"Each of us has a dif­fer­ent idea of when, exact­ly, the six­ties end­ed, not as a decade, but as a dis­tinct cul­tur­al peri­od. Some have a notion of the "long six­ties" that extends well into the sev­en­ties; if pressed for a spe­cif­ic final year, they could do worse than point­ing to 1972, when David Bowie made his epoch-shift­ing appear­ance as Zig­gy Star­dust, backed by the Spi­ders from Mars, on the BBC's Top of the Pops."
"Hav­ing strug­gled in the six­ties to find a suit­able iden­ti­ty and audi­ence, the young Bowie devel­oped an unusu­al­ly strong under­stand­ing of not just the music indus­try, but also the cul­ture itself. One era was giv­ing way to anoth­er, and nobody knew it bet­ter than he did. When all those hir­sute fig­ures in beards and den­im, singing with osten­ta­tious earnest­ness about love and free­dom, dis­ap­peared, who would replace them?"
The cultural end of the sixties often extends into the early seventies, with 1972 marked as a turning point by David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust appearance on Top of the Pops and the release of music videos for 'Space Oddity' and 'Jean Genie.' Bowie struggled through the sixties to find a stable identity and audience and developed a keen understanding of the music industry and broader culture. The transition moved away from bearded, denim-clad earnest performers toward clean-shaven, made-up androgynes in flamboyant designer costumes who integrated science-fictional and inscrutable themes into theatrical concert experiences. Bowie emerged as the foremost architect of that new era.
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