RIP David Bowie

Screencap: David Bowie as Tesla in The Prestige

In the world of music thousands of people try to add their two cents into the world, but only a rare, select few ever get the chance to really change it. These rock stars are often a combination of music talent, likeable personality, style, and charisma...David Bowie had this all and more. He was one of the few music artists that could not only transcend music genres successfully, but also dive into the acting world without appearing to be a stunt casting.

Unfortunately, the world lost Bowie on the night of January 10th, 2016. He battled cancer for 18 months according to his Twitter account, before succumbing to it with family and friends at his bedside.

Starting out his solo music fame with "Space Oddity" in 1969, he became one of the pioneers of a new sub-genre of music called Glam Rock. Introducing his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust with his release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the album was intended to be the soundtrack for a TV or film production of the same name, but never produced. Hits such as "Starman" and "Suffragette City" sprang from this album which Rollingstone Magazine ranked as the 35th best album of all-time.

Later on his Diamond Dogs album, he released the hit song "Rebel Rebel" which would go on to be one of the most covered songs of all-time. It was his good-bye to glam rock song. The song featured a riff that was reminiscent of songs by Rollingstones or even Iggy Pop. The song could even be cited as being a precursor to the Grunge Rock movement that would take place years later and fall under the category of early punk.

Not long after, Bowie would release "Fame" which would be the first time he broke onto the Billboard Hot 100 charts (pop music), hitting number one. Unknown to most people, he recorded this song with the help of John Lennon who received song writing credit, played guitar, and was the backing vocals to Bowie in this hit song.

In 1976, Bowie would dive into the world of acting as well, starring in The Man Who Fell to Earth with Rip Torn and Candy Clark. This would bolster his confidence in his acting abilities, leading him to star in movies throughout his career.

Before the end of the '70s, he would release other hit singles such as "Sound and Vision", "Heroes", and "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)".

Not to be outdone, Bowie was even more successful in the '80s. He released singles that included "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion" before combining his efforts with Freddie Mercury of Queen for the hit song "Under Pressure", which would be one of the most significant songs of the decade and featured one of the most famous bass lines of all-time. The song regained fame after Vanilla Ice sampled from it for his hit song "Ice Ice Baby".

After "Under Pressure", Bowie collaborated with Bing Crosby to release one of the most iconic Christmas songs of all-time, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy". To this day, it is hard to avoid this song every December. It solidified his status as one of the greatest music artists of all-time.

Less than a year later, Bowie released Let's Dance which would feature three hit singles, "Let's Dance" which would be accompanied by one of the most famous music videos ever, "China Girl", and "Modern Love". This is where he firmly planted his music in the New Wave genre with the platinum hit sensation.

In 1985, he would once again collaborate with a fellow musician, this time Mick Jagger, to release a cover of the song "Dancing in the Street". This song would chart in nearly every genre from rock to pop.

In 1986, he would star in the hit movie Labyrinth as Jareth the Goblin King. The movie would feature puppetry from the Jim Henson Workshop and would be the first major role for star actress Jennifer Connelly.

He would go on to collaborate with other music artists in the '90s as well, most famously with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails for the single "I'm Afraid of Americans". Other collaborative works include "Hallo Spaceboy" with the Pet Shop Boys and "The Buddha of Suburbia" with Lenny Kravitz.

In the 2000's, Bowie would stay in the eyes of pop culture, appearing as himself in the movie Zoolander and winning an MTV Movie Award. He then would go onto his one of his most famous movie roles as Tesla in the Christopher Nolan movie, The Prestige which would also star Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, and Michael Caine.

His last top ten hit was in 2013 with "Where Are We Now?".

Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, won two Grammy Awards, and was ranked the 23rd best singer of all-time by Rollingstone Magazine. In 1999, Bowie was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, but turned down being knighted in 2003 by the British Empire. In total he sold an estimated 140 million record albums.

Born as David Jones, he had to change his name to avoid confusion with Davey Jones of the Monkees. Bowie is survived by his wife, actress/model Iman; his son, director Duncan Jones; and daughter Alexandria.