Young Americans

Several people have mentioned the allusion to the Beatles- "I heard the news today, oh boy"...remember the rest of the line? : "..about a lucky man who made the grade..." You see, Bowie's song is about someone who has NOT "made the grade" that is collectively articulated as the American Dream. That, in a nutshell, is the point of the song: American bombards people with a litany of flashy expectations -Ford Mustangs, Barbie dolls, Daddy's heroes (Sports, Hollywood, etc.) material success, etc., but the disconcerting reality is that few people ever attain this tantalizing vision of success, because it's unrealistic, and when their adult lives turn out to be about divorce, alimony, and general failure, they are just confused. The speaker of Bowie's song asks questions like ""We live for just these twenty years Do we have to die for the fifty more?" and "Ain't there a man who can say no more?" Because he is confused when he sees that a culture that only values youth and flash leaves everyone over 20 in the lurch-and there's no Hollywood hero who will step in to save the day, because that's just in the movies. In the final evaluation, those who fail to realize that the American Dream is, after all, a dream, will wind up in mid-life wondering what kind of meaning they were really supposed to have sought instead. The ironic part is that Bowie (who is British) is so smart that he manages to critique America without being obvious; most people mistakenly think this song is some kind of celebration of the American way of life. It's not. It's an intelligent critique of our shallow culture and the hollow expectations it encourages in place of anything that could actually provide meaning-religion, literature, learning, family, etc.