7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

musician and producer who is perhaps best known for his

ambient albums. As music, Low and its sequels, Heroes (1977)

and Lodger (1979), would prove to be Bowie’s most influen-

tial and lasting, serving as a blueprint for a later generation of

techno-rock. In the short run, the albums marked the end

of his significant mass audience impact, though not his sales.

In addition to Eno, Bowie also collaborated with guitarists

Mick Ronson and Carlos Alomar as well as ace nouveau-

funk producer Nile Rodgers for “Let’s Dance” (1983).

In the 1980s, despite the impressive artistic resolve of

Scary Monsters (1980) and the equally impressive commercial

success of Let’s Dance (1983), which produced three American

Top 20 hits, Bowie’s once-innovative work seemed to have

lost the musical, intellectual, and boundary-pushing edge

of his previous efforts. In tandem with an acting career that,

since his arresting debut in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who

Fell to Earth (1976), largely failed to jell, his vague later albums

oscillated between would-be commercial moves for which

he did not seem to have the heart (Never Let Me Down [1987])

and would-be artistic statements for which he had lost his

shrewdness (Outside [1995]). Yet his 1970s work including,

in addition to his own output, service as a producer on

landmark albums from Mott the Hoople, Lou Reed, and

Iggy and the Stooges remains a vital and compelling index

to a time it did its part to shape. Bowie was inducted into

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Ten years later, he

was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

(b. Oct. 13, 1948, Lyallpur [now Faisalabad] Pak.—d. Aug. 16, 1997,

London, Eng.)

P

akistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is considered

one of the greatest performers of qawwali, a Sufi

Muslim devotional music characterized by simple melodies,