The "Ideal" Bowie lyric

Don't take this too seriously ... it's meant as an illustration ... but the results are genuine. Some word types in Bowie albums correlate with how long they spend in the charts. Dr Nick Troop has written a song that amplifies these results, maximising the use of these words to create the "Ideal" Bowie lyric. If you are a songwriter or a wannabe songwriter, go to www.DoctorNick.org to see how you can get involved in research on the psychology of songwriting and its links with health.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bowie
• Nick Troop
• Doctor Nick
• Dr Nick

[barakobama]

I understand, and agree, with your approach. I think that you have hit upon a really far reaching cog here. And the song is not bad either...

Now, were the lyrics constructed through randomness (based on the initial data impute)?

The unexamined.....

[CatDesigner]

Semi-random I suppose ... in the same way that a lot of people use cut-ups. I randomised the words but then picked out pairs or trios of words that seemed to go together and then linked these with other pairs/trios to build up a lyric. Though certainly impresionistic I think the lyric does make some sort of sense (in spite of what some people are saying).

[waldderi]

The words don't make any sense. They're just pure BS... Very un-bowie song.

[CatDesigner]

Hello? Were you actually paying attention to the explanation?

[sharpforkedtongue]

yeah, Ronno and Tony Visconti (or Ken Scott for that matter) are important factors completely missing from this equation.

[CatDesigner]

But like I say in the clip, the fact of this correlation (and the correlation is a fact) may be that it reflects Bowie's motivational state at the time of a particular album and that it's that which is the cause of the success, not the lyrics per se. The lyrics are caused by his psychological state, just as ihs success is caused (or contributed to) by his psychological state. The style of music, quality of production, art work, even other albums released at the same time, would all play a role.

[notnotharrison]

taken with a grain of salt (as in recognizing that he's not trying to claim creation of the perfect bowie song, merely exploring his research on bowie songs further through application) this is really cool

[jsymons1985]

These lyrics are very positive, and uplifting, however they are lacking in that they are disconnected, they don't have a clear narrative, they are not mellifluous, they have mismatched linguistic (prosody) and musical stress (meter)... in other words they sound clunky!! good singing though!

[ponyman13]

Nope.jpg

[ferdinandsouz]

He forgot to say that all the concept around Ziggy Stardust was not optimistic: the end of the world and all that whole thing...

[Joonizzz]

Wow, its nice to see that Bowie makes people study their fields through him or bring Bowie to their daily work/ life. I did that too in high school.. Now i get the feeling that Im not alone!!

[BoysKeepSwingin2]

Well, funny idea for an approach to make a song. It's not un-Bowie-ish to make lyrics that don't make sense in their combination, because Bowie used many time Kerouacs method to make sentences, then cut it up with a scissors en rearrange the parts at random. Many Bowiesongs were made that way, especially in the seventies.

However we will never know until Bowie Himself would sing this song, for your voice does not have any similarity to Bowie. Thats why it gives the songs a country-like sound

[borrow123]

Interesting remarks.

However, I need to "neutralize" the effect, that this performance had on me with some real music :)

(Hope "Fascination" will do.)

Greetings,

Bowie fan from Poland

[reecegeorge]

UNBELIEVABLY THIS GUY SAYS HE LOVES BOWIE.THIS GUY PROBABLY NEVER HEARD A BOWIE ALBUM IN HIS LIFE!!!HE KNOWS BOWIE IS POPULAR[i have more peace thinking this guy is a clever marketeer than ever believing any bowie fan could ever entertain the idea[THE AUDACITYTO THINK THEY CAN DETERMINE THE X FACTOR-.I wanted to say in my last post that i really read with interest,i love poetry "DRS' lyrics in the first line[,but i continued reading with hopeful humour],wondering where his talent lies.Meg George

[reecegeorge]

Perhapsyourship with Bowie is not so healthy,when bowie,the clash anyone earnest gave i truly remember most of society despising and being nowhere near even wanting to understand or get into it. That said' so properly spoken but so dismally misunderstanding the essence of the man',you should be ashamed,who paid for your education!!!This!!! is what you have chosen to ride the back of and bastardise!Bowie Rocks, fave since the 70'sWho paid for your ed,love lyrics,read,stupid uglysong grMeighan

[annial1]

I can easily imagine that David would sing this, just for fun of course :)

Team meet girls.... girls meet team :)

[ZeroSumSpiral]

Ahem....No.

[dprista]

I am sorry for the "dude" if it did not help your comprehension. But I said it was quite boring. Understood now?