BOWIE’s Synth Pop Single “Good All On My Own” is a Triumphant Examination of Self-Discovery

BOWIE’s video for “Good All On My Own” charts an inner narrative most people can relate to with all the stories and identities you’re conditioned and to which you’re socially rewarded to conform—at least as well as you can—and you do until you get to a place in life when you become comfortable with who you are and who you’ve wanted to be or who you’ve become aside from all the layers of adjustment that had nothing to do with living as a good person but more arbitrary standards of culture that develop and become the expected norm even if it doesn’t make sense for everyone. In the video we see BOWIE covered in green grime that gets “washed off” and she gets dressed up in a pink, “girly” outfit and sits there looking really unimpressed by the transformation. And at the climax of the song she gets back into the grey-green “filth” of one’s genuine self but is really the self one comes to recognize as perfectly acceptable and a rejection of imposed, superficial personality traits as signified by a standardized image that is intended to convey identity. It is a journey for self-discovery of the authentic self and throwing off what one has learned that don’t seem to suit you. The video is like an experimental film. But the song is a finely syncopated bit of uplifting synth pop driven by BOWIE’s wide-ranging vocals and heartfelt melodies and by the end of the song accompanied by a bombastic horn section and screaming guitar to drive the message of self-validation home. Watch the video for “Good All On My Own” on YouTube and follow BOWIE at the links provided. BOWIE’s The Right Way Up EP releases September 2023.