41 years separate their births (1947 and 1906).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, David Bowie or Dmitri Shostakovich?
- Dmitri Shostakovich. David Bowie was born in 1947, Dmitri Shostakovich in 1906.
- What field is each of them in?
- David Bowie is filed under Film (Actor). Dmitri Shostakovich is filed under Music (Composer).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.