It took years of hard work for David Jones to emerge from his chrysalis to become David Bowie, one of the most unpredictable and influential figures in music. Here are 10 defining moments from rock's greatest chameleon:
10: Blackstar: The surprise album was released on January 8, Bowie's 69th birthday. Its jazz-inflected journey demonstrated that Bowie was continuing to explore new sonic worlds. In the video for the title track, a blindfolded Bowie offered enigmatic incantations on life and death. Two days later, Bowie died aged 69, after a battle with cancer. Music writer Graeme Thomson captured the shock felt by many: "We were so thrilled to have him back, we failed to notice he was saying goodbye," he tweeted.
9: The Next Day: After a decade of public silence, Bowie took fans and music critics by surprise in 2013 with this new album. It had the musician looking back on songs such as Where Are We Now, which referenced his 1970s Berlin days. Fans hoped -- in vain -- that the new songs meant Bowie might return to live performance.
8: Let's Dance: Bowie embraced the mainstream -- or the mainstream finally caught up with him -- in 1983 for one of his biggest albums, considered by many to be the last flourish of his golden period. "Put on your red shoes and dance the blues," Bowie sang, and the fans obeyed, flocking to shows on a monster North American tour.
7: Ashes to Ashes: Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie: The first single from Bowie's 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is a bittersweet sequel to Space Oddity that Bowie called his epitaph for the 1970s. It also saw him looking to the future and embracing the new art form of music videos, with an eerie clip in which Bowie appeared as a spectral Pierrot alongside figures from London's emerging New Romantic scene.