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Earthling
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Reception
Earthling is an album by David Bowie released in 1997. The album showcases an electronica-influenced sound partly inspired by the rave culture of the 1990s.

Though not a major commercial success, the album scored a number of positive reviews and scored a minor hit with a Trent Reznor remix of "I'm Afraid of Americans". The album featured elements not common to dance electronica, such as live acoustic and electric guitar, jazzy live piano, and song structures more common to pop-rock than techno. The album performed better than its highly experimental predecessor, Outside, reaching number 6 in the UK charts and number 39 in the US.

Bowie's enthusiasm for remixing reached its peak when this album was released and the numerous singles from it were also issued to clubs, as well as online: three versions of "Telling Lies" were released on Bowie's official website months prior to the album's release, constituting the first ever downloadable single by a major artist. "Little Wonder" was the album's biggest hit, reaching number 14 in the UK. Three more singles — "Dead Man Walking", "Seven Years in Tibet", and "I'm Afraid of Americans" — did not fare so well, although the latter did remain in the U.S. charts for 16 weeks, peaking at number 66.

The music videos for Earthling were elaborate. Artist and director Floria Sigismondi directed the short films for "Little Wonder" and "Dead Man Walking", while Dom and Nic directed "I'm Afraid of Americans", the latter being nominated for an MTV Video Music Award. A video was also made for "Seven Years in Tibet", composed largely of concert footage.

Misc. Info

"I'm Afraid of Americans" first appeared in 1995 on the soundtrack for the movie Showgirls, in a version that was extremely rough compared to the remake on Earthling.

Bowie asked Gabrels to play a guitar solo for "Looking for Satellites", though Gabrels didn't think it should have one. Bowie insisted, however, instructing Gabrels to divide the solo into four parts: the first only using the deep E string, the second only using the A string, the third only using the D string, and the fourth only using the G string — and it had to be in constant 16th notes. Says Gabrels: "By being put in that box, stylistically, you're defined by your limitations. The arbitrary limitation of that approach made me do stuff that I normally wouldn't have done. It's actually one of my favorite guitar solos that I've recorded."

At the Phoenix Festival in 1997, Bowie and his band played in the Radio 1 Dance tent as Tao Jones Index. They performed in darkness with dry ice and strobe lights. Tao Jones Index was a pun based on Bowie's real name, David Jones, and the 1997 Bowie Bond issue (Tao is pronounced "Dow", as in Dow Jones Index from the US stock market).

U.S. sales of the album stand at 254,000 copies, according to Soundscan.

Charts

Year------------Chart---------------Position

1997----UK Albums Chart------------------6
1997----Billboard Pop Albums------------- 39
1997----Norway-----------------------------13