David Bowie (March 19, 1977) Compulsive Viewing and Listening – RCA Full-Page Catalogue Advert

Publication: New Musical Express

Date: March 19, 1977

Writer: RCA Records Advert

A bold, self‑aware full‑page RCA Records advert in New Musical Express that showcased twelve cornerstone David Bowie albums, framed as “compulsive viewing and listening”. Presented as a gallery of television screens — each album a different channel, a different persona, a different world — the advert arrived just weeks after the release of Low, positioning Bowie not merely as a musician but as a multimedia force, endlessly reinventing himself. It was RCA’s ambitious attempt to canonise his 1970s catalogue even as he continued to push into new territory with the Berlin era.