Modern Death. La critique rock face à Blackstar

Abstract

This article focuses on the French, British, and American reviews of David Bowie’s ultimate album, Blackstar. Almost unanimously positive, they consider the album as the staging by the artist of his own demise. I analyze the tone adopted by the French and English speaking press. What account do they provide of Bowie’s unprecedented aesthetic organization of his death ? How do they comment on an artwork that deals with life’s final moments and what comes next by means of avant-garde rock ? Do they consider it as an expression of modern death ? Or do their borrowings from such genres as the funeral oration or the consolation point to other directions ?

Keywords

• David Bowie
• Blackstar
• death
• funeral oration
• consolation
• reviews