David Bowie – Heroes

We really thought we had it, didn’t we?

There were palpable collective cultural triumphs in 2024, but it seems like a lot of us fell face first into an unimaginable sense of loss in the last few months of the year.

I’ve been ruminating on this song for most of 2024, but it recently slid into relevance more than I could have expected. It was like watching three stencils of the same image fit into one frame. “I get it.” I told myself, reflecting on the fact that Bowie’s music has always felt out of reach for me, and I’d never connect with it with my limited knowledge of his legacy.

I first listened to it front to back during the finale of Alexander McQueen’s Spring 2024 show in which creative director Sarah Burton took her final bow at the house. She had been McQueens right hand during most of the company’s existence, and took the helm after his untimely death.

McQueen had famously made a look for David Bowie’s 1997 Earthling album cover, giving further significance to this soundtrack choice during Burton’s final bow. It was truly the end of an era. A decade after McQueen’s death, the last trace of his influence evaporated as Naomi Campbell serimoniously closed out the runway show.

I think about the energy of this song often. At the surface, it’s about heroism and victory. The tone, however, indicates that it’s focused on a reality that never was, but maybe could be. Maybe someday.

I believe that the political climate has demolished the hopes for progress that many of us were hinging on. I felt the electricity in the air as we circled a victory that meant so much more than a new administration.

It’s maddening to imagine how much longer we’ll have to wait for that hope to be realized, but I know that we will get there. We can be heroes.