Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop, born James Osterberg in 1947, first made his name as the singer of the Stooges, whose raw, primitive rock and roll sold next to nothing the first time around and whose gigs were closer to combat than to concerts. Iggy performed bare-chested, was one of the first to hurl himself into the crowd, rolled in broken glass, cut himself and generally did whatever it took to get a reaction. Raw Power, in 1973, was where his long friendship and working partnership with David Bowie began.

By 1977 the two of them were in West Berlin trying to kick their drug habits, and between them they launched his solo career with two albums in a single year, with Iggy usually handling the words. The Idiot is cold, nocturnal and mechanical, a slow drift through art-rock gloom that later bands in post-punk, electronic and industrial music would pore over. The title track of Lust for Life comes out swinging, a full-tilt stomp, and "The Passenger", from the same year, is a lazy, loping ride after dark. One of the songs he and Bowie wrote together, "China Girl", became far better known when Bowie cut his own version for Let's Dance in 1983.

The rest of the decade was a restless crawl through labels and styles: New Values in 1979, Party in 1981, Zombie Birdhouse in 1982, then Blah-Blah-Blah in 1986, the year of the rowdy "Real Wild Child (Wild One)". Instinct followed in 1988, and in 1990 came Brick by Brick and "Candy", a duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52s that turned into his only US Top 40 hit.

The sales never matched the reputation, and the reputation is enormous. Raw Power left its mark on the Sex Pistols, the Smiths and Nirvana; The Idiot on Joy Division, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails. The Stooges went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, France made him a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2017, the Grammys gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, and the Polar Music Prize followed in 2022.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.