History Music / BlackstarAlbum

"[[AlbumTitleDrop I'm a Blackstar!]] I'm a Blackstar!"''

''★'' (pronounced ''Blackstar'') is the twenty-sixth and final studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released on January 8th, 2016 (Bowie's 69th birthday), two days before his death.

The album reflects a somewhat new sound for Bowie, being influenced by [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] {{jazz}}, ProgressiveRock, hip-hop acts such as Music/DeathGrips and Music/KendrickLamar, and electronic acts such as Music/BoardsOfCanada. Having been diagnosed with liver cancer in 2014, Bowie dedicated the album to exploring his [[ApocalypticLog newfound awareness of his mortality, not knowing whether or not he'd survive his battle and preparing for the possibility of him having to die]]. Indeed, Bowie's fears would turn out correct; while shooting the music video for "Lazarus", he was informed that his cancer had become terminal. He would die on January 10, 2016, just two days after the album's release.

-"[[AlbumTitleDrop I'm a Blackstar!]] I'm a Blackstar!"''

The album reflects a somewhat new sound for Bowie, being influenced by [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] {{jazz}}, ProgressiveRock, hip-hop acts such as Music/DeathGrips and Music/KendrickLamar, and electronic acts such as Music/BoardsOfCanada. Having been diagnosed with liver cancer in 2014, Bowie dedicated the album to exploring his [[ApocalypticLog newfound awareness of his mortality, not knowing whether or not he'd survive his battle and preparing for the possibility of him having to leave this mortal coil]]. Indeed, Bowie's fears would turn out correct; while shooting the music video for "Lazarus", he was informed that his cancer had become terminal. He would die on January 10, 2016, just two days after the album's release.

->''Something happened on the day he died''
->''Spirit rose a meter then stepped aside''
->''Somebody else took his place and bravely cried:''
->''"[[AlbumTitleDrop I'm a Blackstar!]] I'm a Blackstar!"''

''★'' (pronounced ''Blackstar'') is the twenty-sixth and final studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released on January 8th, 2016 (Bowie's 69th birthday).

* GenreMashup: Jazz fusion, progressive rock, krautrock, modern electronic music, hard rock, avant garde and Bowie's famed art rock and glam rock sounds thrown in a blender. Bowie also cited experimental hip hop artists like Music/DeathGrips and Music/KendrickLamar as influences, and it shows in some of the beats. He also cited the Music/{{Metallica}} and Music/LouReed collaboration ''Lulu'' as an influence. They do happen to share similar lyrical themes, likely because both Reed and Bowie were at death's door.

* NewSoundAlbum: Jazz fusion, with influence from AvantGardeMusic, HipHop, {{Krautrock}}, ProgressiveRock, ElectronicMusic, and several other styles. Some of these were styles Bowie had explored before, but some were entirely new to his oeuvre.

* AlternateAlbumCover: The CD and digital releases of ''Music/BlackstarAlbum'' depict the titular black star against a white backdrop, with "BOWIE" written at the bottom in star fragments. The LP release, meanwhile, changes the background to black, spot-varnishes the "BOWIE" logo, and uses a die-cut hole for the star, exposing the record (protected by a transparent plastic inner sleeve) underneath. Removing the record and holding the open gatefold outer sleeve to the light also reveals a humanoid constellation in a field of stars under the star-shaped hole.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" is a reference to a 17th century drama by John Ford ([[NamesTheSame not]] [[Creator/JohnFord that one]]) entitled ''Theatre/TisPityShesAWhore'', which is infamous for featuring transgressive themes such as BrotherSisterIncest.

* CallBack: The harmonica on the closing track "I Can't Give Everything Away" plays the same tune as the harmonica on "A New Career in a New Town" from Bowie's 1977 album ''Music/{{Low|DavidBowieAlbum}}''; fans have also cited similarities to "Music/NeverLetMeDown", "[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Soul Love]]", and "[[Music/{{Hours}} Thursday's Child]]". The music also becomes more reminiscent of Bowie's old styles towards the end of the album.

* ExplicitContent: This is Bowie's only album to be given a sticker for such, owed to the ClusterFBomb lyrics on "Girl Loves Me".

* LongestSongGoesLast: Inverted. The title song runs for nearly 10 minutes, but it's the opening of the album.

* GenreMashup: Jazz fusion, progressive rock, krautrock, modern electronic music, hard rock, avant garde and Bowie's famed art rock and glam rock sounds thrown in a blender.
** Bowie also cited experimental hip hop artists like Music/DeathGrips and Music/KendrickLamar as influences, and it shows in some of the beats.
** He also cited the Music/{{Metallica}} and Music/LouReed collaboration ''Lulu'' as an influence. They do happen to share similar lyrical themes, likely because both Reed and Bowie were at death's door.

** Lazarus is a very bittersweet song and is written normally, until Bowie drops "I was looking for yo' ass" out of nowhere.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Jazz fusion, progressive rock, krautrock, modern electronic music, hard rock, avant garde and Bowie's famed art rock and glam rock sounds thrown in a blender.
** Bowie also cited experimental hip hop artists like Music/DeathGrips and Music/KendrickLamar as influences, and it shows in some of the beats.
** He also cited the Music/{{Metallica}} and Music/LouReed collaboration ''Lulu'' as an influence. They do happen to share similar lyrical themes, likely because both Reed and Bowie were at death's door.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Bowie wanted to create an album that was a departure from his previous release, ''Music/TheNextDay'', leading to him ditching his band and instead hiring jazz musicians to play rock music. While still rooted in his trademark brand of theatrical art rock, the results nonetheless stood far from any of Bowie's previous efforts.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Bowie wanted to create an album that was a departure from his previous release, ''Music/TheNextDay'', leading to him ditching his band and instead hiring jazz musicians to play rock music.

* MindScrew: The song ''★'' which doesn't so much sound like the singer's having a mental breakdown as that he's already insane to begin with. Not to mention many of the lines in the song is full of bizarre symbolism.

** "Girl Loves Me" features lines sung in "Nadsat", the language from ''Literature/AClockWorkOrange'', one of Bowie's favorite novels. Some of the slang words used in the track are also adopted from TheSeventies gay subculture, while others are [[PerfectlyCromulentWord of Bowie's own invention]].

* CallBack: The harmonica on the closing track "I Can't Give Everything Away" plays the same tune as the harmonica on "A New Career in a New Town" from Bowie's 1977 album ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum''; fans have also cited similarities to "Music/NeverLetMeDown", "[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Soul Love]]", and "[[Music/{{Hours}} Thursday's Child]]". The music also becomes more reminiscent of Bowie's old styles towards the end of the album.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong[=/=]SiameseTwinSongs: The drum beat from "I Can't Give Everything Away" starts towards the end of "Dollar Days" before the latter song finishes fading away, in something of an example of a song transition that could be considered halfway between these two tropes.

The record was also a commercial success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in its first week of release and making Bowie the highest-selling vinyl artist of the year. Debuting at No. 1 in both the US and UK and topping the charts in 22 other countries (plus Scotland), it marked Bowie's first album to top the Billboard 200, additionally topping Billboard's Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, and Top Tastemaker Albums charts[[note]]for those curious about the exact list of countries where it topped the charts, in addition to the US, UK, and Scotland, it also was a chart-topper in Australia, Austria, Belgium (on both the Ultratop Flanders and Ultratop Wallonia charts), Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland[[/note]]. ''★'' would go on to become the 5th best-selling album of 2016 in the world, later being certified double-platinum in the Netherlands, platinum in the UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland, and gold in the US, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

The album reflects a somewhat new sound for Bowie, being influenced by [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] {{jazz}}, ProgressiveRock, hip-hop acts such as Music/DeathGrips and Music/KendrickLamar, and electronic acts such as Music/BoardsOfCanada. Having been diagnosed with liver cancer in 2014, Bowie dedicated the album to exploring his [[ApocalypticLog newfound awareness of his mortality, not knowing whether or not he'd survive his battle and preparing for the possibility of him having to leave this mortal coil]].

Indeed, Bowie's fears would turn out correct; while shooting the music video for "Lazarus", he was informed that his cancer had become terminal. He would die on January 10, 2016, just two days after the album's release, [[EndOfAnAge putting an end to one of the longest and most important careers of any solo artist in the western music canon]].

Already strongly received upon its release, the album became even more rapturously received after the singer's death, which made evident additional layers of meaning as people became increasingly aware of the context behind the album's creation. The record was also a significant commercial success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in its first week of release and making Bowie the highest-selling vinyl artist of the year. Debuting at No. 1 in both the US and UK and topping the charts in 22 other countries (plus Scotland), it marked Bowie's first album to top the Billboard 200, additionally topping Billboard's Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, and Top Tastemaker Albums charts[[note]]for those curious about the exact list of countries where it topped the charts, in addition to the US, UK, and Scotland, it also was a chart-topper in Australia, Austria, Belgium (on both the Ultratop Flanders and Ultratop Wallonia charts), Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland[[/note]]. ''★'' would go on to become the 5th best-selling album of 2016 in the world, later being certified double-platinum in the Netherlands, platinum in the UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland, and gold in the US, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

Since its release, ''★''[='s=] acclaim has only continued to grow and galvanize: ''The A.V. Club'', ''Mojo'', ''Newsweek'', ''Paste'', ''Q'', ''Uncut'', ''The Village Voice'', ''The Wire'', and ''Magazine/RollingStone''[='s=] readers' poll would all rank it as the best album of 2016. Bowie would be posthumously awarded the 2017 Grammy Awards for "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Recording Package", his first competitive Grammies since [[Music/{{Tonight}} 1985]] and his first Grammies overall since winning the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. On review aggregator site ''Rate Your Music'', ''★'' is ranked as the second-highest-rated album of 2016, the sixth-highest-rated album of the 2010's, and the 88th highest-rated album of all time. As of 2020, it sits at No. 72 on ''WebSite/AcclaimedMusic''[='s=] [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums dynamic list]] of the 3000 most critically lauded albums of all time (as well as the 4th most acclaimed album of the entire 2010's). Lastly, among Bowie fans, it's widely considered both one of the artist's best albums and the perfect GrandFinale for his life and career.

!!Seeing more but troping less; saying no but meaning yes; this is all I ever meant; that's the message that I sent:

-> You're a flash in the pan (I'm not a marvel star)
-> I'm the great I Am (I'm a blackstar)
* BittersweetEnding: "I Can't Give Everything Away" is this to the album as well as David Bowie's career as a whole. He was eaten away by liver cancer, not knowing what his fate would be while recording ''★'', and died of the disease shortly after the album's release, but was still able to end things off with one hell of a bang. This is most heavily embodied by the closing track, "I Can't Give Everything Away"; Jonathan Barnbrook, who directed the song's music video, had this to say in regards to it:

[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[SwanSong Look up here, I'm in heaven.]]"'']]

->''"Something happened on the day he died''

->'''[[AlbumTitleDrop I'm a Blackstar!]] I'm a Blackstar!'"''

''★'' (pronounced ''Blackstar'') is the twenty-sixth and final studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released on January 8th, 2016 (Bowie's 69th birthday). The album reflects a somewhat new sound for Bowie, being influenced by [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] {{jazz}}, ProgressiveRock, experimental hip-hop acts such as Music/DeathGrips and Music/KendrickLamar, and electronic acts such as Music/BoardsOfCanada. Having been diagnosed with liver cancer in 2014, Bowie dedicated the album to exploring his [[ApocalypticLog newfound awareness of his mortality, not knowing whether or not he'd survive his battle and preparing for the possibility of him having to leave this mortal coil]].

Indeed, Bowie's fears would turn out correct; while shooting the music video for "Lazarus", Bowie was informed that his cancer had become terminal. He would die on January 10, 2016, just two days after the album's release, [[EndOfAnAge putting an end to one of the longest and most important careers of any solo artist in the western music canon]].

Indeed, Bowie's fears would turn out correct; while shooting the music video for "Lazarus", Bowie was informed that his cancer had become terminal. He would die on January 10, 2016, just two days after the album's release.

Not to be confused with the hip-hop duo consisting of Mos Def and Talib Kweli (the album's title is one word; the hip-hop duo's is two) or the fictional character [[Manga/SoulEater Black★Star]].

Indeed, Bowie's fears would turn out correct; while shooting the music video for "Lazarus", Bowie was informed that his cancer had become terminal. He would die on January 10, 2016, just two days after the album's release, [[EndOfAnAge putting an end to one of the longest and most important careers of any solo artist in the western music canon]].

Already strongly received upon its release, the album became even more rapturously received after the singer's death, which made evident additional layers of meaning as people became increasingly aware of the context behind the album's creation. The record was also a significant commercial success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in its first week of release and making Bowie the highest-selling vinyl artist of the year. Debuting at No. 1 in both the US and UK and topping the charts in 22 other countries (plus Scotland), it marked Bowie's first album to top the Billboard 200, additionally topping Billboard's Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, and Top Tastemaker Albums charts[[note]]for those curious about the exact list of countries where it topped the charts, in addition to the US, UK, and Scotland, it also was a chart-topper in Australia, Austria, Belgium (on both the Ultratop Flanders and Ultratop Wallonia charts), Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland[[/note]]. ''★'' would go on to become the 5th best-selling album of 2016 in the world, later being certified double-platinum in the Netherlands, platinum in the UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland, and gold in the US, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

Since its release, ''★''[='s=] acclaim has only continued to grow and galvanize: ''The A.V. Club'', ''Mojo'', ''Newsweek'', ''Paste'', ''Q'', ''Uncut'', ''The Village Voice'', ''The Wire'', and ''Magazine/RollingStone''[='s=] readers' poll would all rank it as the best album of 2016. Bowie would be posthumously awarded the 2017 Grammy Awards for "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Recording Package", his first competitive Grammies since [[Music/{{Tonight}} 1985]] and his first Grammies overall since winning the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. On review aggregator site ''Rate Your Music'', ''★'' is ranked as the second-highest-rated album of 2016, the sixth-highest-rated album of the 2010's, and the 88th highest-rated album of all time. As of 2020, it sits at No. 72 on ''WebSite/AcclaimedMusic''[='s=] [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums dynamic list]] of the 3000 most critically lauded albums of all time (as well as the 4th most acclaimed album of the entire 2010's). Lastly, among Bowie fans, it's widely considered both one of the artist's best albums and the perfect GrandFinale for his life and career.

* LoveMartyr: "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" has one as its subject.