The cliche about David Bowie says he's a musical chameleon, adapting himself according to fashion and trends. While such a criticism is too glib, there's no denying that Bowie demonstrated remarkable skill for perceiving musical trends at his peak in the 70s. After spending several years in the late 60s as a mod and as an all-around music-hall entertainer, Bowie reinvented himself as a hippie singer/songwriter. Prior to his breakthrough in 1972, he recorded a proto-metal record and a pop-rock album, eventually redefining glam-rock with his ambiguously sexy Ziggy Stardust persona. Ziggy made Bowie an international star.

He recorded a swathe of diabolical pop music for Decca/Deram in the mid-60s, before changing his name to avoid confusion with the Davy Jones from The Monkees and striking gold in 1969 with "Space Oddity", a Top 10 hit in the UK. The LPs Man of Words, Man Of Music (1969; re-issued on RCA as Space Oddity) and The Man Who Sold The World (1970) followed. Hunky Dory (1971 reissued on vinyl 1998; RCA), Bowie's best work as a 'standard' singer-songwriter and featuring the prophetically titled "Changes" - the song that started his bid for stardom.

With Hunky Dory and The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972), Bowie completely redefined the term 'star' as applied to men in rock'n'roll. Prior to Bowie, you created an image and pretty much stuck to it: rock'n'rollers were mean, out-and-out heterosexual carnivores who'd kill you and eat you if they couldn't screw you. They certainly never wore dresses, never appeared in makeup off stage or recorded songs with titles like "Queen Bitch". The press was bored with leather-clad moodiness and Bowie knew how to manipulate a story: journalists lapped up every word from the new waif in town with his orange hair and his eyes of many colours, who held court in elegant hotel rooms dressed in flimsy girly clothes. With the creation of 'Ziggy', Bowie went internationally ballistic, providing the overgorging 70s with the perfect, hedonistic, lurex-and-makeup superstar. The concerts to promote the album titillated the mainstream press by having David simulate fellatio on guitarist Mick Ronson while he was in mid-solo. This blatant disregard for the possibility of electrocution enraged the tabloids and sold untold numbers of records.

For the next few years, Bowie invented a new character for each of his LP releases. He retired Ziggy at the end of the 1973 tour; the character that replaced him was 'Aladdin Sane' (apart from a red and blue lightning flash across his face), he was a more mature, fuller character than Ziggy. By 1974 and the release of Diamond Dogs, Bowie could barely put a foot wrong. It was a confident period for Bowie and he used his confirmed status in the rock world to bring old acts like The Stooges and Lou Reed back to life.