Preluding the start of a long period of celebrity deaths in 2016 were the deaths of musicians Natalie Cole and Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister of Motörhead. Within the weeks following these two deaths, 15 more celebrities passed away, constructing a dismal beginning to the new year.

Perhaps the most unbelievable celebrity death to occur in January was that of David Bowie, who died on Jan. 10 after an undisclosed eighteen-month battle with liver cancer. Mr. Bowie released his critically and commercially acclaimed album “Blackstar” on his sixty-ninth birthday in timely coordination with his death only two days later. “Blackstar” became Mr. Bowie’s only no. 1 album, and it stayed rooted atop the Billboard Top 200 albums chart for two weeks initially following his death.

According to Billboard, 10 of Mr. Bowie’s albums have since posthumously re-entered the U.K. Top 40. His album “Best of David Bowie” has moved down ten spaces from no. 4 to no. 14 on the U.S. Top 100 chart while “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust” and “The Spiders from Mars” have dropped from within the top 20 to no. 89.

Many of Mr. Bowie’s previous hits have gained extensive airplay, and some have managed to chart higher than they did during their original releases. Mr. Bowie’s single “Lazarus” sat at no. 40 on the U.S. Top 100 beginning the week of Jan. 24, and it has garnered approximately 30 million views on Youtube since its Dec. 17 release. “Lazarus” has since moved below the Top 100.

“I think he was a musician that changed with the times who had many different faces,” Director of Music Ministry Mr. Pat Robell said. “There are certain musicians that change the direction of music who become recognized as transcenders in their respective genres, but David changed his style and appearance so many times that he influenced other musicians to jump on that bandwagon stylistically.

“I think in the pop sector of the music industry, he’s in the same league as Freddy Mercury. He was a very theatrical and creative artist, and I’m definitely going to take a listen to his newest album.”

Mr. Bowie brought to the music world numerous changes that differed from other musical contributions before his time. His outlandish persona and creativity undoubtedly changed several characteristics of pop music, and he became a quintessential pioneer of the genre within the entirety of the 1970s and the early 1980s.

Mr. Bowie, along with fellow British musician Marc Bolan from the band T. Rex, is credited with being the co-creator of the glam rock genre, a precursor to the formations of the hair bands that gained massive popularity in the early 1980s.

His permanently dilated left pupil and his high cheek bones paired with his motley wardrobes and platform boots cast a striking appearance in the 1970s pop culture that appealed to both men and women alike. Through several famous alter egos such as the unearthly Ziggy Stardust and the suave Thin White Duke, Mr. Bowie broke down gender and racial barriers in music at a time when America was feeling the effects of its tumultuous post-Civil Rights and Vietnam War era.

“Bowie was the first musician that I’ve seen take big risks,” Isabella Cataquiz ’18 said. “His fashion, personality, and performance were simply refreshing and new. That’s why I think he became so famous. His music spoke to people and was vibrant and modern, but it had meaning, and it broke gender roles and stereotypes.

“I remember watching a video of him and his guitarist Mick Ronson perform “Starman.” He put his arm around Mick in front of thousands of viewers at a time when a man touching another man was shocking and triggered criticism, but he did it anyway because he had the bravery and the guts to do it.”

Mr. Bowie vigorously reinvented his style time and time again to match and exceed the quality of music that musicians were releasing. Describing himself as a “musical chameleon,” Mr. Bowie switched from pop to funk and soul to synth-based pop and even experimented with grunge.

Everything Mr. Bowie released was timed precisely, such as the release of his single “Space Oddity” during the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. He crafted himself into a musical icon during his punk rock phase in the early 1970s with innovative songs such as “Life on Mars?,” “Changes,” “Suffragette City,” “Rebel Rebel,” and “Starman”, and the cover of his album Aladdin Sane made him globally recognizable.

Mr. Bowie survived a rough, cocaine-influenced period in the mid-1970s, but he arguably released some of his best material during this time. His experimentation with Philadelphia-soul landed him several chart hits such as “Fame”, “Young Americans”, and “Golden Years.” He was one of the few white artists who were featured on Soul Train, and he once criticized MTV for not playing enough music by black artists in a 1983 interview.

“He was one of the major figures in music and art, and he really paved the way for many others,” Dean of Students Mr. Christopher Greene said. “In order to be an icon, you have to continue to reinvent yourself. I don’t know when his most popular days were, but in the early ’70s he was huge and then in the early ’80s, he was huge again. David Bowie definitely had a huge influence on pop culture in general. My son actually dressed up as Ziggy Stardust when he was in seventh grade.”

Mr. Bowie never stopped recording after finding major success in the 1970s. Even after moving to Berlin, he released a string of hits including “Heroes” and “Under Pressure” (in collaboration with Queen). But Mr. Bowie’s 1983 album “Let’s Dance” pushed him towards the frontline of international attention once again. The success of “Let’s Dance” was a surprise to Bowie as it spawned several hit singles including “Modern Love”, “China Girl”, and the title single “Let’s Dance” which reached no. 1, surpassing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”

After the successes of Mr. Bowie’s album “Let’s Dance” and his “Serious Moonlight” tour that followed, he was unable to reclaim the same amount of popularity as he did previously, and pretension in the late 1980s left him reaching for more than he could bargain. He formed his band Tin Machine in 1989 by means of finding his creativity, and he enjoyed moderate success in the 1990s. By the mid-2000s, Mr. Bowie had stopped touring and began a decade-long hiatus which was terminated with the release of his 2013 album “The Next Day.”

Mr. Bowie’s 18-month battle with liver cancer was unrevealed to the public, and he used his death as a way to launch his final album. David Bowie passed away in his New York City apartment on Jan. 10, and he was cremated on Jan. 12 in New Jersey without receiving a funeral.

“When I found out Bowie died, I was at the beach scrolling through my Instagram,” Cataquiz said. “Several pictures of David Bowie appeared in my feed, and I was confused at first because I knew Bowie’s birthday was two days earlier. One caption read ‘RIP Starman’. I searched the internet and found that David Bowie died of cancer.
It was like I lost a childhood friend that I never kept in contact with, but always remembered in the back of my mind.

“David Bowie was my mom’s first celebrity crush, so her eyes went huge in shock when I told her. I threw rocks into the water and cried. I kept listening to ‘Starman’ on repeat. I know he’s up there with Him. I’m sad he passed away, but I’m happy I grew up on his music.”

Indeed, Mr. Bowie was one of the greatest musicians of all time, and this is a proven fact as he has accumulated more than 140 million album sales worldwide during the course of his 50-year-long career, according to BBC.com.

But the bad news did not stop with Mr. Bowie’s passing.

On Jan 14, it became a shock to many Die Hard and Harry Potter fans to hear of actor Alan Rickman’s sudden death from pancreatic cancer. Like Bowie, Mr. Rickman never publicly announced he was terminally ill, and he was only diagnosed with cancer in August 2015 after suffering a stroke.

Perhaps, Mr. Rickman was best known for playing the devious Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series, or for playing as Hans Gruber alongside Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Or maybe Mr. Rickman will be remembered by some for his deep voice. British actress Helen Mirren commented on his voice to Entertainment Tonight, stating, “[it] could suggest honey or a hidden stiletto blade.”

British actor Daniel Radcliffe shared on his Google Plus, “I’m pretty sure he came and saw everything I ever did on stage both in London and New York. He didn’t have to do that.”

“I’m very saddened by the loss of Rickman,” Payton McSweeney ’17 said. “He was such a prominent figure in my childhood as I was a huge fan of Harry Potter growing up, so it truly is a big loss.”

Like Mr. Bowie, Mr. Rickman was 69 years old when he died. Along with his roles in Die Hard and Harry Potter, he also played roles in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Love Actually and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He voices Absolem in the upcoming film Alice Through the Looking Glass, his final film role which is due to be released in May.

“A lot of people don’t like Snape, but whether you liked him or not, you can’t argue that he played his character so well in fact that he virtually convinced you to hate him in Harry Potter,” Sofia Morroquin ’17 said.

The number of celebrities who perished by mid-January was astonishing, but there was one final unexpected death that would shake the nation.

Glenn Frey, the founding member of the Eagles, died on Jan. 18 at age 67 after having undergone gastrointestinal surgery. Mr. Frey had suffered from complications of rheumatoid arthritis for over a decade-and-a-half, and his medications caused colitis and pneumonia.

The Eagles are one of the greatest bands of all time, and according to the RIAA, their album Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) has gone platinum 29 times and has become the second highest-certified album in the U.S. behind only Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The album has re-entered the Billboard Top 200 since Mr. Frey’s death, and it currently sits at no. 23.

“Though I don’t really remember it, I actually saw the Eagles in concert,” English teacher Mrs. Kathy Bryan said. “They were really huge when I was in college. I believe Glenn Frey was from Michigan, but the Eagles really epitomized the Southern California sound back in the 70s. This could be best heard in their songs “Tequila Sunrise” and “Hotel California.”

Along with “Tequila Sunrise” and “Hotel California”, the Eagles also released their hit songs “Take it Easy”, “Witchy Woman”, “Peaceful Easy Feeling”, “Already Gone”, “Desperado”, “Best of My Love”, “One of These Nights”, “Lyin’ Eyes”, “Take it to the Limit”, “New Kid in Town”, “Heartache Tonight”, “The Long Run” and “I Can’t Tell You Why”, many of which became no. 1 hits, and all of which charted within the Top 40. Altogether, the Eagles have sold more than 150 million albums worldwide.

After a successful decade-long tenure with the Eagles, Mr. Frey took explored a solo career, releasing the Top 40 hits “The One You Love,” “Smuggler’s Blues,” “Sexy Girl,” “The Heat Is On,” “You Belong to the City,” “True Love”, “Soul Searchin’,” and “Livin’ Right.” Together with the combined successes of his stint with the Eagles and his solo career, Mr. Frey charted 24 Top 40 singles and received six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards.

January, unfortunately, developed into a sorrowful month, but all who perished will be honored in remembrance as time persists. Future generations will discover the works of Bowie and other artists just as millennials have today. While it is heart-wrenching to hear how many beloved icons have passed on, their legacies will live forever.