In the hours after the sad news of David Bowie's death broke, everyone crafted their own tributes. A lot of people tweeted, a lot of people posted quotes and pictures on Facebook, and some Belgian astronomers named this lightning bolt-shaped constellation after him. But almost everyone listened to a song or two (or, you know, all of them.)
If you, like me, have spent the better part of two weeks staring at your cubicle wall while "Life on Mars?" plays and your bourbon coffee gets warm cold, it won't surprise you that David Bowie songs have experienced a spike in listens on Spotify since Bowie's death—a huge spike. Spotify told GQ that streams of David Bowie shot up by 2,822 percent since his death. If exploring the analytics of mourning feels like a vaguely dystopian exercise, just picture millions of people across the globe dancing around to the same five David Bowie songs at the same time and feel with us. We asked Spotify which Bowie songs people listened to the most the day of his death. Here they are, in order:
- "Heroes"
- "Let's Dance"
- "Blackstar"
- "Lazarus"
- "Life On Mars?"
"Heroes" was somewhat predictably the most-played—Bowie is our hero forever and ever—but the song that saw the craziest spike in streaming was "Life On Mars?" Streams increased by 4,238 percent, which is bonkers and really, really touching. When we polled the office for their guesses at the most-played Bowie jam, almost everyone had a different answer, which is a testament to the breadth of Bowie's work. Keep listening, planet Earth:
