“Modern Love” by David Bowie

Throwing it back to one of the best pop-rock tracks in Bowie's catalog.

It's the end of the week, and I want to send everyone off into the weekend with the best vibes possible. That’s why the Daily Music Picks newsletter features a weekly segment called Fun Song Fridays! Regardless of era, genre, or style, the criterion is simple: it must deliver the joy and excitement we all need in our lives.

You can access the entire Fun Song Fridays archive here. While you’re at it, add the companion playlist to your favorite streaming platform.

---

Today’s music pick is arguably the best pop song David Bowie ever wrote, representing the apex of his commercial viability.

---

Genre: Rock, Pop

Label: EMI

Release Date: September 12, 1983

Vibe: ⚡

---

👉 Click the GIF to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈

At the dawn of the 1980s, David Bowie was the de facto king of rock music experimentation. His rightly lauded Berlin Trilogy, which includes timeless records like Low, rewrote the rules for what a Bowie LP could sound like and influenced artists like Joy Division, Brian Eno, and Arcade Fire. But, as critically well-received as those releases were, they didn’t light the world on fire commercially. That reality, coupled with Bowie’s strong reaction to John Lennon’s murder, led to a mentality switch. "I wanted to come in touch with the common factor and not seem to be some sort of alien freak,” he’d say later. "I don't want to seem detached and cold, because I'm not.”

When Bowie began working with Nile Rodgers on material that would eventually make up Let’s Dance, both parties weren’t necessarily certain they were making a hit. But, according to behind-the-scenes lore, “Modern Love,” the indefatigable opening track, helped focus their efforts in an unapologetically mainstream direction. “When I first got involved, I wanted to do a very noncommercial, avant-garde album," admitted Rodgers. "I thought I was finally getting a chance to show that black people can do records about things other than dancing, making love and stuff like that.” Apparently, Bowie’s instructions to Rodgers were simple: "I want you to do what you do best — make great commercial records." With Rodgers at the helm, Let’s Dance was completed in an astonishing 19 days.

Beginning with that iconic “chukka-chukka” rhythm guitar intro, “Modern Love” is among the best pop songs Bowie ever wrote. Every piece of the instrumental fits together perfectly, from Omar Hakim’s enormous-sounding drums to Robert Sabino’s airy keyboard playing that pushes the song ever so slightly in a new wave direction. While deceptively simple-sounding, the lyrics are also more nihilistic than its uptempo groove would have you believe. According to Bowie, modern love gets him to the church on time, but the notion of “church-on-time” terrifies him. Later in the chorus, after stating the church puts his trust in “God and man,” he outright rejects the assumed, more traditional religious overtones, ending the recurring section with the observation that those two parties “don’t believe in modern love.” It wouldn’t be the last time Bowie would throw darts at the Catholic Church, drawing their ire again in 2013 on his track “The Next Day.”

Spiritual anxieties aside, “Modern Love” and Let’s Dance ushered in a new era of mainstream viability for the rock legend. Certified Gold in the UK, the song helped propel the LP to unprecedented heights in Bowie’s mind. Per Rodgers: “For the first few weeks, even he was surprised. He's a big artist and a rock & roll demigod, but there was still a garage-band guy in there who couldn't believe his record was selling. I'd be lying in bed, and the phone would ring: 'Hello, Nile? This is David. Look what's happening, did you see Billboard this week? Wow, unbelievable!'"