History Music / ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps

''Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)'' is the fourteenth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1980 through Creator/RCARecords. Released after three ''avant garde''-leaning albums in collaboration with Music/BrianEno, this is a more mainstream-oriented combination of HardRock and PostPunk, with some Gothic [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] flare thrown into the mix. The more accessible direction was influenced by the fact that, despite spending most of the decade as a commercial juggernaut, Bowie ended the '70s being outsold by acts that he'd directly inspired (most notoriously Music/GaryNuman, with whom he feuded over accusations of Numan copying his style). Lyrically, the album focuses on themes of political protest and dark psychological observations.

''Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)'' is the fourteenth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1980. Released after three ''avant garde''-leaning albums in collaboration with Music/BrianEno, this is a more mainstream-oriented combination of HardRock and PostPunk, with some Gothic [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] flare thrown into the mix. The more accessible direction was influenced by the fact that, despite spending most of the decade as a commercial juggernaut, Bowie ended the '70s being outsold by acts that he'd directly inspired (most notoriously Music/GaryNuman, with whom he feuded over accusations of Numan copying his style). Lyrically, the album focuses on themes of political protest and dark psychological observations.

* PrecisionFStrike: On "It's No Game (Part 2)" Bowie sings about children who "spread camel shit on the wall."

-->"In the beginning of TheSeventies when it was sort of a bit dull, there was the idea of creating a flash of some kind. And the flash was created, but nobody was really found holding the smoking pistol. So [rock] sort of went off at tangents after that."

* AddledAddict: Major Tom, as of "Ashes to Ashes".

* BigShutUp: A pair of them cuts off [[Music/RobertFripp Robert Fripp's]] guitar solo on "It's No Game (Part 1)".

* CallBack:
** The back cover references the covers of Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy": ''[[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum Low]]'', ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]'' and ''Music/{{Lodger}}'', as well as the much earlier ''Music/AladdinSane''. Bowie's Pierrot getup on the front cover also harks back to the back cover of ''Music/SpaceOddity'', which featured a Pierrot leading away an old woman among the cavalcade of surreal imagery on the back cover; the ending of the "Ashes to Ashes" video recreates this, albeit with the roles reversed.
** The line "one flash of light, but no smoking pistol" in "Ashes to Ashes" recalls a description of the early 70's GlamRock movement given by Bowie, one of its lead progenitors, in a 1979 interview:
-->"In the beginning of TheSeventies when it was sort of a bit dull, there was the idea of creating a flash of some kind. And the flash was created, but nobody was really found holding the smoking pistol. So [rock] sort of went off at tangents after that."
** "Teenage Wildlife" prominently interpolates the TitleTrack to ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]''.

* MythologyGag: The back cover [[https://img.discogs.com/Ez3guOONS6YQD0zrtswbGE4gRVs=/fit-in/600x591/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-423056-1459756623-6808.jpeg.jpg features]] whitewashed cutouts of the front covers of ''[[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum Low]]'' & ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]'' and the back cover of ''Music/{{Lodger}}'', the latter of which is superimposed on the lower half of ''Music/AladdinSane''[='s=] interior gatefold photo.

** Music/KingCrimson guitarist and de-facto leader Robert Fripp returns to perform guitar on this album, having previously been brought out of retirement to work on ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]''. Fripp specifically plays on almost every track on the album, only absent from "Ashes to Ashes", "Scream Like a Baby", and "Because You're Young".

* BigShutUp: A pair of them cuts off [[Music/KingCrimson Robert Fripp]]'s guitar solo on "It's No Game (Part 1)".

* GratuitousJapanese: Michi Hirota's shouted word parts on "It's No Game (Part 1)" are Japanese translations of the English lyrics; according to Bowie, the intent behind her inclusion was to subvert western stereotypes of Asian women as meek and submissive.

* NWordPrivileges: Bowie exercises F-Slur Privileges on the second verse of "Scream Like a Baby"; while Bowie was infamously inconsistent about how he described his sexual identity, he still described himself as bisexual at the time of the album's release and is generally understood to have been at least bi-curious.

** Roy "The Professor" Bittan of Music/BruceSpringsteen's E Street Band plays piano on "Up the Hill Backwards", "Ashes to Ashes", and "Teenage Wildlife". Springsteen was recording ''The River'' in the same studio at the same time; having previously contributed to Bowie's ''Music/StationToStation'', he was thus brought over here.

''Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)'' is the fourteenth studio album by Music/DavidBowie, released in 1980. Released after three ''avant garde''-leaning albums in collaboration with Music/BrianEno, this is a more mainstream-oriented combination of HardRock and PostPunk, with some Gothic [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] flare thrown into the mix. The lyrics include both political protest and dark psychological observations. The album is best remembered for the international hit "Ashes to Ashes".

* CureYourGays: Passionately criticized and depicted in an overtly negative light in "Scream Like a Baby", with the song's gay protagonist being forced by a fascist government to undergo conversion treatment that destroys his mind; in fact, it's possible to interpret the lyrics as describing the protagonist being ''lobotomized''.

* DarkerAndEdgier: More musically aggressive than ''Music/{{Lodger}}'' and covering more consistently dark subject matters, with themes of oppression, social decay, and political protest.

** The opening lines of "Up the Hill Backwards" are paraphrased from Hans Richter's ''Art and Anti Art'', specifically [[https://bowiesongs.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/upthehill.jpg a segment]] touching upon the factors behind the atmosphere that encompassed the UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} movement in Berlin.

** Roy "The Professor" Bittan of Music/BruceSpringsteen's E Street Band plays piano on "Up the Hill Backwards", "Ashes to Ashes", and "Teenage Wildlife".

* {{Lobotomy}}: "Scream Like a Baby" equates conversion therapy to the controversial neurosurgical practice; one possible interpretation of the lyrics is that the protagonist actually ''is'' lobotomized by the fascist government of the song's setting in order to "cure" his gayness.

* TakeThat: "Scream Like a Baby" is one towards homophobia, with particular disdain given towards the practice of conversion therapy (which the song's lyrics implicitly equate to {{lobotomy}}).

->''"Often copied, never equalled."''
-->--'''{{Tagline}}''' from the album's advertising campaign (and yes, it does spell "equaled" with two L's).

** The back cover references the covers of Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy": ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum'', ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]'' and ''Music/{{Lodger}}'', as well as the much earlier ''Music/AladdinSane''. Bowie's Pierrot getup on the front cover also harks back to the back cover of ''Music/SpaceOddity'', which featured a Pierrot leading away an old woman among the cavalcade of surreal imagery on the back cover; the ending of the "Ashes to Ashes" video recreates this, albeit with the roles reversed.

* MythologyGag: The back cover [[https://img.discogs.com/Ez3guOONS6YQD0zrtswbGE4gRVs=/fit-in/600x591/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-423056-1459756623-6808.jpeg.jpg features]] whitewashed cutouts of the front covers of ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum'' & ''[[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum "Heroes"]]'' and the back cover of ''Music/{{Lodger}}'', the latter of which is superimposed on the lower half of ''Music/AladdinSane''[='s=] interior gatefold photo.

** The back cover references the covers of Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy": ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum'', ''Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum'' and ''Music/{{Lodger}}'', as well as the much earlier ''Music/AladdinSane''. Bowie's Pierrot getup on the front cover also harks back to the back cover of ''Music/SpaceOddity'', which featured a Pierrot leading away an old woman among the cavalcade of surreal imagery on the back cover; the ending of the "Ashes to Ashes" video recreates this, albeit with the roles reversed.

* MythologyGag: The back cover [[https://img.discogs.com/Ez3guOONS6YQD0zrtswbGE4gRVs=/fit-in/600x591/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-423056-1459756623-6808.jpeg.jpg features]] whitewashed cutouts of the front covers of ''Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum'' & ''Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum'' and the back cover of ''Music/{{Lodger}}'', the latter of which is superimposed on the lower half of ''Music/AladdinSane''[='s=] interior gatefold photo.

** Music/KingCrimson guitarist and de-facto leader Robert Fripp returns to perform guitar on this album, having previously been brought out of retirement to work on ''Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum''. Fripp specifically plays on almost every track on the album, only absent from "Ashes to Ashes", "Scream Like a Baby", and "Because You're Young".

** ''Series/TheYoungOnes'': In the episode "Nasty" the young ones conduct a funeral ceremony. As the vicar says "ashes to ashes" Rick sings "funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie", in reference to "Ashes to Ashes".
** The TV series ''Series/{{Ashes to Ashes|2008}}'' was named after the song "Ashes to Ashes".

* SanitySlippage: Happens to the unspecified female character in the TitleTrack, who winds up "stupid on the street" and asocial; a number of analysts have compared the song's use of this trope to Music/JoyDivision's [[Music/UnknownPleasures "She's Lost Control"]] from the year prior, though there's no definitive indication as to whether or not it's coincidental or a ShoutOut (for what it's worth, Joy Division originally named themselves "Warsaw" after Bowie's [[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum "Warszawa"]], and Bowie does briefly mention "Joy Div" in his planning diagrams for the album's lyrics, which indicates that he was at least aware of the Manchester quartet).

* SanitySlippage: Happens to the unspecified female character in the TitleTrack, who winds up "stupid on the street" and asocial; a number of analysts have compared the song's use of this trope to Music/JoyDivision's [[Music/UnknownPleasures "She's Lost Control"]] from the year prior, though there's no definitive indication as to whether or not it's coincidental or a ShoutOut (for what it's worth, Joy Division originally named themselves "Warsaw" after Bowie's [[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum "Warszawa"]], and Bowie does briefly mention "Joy Div" in his planning diagrams for the album's lyrics).

* TheCameo: In the "Ashes To Ashes" music video, Steve Strange from Music/{{Visage}} & some other Blitz Kids appear throughout in one of the most spectacular cases of AscendedFanboy ''ever''.[[note]]Steve was a Bowie fanboy who fashioned the NewRomantic movement's style partially off of Bowie's late 70's getup, and held "Bowie Night" events at the Blitz Club. Him getting to appear ''alongside'' Bowie is like if a modern-day fanfic writer got to have a character inspired by her in her favourite author's latest novel.[[/note]]

* TheCameo: In the "Ashes To Ashes" music video, Steve Strange from Music/{{Visage}} & some other Blitz Kids appear throughout in one of the most spectacular cases of AscendedFanboy ''ever''.[[note]]Steve was a Bowie fanboy who fashioned the New Romantic movement's style partially off of Bowie's late 70's getup, and held "Bowie Night" events at the Blitz Club. Him getting to appear ''alongside'' Bowie is like if a modern-day fanfic writer got to have a character based on her in her favourite author's latest novel.[[/note]]