History Music / BlackTieWhiteNoise

* SpiritualAntithesis: Bowie consciously designed the TitleTrack to be one for Music/PaulMcCartney and Music/StevieWonder's [[Music/TugOfWar "Ebony and Ivory"]]. While both tracks are anti-racism duets between popular Black and white artists wrapped in music metaphors, "Black Tie White Noise" is much gritter, both musically and lyrically. The song is written in a minor key rather than a major one, has a sound rooted strongly in HipHop and ContemporaryRAndB rather than traditional pop, and is more pragmatic than optimistic in its message, highlighting the violent struggle that inevitably litters the path to racial unity (having been penned in the wake of the LA Riots).

''Black Tie White Noise'' is the eighteenth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1993. His first solo album since ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' in 1987, it once again represented the start of a new phase in his career.

Prior to the release of this album, he met, and later married, the model Iman Abdulmajid. As a result, numerous songs on the album revolve around the pair's newlywed bliss at the time, interspersing these love songs with ones featuring more socially conscious and introspective material influenced by both his growing age (being 46 at the time of the album's release) and the Los Angeles Riots.

** "Don't Let Me Down & Down": Tahra Mint Hembara, a friend of Iman. Bowie discovered the song while browsing Iman's CD collection and decided to cover the track as a wedding gift to her.

* LighterAndSofter: In comparison to both ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' and the two Tin Machine studio albums, ''Black Tie White Noise'' is poppier and less dour in its subject matter (partly due to Bowie coming fresh off the heels of his wedding with Iman, partly due to being produced by [[Music/{{Chic}} Nile Rodgers]], who had previously produced ''Music/LetsDance''). That said, the TitleTrack and "Jump They Say" still demonstrate Bowie's willingness to cover less-than-optimistic topics in his work.

** The TitleTrack includes the phrase "what's going on?" as an allusion to the Music/MarvinGaye album/song [[Music/WhatsGoingOn of the same name]], thanks to both the Bowie song and the Gaye album featuring social commentary on race relations. It also references USA for Africa's 1985 charity single "We Are the World", with its own themes of unity.

** The TitleTrack includes the phrase "what's going on?" as an allusion to the Music/MarvinGaye album [[Music/WhatsGoingOn of the same name]], thanks to both the Bowie song and the Gaye album featuring social commentary on race relations.

The album marked a number of reunions between Bowie and collaborators who he hadn't worked with in years. [[Music/{{Chic}} Nile Rodgers]], who helped produced ''Music/LetsDance'', co-produces this album as well; meanwhile, Bowie's 1970-1973 guitarist Mick Ronson (who would later pass away from liver cancer that same year) and his 1973-1975 pianist Mike Garson (who'd reappear on most of Bowie's later albums) make guest appearances on one song each. Despite featuring the same producer as ''Let's Dance'' and a similarly slick, pop-friendly sound (not to mention coming out just in time for the [[MilestoneCelebration tenth anniversary]] of ''Let's Dance''), Bowie denied claims that the album was a third attempt at doing a follow-up to his 1983 megahit, stating that if they had intended to make a ''Let's Dance II'', they would've done so back when it was still relevant.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted; one of the musicians on the album is Lester Bowie, who is unrelated to David Bowie.

!! "Putting on the black tie, cranking out the white tropes":