What Politicians could learn from David Bowie, or how to stay interesting in an increasing boring world

                                            

David Cameron wonders how he can get the plebs as excited as David Bowie did.

The internet nearly exploded with excitement this morning, and ordinary people felt like famous people on Twitter were their friend's as they all shared the collective experience of hearing the new song from Ziggy Stardust creator David Bowie. Now, I should be honest from the start and say that beyond his cameo in extras and the Father Ted episode which features three appearance of Elvis and a brief slaughtering of 'Ziggy played guitar' I know almost nothing of David Bowie or his music. What I'm not going to do, is offer yet another opinion to the mire on a song when I can't compare it to the artists other work.

What is more interesting about the release of the single, the upcoming album and the assumptions that there will be a tour is the reaction to the news. The main talking point of much of the coverage of the story was the fact that Bowie hasn't performed live since 2006 and 'has barely been seen in public' a phrase which translates as 'has managed to live his life relatively privately and let others take the limelight'. As such, the release of the new single comes without the weight of the past 7 years of Bowie's non-music life. Increasing the chances of it being judged on musical merits rather than hype. 

Unlike Paul McCartney, who many people just want to disappear quietly, or at least never sing again (I did say after the Olympics that dying might not be such a bad thing for Sir Paul - as it would prevent him from further alienating himself from the British public) Bowie has retained an air of mystery in an age when everyone knows everything and knowledge is there at the touch of a button. Questions which could, in the past have taken hours or days to answer, and which required a competent navigation of Dewey Decimal system can now be asked by a four year old. You don't even have to be able to spell as Google will patronisingly correct you. 

Staying relatively anonymous has now become a harder task than getting noticed. More and more it is possible for people to say contentious things on social media and then get noticed, not caring what is said about them. Only that stuff is being said and that they are the headline topic. For all of three minutes. 

The title of Bowie's single 'Where are we now?' is as ambiguous a statement as it is broad. A question which could be applied to any number of subjects, but which when viewed from a certain historical perspective (it's a decade since Bowie released any new music) a awful lot has changed about the world and as we enter the year that wasn't supposed to be, if you believed the Mayan's that is, it's a fair point to make, where exactly in the overall course of human history are we? Sure, we can tell where we are geographically, but probably not morally. 

What then, is the lesson that not just Politicians, but many more people besides, could learn from Bowie after today. In short, it's that keeping your head down and not saying anything until it is absolutely worth saying does you a lot of favours. There is a distinct surreality to the way in which politicians now give their statements, with new correspondents often saying '[Politician] is expected to say [main point of politicians speech slightly reworked by the press officer] later today'. There is no mystery, yet at the same time there has never been more mystery.

I'm never going to like David Cameron, but I'd have a little less disdain and perhaps a little more respect, if he wasn't constantly on the television. I might just be agnostic about the quality of Michael McIntyre's comedy if he wasn't grinning stupidly in a poster at every sodding train station and bus stop. Yes, David Bowie is an artist legend and yes, I'm sure that even if his new single was a reinterpretation of 'My Lovely Horse'  people's heads would still be exploding with excitement. But he's managed to remain relevant and culturally interesting without inviting television cameras into his home or letting 3 million people on Twitter know when he's just had a coffee.

If everyone did what they did best, and didn't try to do everything else. Things could be a whole lot better.