1999: DAVID BOWIE: Internet is the new rock n roll | Newsnight | Classic Interview | BBC Archive

[@tebpixels3409]

Don't think many understood what the internet would become with such accuracy in 1999!

[@MrRolandgent]

Paxman didn't get it did he?

[@jon8004]

​@@MrRolandgent Most people didn't. Go find clips of Bill Gates explaining the Internet to David Letterman. Letterman's a smart guy, and it's like someone trying to explain an automobile to a chimpanzee. The Internet was still a fairly abstract notion for many people back in the '90s. Young people understood it, but many older people were still ignoring it. Also, Bowie is talking about a future phase of the Internet. He's smelling the emergence of a lot of stuff there. Social media is probably the biggest thing, or the thing that addresses most of what he's talking about efficiently, particularly as it relates to the relationship between an artist and their audience. He's also talking about commerce. In the late '90s, people were still wary about buying things online. I was in high school, and my mom refused to let me use her credit card number to buy an import CD on Amazon because she didn't trust it. I had the money to pay for it, but there was no other way to buy it. Tower Records didn't sell import CDs. The Internet was my only option, and most adults still had quite a bit of reluctance about the Internet.

[@johncarroll5087]

The ones who actually did were the least "people" that humanity had to offer.

[@carbon1740]

15 min almost uninterrupted it's such a treat, David is irreplaceable.

[@mobacchus5370]

love so many artist now gone too soon, but with Bowie and George Michael, the world is not quite so full

[@jaytee200]

What a joy to listen to someone so intelligent and open minded speak with such vision and clarity. A rare thing indeed.

[@miamitten1123]

Bowie has perfect hair. Like an an anime high-school character.

[@hom0s4cer]

Animated for sure

[@studio54studio]

It's called a hairdresser/stylist

[@Cruzaflo]

2:55 bowie's answer is really profound. I like how he discusses how he used to create choas and tension in his life when he was younger. As he's aged, he has realized this is not necessary.

[@Cruzaflo]

I have to have a set of conflicts going around me. They don't need to be created from my own doing. I've learned that that is particularly a bad idea…..Well, I don't create my own conflicts in my own life. I think I used to do that to an extent when I was younger. Having an addictive personality, I would be drawn to create conflict that would produce the tension necessary to write. Now I find I can do it by observation rather than being deeply involved in a mess.

[@tartgreenapple]

"To see things in the seed, that is genius." -Lao Tzu 9:45

[@tomcombe4813]

It shows real intelligence that he could see the Internet would change the world. Especially considering most people at the time thought it was a fad!

[@ChangesOneTim]

One of the most positive, insightful, coherent 'rock star' interviews ever. In same league as Grace Slick for talking about their creativity. I miss you Mr Jones and all your aliases; you're surely having a great time 'up there' somewhere!

[@richl6966]

He's so articulate and seems so smart. Always a joy to listen to speak as much as to listen to sing. During this interview, as with a lot of his, you can see David's mind wurrring around. Paxman looks a bit lost at times. David just knows what's going to happen but even he would have been amazed by how far it's come.

[@mranti9836]

This guy was a time traveler

[@TheHarrip]

@@BarryRerack147 listen back he definitely inferred it

[@conorsmith8551]

@R M internet has destroyed thing. I like to use it now and then, but people are OBSESSED with it now and can’t admit it

[@PygmalionFaciebat]

@@conorsmith8551 I agree. Internet really started the information war, and its all about reputation, and while back in the past goverments were the gatekeepers of information (which turned out to be very ineffective), now companies who give information the platform in the first place (like youtube, google, twitter, tiktok, twitch, etc) become the gatekeepers , and there is almost nothing society can do about it. The companies defining whats hatespeech and what not ; what deserves censored and what not , and even worst: invented new kinds of censorships where a person doesnt even know he got censored (like shadowbans ) . Also internet created bubbles which enables all kind of conspiracy theories much more effective than back in the past with books of some ''crazy authors'' . Thats how even such a bonkers theory like flat earth can get much bigger impact on people compared to 100 years ago. The internet made the promise: that education can spread faster and easier. Thats partly true. In comparison to pre-internet-era knowledge and education by the internet indeed increased in speed, and is much more easy to access. You can now can learn even top tier math on youtube, or Wikipedia - often even interactive etc. But... and here comes the big BUT : stupidity also increased its speed by the internet. And because knowledge and education is always harder to gain, than stupidity, - the effect internet had on intellectual part will always be slower (regardless which technology is invented for spreading information, like the letterpress - also with the letter press misinformation and a lot of wrong thoughts enabled the worst epidemic indicences in history of society.. just think of ''Hexenhammer'' (for the witch burnings) and ''M*** Kampf'' for the holocaust). If intellectual parts are speed up by a factor of 10 by the internet, stupidity is speed up by a factor of 100 ... So the greater the technology to spread information , the more it helps the stupid parts of the mankind to gain power and influence. And therefore its also not a coincidence, that we all probably dont know one youtube-incluencer who is an intellectual. Jordan Peterson ? Maybe ? Dont say, there are no intellectuals on youtube. There are... but influential to society ? There are much more hazy minded individuals out there, or ''funny ones'' who are influential. Because entertainment is much less of an efford, than learning. And yes - like i said: ideologys, like the wokeness-cultures (which begins to be more and more exclusive than inclusive... like a cult : ''you have to believe in the same rules the wokeness gives for you, to be accepted from that cult... otherwise you face consequences nowadays... which can be go as far as being banned from social plattforms... and that nowadays means more and more: disconnected from society ... like virtual KZ-camps (=you can still be on the internet but not on places anymore which are connected with the majority of people ... and certainly not at places where your opinion can reach the majority of people... its not different as 700 years ago, when they banned a witch from a village - so that she had to live in the forest by her own, and usually died horribly from starving etc ) So .. the internet is heaven as hell at the same time. On paper it could be heaven... But human beings ruining everything. On paper also book press was an amazing invention. Its just in the nature of humans to gain control about information - to increase their influence and social status. Its not only since internet exists. Its probably since language itself exist. Ruining the reputation of someone gets power. And power gets females, and females guarantees the spreading of the own genes into the future. And because that fundamental truth cant be erased from human beings, the abusing of information technologies also cant be avoided. Meaning: we are doomed , if internet doesnt gets his ''age of enlightement'' .. which probably will need maybe 50 or 100 years from now... Because first we as mankind have to go through big suffering about what power of stupidity internet enables FIRST ... then when everyone recognized it (like how bad witch burnings are, when it affects everyone) , THAN internet will change for the better. Not sooner. Until then, only few people try to tell what would be important, but nothing changes. Mankind needs suffering to learn. Unfortunately.

[@eaaeeeea]

He talked about the internet in a quite abstract manner, as in "The potential of what the internet is going to do to society both good and bad is unimaginable. -- It's an alien life form". I say the absolute same can be said about artificial intelligence. We already have very powerful deep learning (AI) programs controlling the content we get served. That has already affected our politics, discussions, values, relationship forming, consumption of goods and so on. And that's just the beginning.

[@seanbirtwistle649]

things are born, live, and die online. it really can be modelled as a symbiotic living alien we made. people listening to him in 99 must have politely thought he was very poetic about it all. this is as spooky as HG Wells writing about the atomic bomb in 1913 in "a world set free"

[@mayaamita1152]

He also slipped the word singularity in there ;)

[@Dadaadad268]

Not very profound tho

[@Ellie-Gant]

@@seanbirtwistle649 and strangely both H.G. Wells and David Bowiie grew up in Bromley

[@UncleFishbits]

Pretty sure people will be seeing this clip in 50, 100, 500 years and see David as a profound thinker.

[@calvinminer4365]

Is there anyone else who could make Paxman of all people so disarmed and charmed?

[@studio54studio]

[@radiantmarshmallow2527]

What an incredible gift he was to the world, and still is.

[@PeterGoral]

My favourite interview with my favourite all time artist.

[@onemancinema4642]

David Bowie was absolutely brilliant. His vivid views of a world both beautiful and terrifying are almost impossible to comprehend.

[@lee5111]

We lost a true visionary & wise soul when he left, the world became poorer for his loss.

[@mangasky7]

We miss you so badly, Starman. The world went to hell after you left it.

[@Problembeing]

Omg, I just commented the same thing. So true.

[@seanp8220]

He was lucky to leave when he did. Tbh.

[@grinsko6741]

1:47: David is so gracious when Jeremy Paxman mispronounces “Bowie”.

[@Vengeance1978]

Very true 👍

[@Cronovox]

In the gesture of biting his lips there is all of Bowie. There is excitement and openness towards change, only those who do not feel terror for the unknown are lucid enough to truly understand what is about to happen. We all miss him and will miss him greatly, who knows what he would have said about artificial intelligence.

[@herbyverstink]

what a great man he was

[@stuartwray6175]

I don't think that characters/reinvention were simply, or predominantly, something to hide behind. He was a symbolist; conceptualist.

[@nickname_official]

Mr. Bowie, people like you are missing. So much.

[@vicgilmore]

Mr Bowie was a wonderful creative innovator, way beyond the triviality of popular music creation. I say BOW(as in arrow)IE by the way.

[@nublex]

dude's a visionary

[@jroobz]

he was magnificent

[@ShortyTW867]

what can one say about David Bowie, Boowi, Buwy...what ever. We're all in Love with him/them/they....oh, what ever! but like all good things, the mothership at some point has to come and take it back to the home planet. You know, where Prince lives...

[@Rusty_Rose-ho1ek]

what an interesting man...

[@glenfordburrell2133]

AFN - American forces network was so cool to listen to. One could only get it on Medium Wave - I think it was broadcasted from West Germany which was still divided at the time. I had the pleasure of listen to them in 2004 whilst working for military contractors in Kuwait during the last Gulf War. One can still hear them today every Autumn in Hyde Park - AFN West Germany that is. They provide the entertainment for Winter Wonderland. It's thoroughly enjoyable sitting on a Park benche nearby listening to them.

[@raffiniziblian2895]

Amazing insights and such intelligent conversation.

[@mbc6008]

Maybe David really was from another world, true diversity is diversity of thought.

[@piggyinthemiddle]

Never knew he was such a visionary

[@leahc345]

A genius. Sorely missed

[@UncleFishbits]

If anyone has more intimate interviews with David, I'd love you to link them / post them here?

[@qualitywhims9102]

There’s no way he called this in ‘99!

[@TurboMintyFresh]

8.30 hes so spot on its insane

[@TheHarrip]

David Jones from London ladies and gentlemen. He was probably a time traveler

[@stuartwray6175]

From London ladies and gentlemen? From London, ladies and gentlemen.

[@wayland7150]

Was he once Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones?

[@mikethomas6120]

Too bad the internet basically became the new tv but with a search engine attached to it. Yes you can look up just about anything you want provided it gets filtered through big corporations such as google/alphabet. Plus I don’t think he was aware at how are freedoms have been destroyed with all of this selling of data based on human behavioral patterns.

[@xdimitrije]

Yes, but online communities exist. You can live on the internet. Get your news off of youtubers , streamers, and Twitter, and get your music and film all on the internet. We have memes that the entire internet gets, you know how crazy that is?? We have the power to dictate what big studios make (look at the woke trend of the late 2010s and early 2020s, and now look at movies like Deadpool vs Wolverine) the vibe on the internet shifts and it shifts in the real world. Residencies have been won online. Careers began.

[@mikethomas6120]

@@xdimitrije that may be somewhat true but if you aren’t in the it club and say the wrong things the algorithms will block it from most people seeing it. There is a reason why the first page results of Google exists. Because they pay for it. They like to make believe people who have these magical one hit wonder Internet breakthrough sensations exists but in reality they are already set up for stardom more than likely because they maybe have ties to such things as deep state programs and or ultra wealthy elite families.

[@mikethomas6120]

@@xdimitrije I’m an actual musical artist and the internet destroyed our industry. No more physical sales, and the big streaming services literally pay artist .05 of a cent for every song played when we used to make huge bank with physical sales. That is why you see artists today doing never ending touring. And if you are a younger new artist they have what is called 360 record deals where the labels will take as much as 75% -85% of your ticket sales and the sane for your merch sales. And if you don’t like it they won’t sign you. And don’t get me started on the whole algorithm thing which is basically a cover word to blame the actual tech for these labels who cherry pick which artists to promote based simply because they say yes to taking it deeper up the you know what! It used to be a greatly written song would be the basis for being successful. That is now gone. I know tons of artist who write songs 100 times better then these committees of the same songwriters who write all the hits for artists like Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Rhianna. That is why 95% of all the music on the mainstream outlets pretty much sounds the exact same. Unless you were grandfathered in from the pre internet days like a Dave Grohl or a Green Day your songs won’t get mass promotion no matter how good they are. It’s sad really. Based on everything you said you were either really young or not alive before the internet days.

[@Remmoto]

David Bowie is awesome 👏👏👏👊👊❤️❤️❤️

[@RandyVictory420]

Holy $#!+. Bowie was a dang prophet!!!

[@Awake2Evil]

All-around genius I mean the guy wrote music so far ahead of its time that to this Day, a lot of artists have not caught up with what all he did in his time and then what he said about the internet just blows your mind and 1999 I mean it was just getting some traction and he could receive what was coming and that takes some some smarts and not to mention connected into the world of everything

[@yarlkymcfirblatherington9879]

The Laughing Gnome was his greatest persona!

[@DemonetisedZone]

He became respectable

[@MultiVince95]

Friday 3rd December 1999

[@JustChrisNow]

I left school in 2000. Totally unprepared for an online world.

[@LoyalOpposition]

same

[@Ross17033]

Jeremy Paxman really seemed out of his depth here. Miss you David!

[@wtsnewpuscat]

His mothers name was Burns which is Scottish

[@Dadaadad268]

5:53 that eyebrow raise 🥴😂

[@malcolmallen9474]

My hero 1 word be yours

[@MrMarouaneDerfoufi]

SIMPATICO That's a Word I Learnt - The New Balance of Service User & Service Provider - Silly Automatic Weather Pattern

[@kevanmccaffrey8513]

Ziggy stardust "DUST" BIG BAGS 🤩

[@heretictom]

Nostra-bowie lol. He was a genius.

[@andreahussein2149]

Smart man

[@benjaminbarry5589]

I love it how this presenter doesn't understand what Bowie is talking about at all. He is completely lost. 😂

[@tinmachine693]

No he's not. That is Jeremy Paxman a man renowned for felling politicians. I think he's slightly in awe of Bowie and genuinely interested in what he's saying.

[@TurboMintyFresh]

Paxman is no mug

[@nic123ification]

I guess if it wasn't for David Bowie's involvement in the Internet, we would be largely ignorant about the situation in Gaza😢

[@raytwal1]

What year this interview? Dose anyone know?

[@BBCArchive]

1999

[@amaan-zd6kt]

absolute GOAT

[@FlatRockland]

The internet is an alien life form.

[@Problembeing]

Everything went to Hell after he died :/

[@gururajsuresh4351]

9:45

[@yandan7010]

He knew. He saw.

[@natford8271]

Such a loss.

[@jrbs]

14:35 🤣🤣

[@erikdolnack846]

Time has proven Bowie very wrong here. Like many/most Baby Boomers, Bowie incorrectly assumed the Internet would be this "wild west" democratic thing where no centralization or monopoly was possible. Today, there's Google, there's Amazon, there's Facebook and Twitter, there's the NSA and other agencies spying on us all and storing all this data on us every day. This is one time when Bowie's enthusiasm for the future wasn't prescient.

[@BrownDaddy007]

It was the wild west, and the information freely available was mind-blowing. I was there, from the beginning. R.I.P. Internet 1997-2003

[@beyondz55]

The rebellion is still happening though...using the same.new tech

[@BrownDaddy007]

@@beyondz55 As long as you don't understand what controlled opposition is, then yes, the "rebellion" is afoot.

[@ironfistbeats]

2:28-2:58

[@Scottygthreethousand]

If only the interview was twice as long

[@MarsDerfoufi]

2nd Interview David Bowie - 'Do You Know Much Takes Involved in The Internet?' SIMPATICO New Balance User & Provider

[@KevinMole-cj3kl]

A sadly missed genuis

[@guppybill]

Spot-on! As timely today as then. I guess we call that " timelessness." He was one of the very few articulate and engaged mega-stars of his time. Sadly, his last recording is just gawd awful.

[@esamaddinm.o7451]

the unimaginable has become reality now , what a pity!

[@IsabelAlvarez-z8g]

The journalist was laughing at him?

[@richardwillford2418]

Interesting... Paxman doesn't (at this point) understand "the internet", but he draws the correct conclusions. Bowie fully understands "the internet", but is (with hindsight) dead wrong about its implications.

[@conorsmith8551]

DIS-QUALIFIED

[@Ikgeloofhetniet]

Why is the interviewer making such odd faces?

[@ciamber]

He has some issues with the English language apparently because what David is saying is crystal clear. Very arrogant to make him look like a loonie with the constant gesturing.

[@Untrustedlife]

He didn’t understand what was happening. Bowie was completely right.

[@campbellgraham1979]

Everyone in Scotland pronounces Bowie the same way as Paxman said it

[@studio54studio]

4:13 He died of liver cancer...

[@mike04574]

Tbf it’s because of alcoholic years

[@xdimitrije]

He stopped a long time ago. He was close to death in the mid-70s, and he pulled himself out of it. Unfortunately, his destructive lifestyle, even though he changed it, caught up to him eventually. The body never forgets.

[@HAL9000-AJ]

Too bad cigerates lowered his voice

[@distantyahoo]

age tends to do that in general

[@millertas]

'Do you know how expensive it is to get involved on the internet?' No it ain't - Not for your average westerners.

[@petergrady8848]

why ahead of hid time

[@seanp8220]

You could have chosen a pertinent title not an insipid one that totally misses the point of what he's trying to emphasise

[@seanys]

Paxman is out of his depth.

[@mitchmichaelcoburn1577]

How wrong can you be? The Internet killed Rock n' Roll and stripped working class people of yet another route out of drudgery of life.

[@TurboMintyFresh]

The internet has given more people the opportunity to move up in the world than anything else in history

[@nickmoloney9820]

"It's just a tool" . . . . No It's not It's an alien life form.

[@robertwilson214]

Music's terrible today.Doesnt compare with 70s,80s icons.

[@wayland7150]

Is Bowie lying? Looking to the right and up to the right when remembering.

[@zogworld]

I've got no idea what he's talking about

[@derekspence6994]

God of mustic

[@skinsuit2000]

Paxman is miles out of his depth. Hilarious!

[@Dadaadad268]

Agreed!

[@Kudagraz]

I thought he did a great job encouraging great answers from Bowie