“Like a Leper Messiah” – Framing Bowie Concerts as a ReligiousExperience
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2022-08-31
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en
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Abstract
David Bowie was one of the most influential artists of the modern age. While many enjoy his
music, some fans take the adulation to another level, comparable to adherents of organised
religion. This religious experience of rock ‘n roll artists is commonly expressed through
‘collective effervescence’ during concerts, which is a state of ecstasy experienced in large
group settings. This thesis will analyse in what way contemporary music journalists used
descriptions of collective effervescence to frame David Bowie concerts as a religious
experience. The corpus contains 28 live reviews from British, American, and Canadian
magazines such as New Musical Express (NME), Melody Maker, and RAM. The articles are
live reviews of concerts from 1970 until 1979 since Bowie put out his most critically
acclaimed work during this era. This thesis adds to the current academic debate by providing
a case study of the religious experience of rock ‘n roll music while also adding to the small
number of existing articles about framing in music journalism. This thesis shows that
journalists mainly reinforced collective effervescence by describing the way fans dressed,
while their views of the way fans behaved varied widely.
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