In the weeks before David Bowie's death on Sunday, two developers put together a site called SupBowie.com. which allows fans to find out what the great man was doing when he was at their age.
The creators, Joakim Tønnesen — a developer based in Bergen, Norway, and Duy Nguyen — a creative and art director based in Oslo, wrote of their site:
David Bowie might have made some of the most influential music ever, but what's truly impressive is his willingness to experiment and try new things.
This page is to celebrate David Bowie, and remind us to get out of our comfort zone and start doing shit.
Nguyen told BuzzFeed News on Monday that the site came about after his mentor, Nick Finney, had given him a task to kill time during an internship: "Tell today's youth, most of who have heard of David Bowie but really don't know anything about him, why they should worship David Bowie."
Nguyen said:
"I did some research and I quickly noticed how many different things Bowie did, also outside of his music. Then I started comparing myself to David Bowie. Thus the idea of 'what did David Bowie do at your age?' was born. People tend to compare themselves to celebrities, and the concept is very relatable to most people.
"It's just really hard to compare yourself to someone like Bowie. Not only because he was a musical genius and a talent, because many people are. What really sets him apart from everyone else is how he used all that. By not stopping when he could have, he always kept going. Kept experimenting and tried new things. Which is the real inspiration we can take away from him beside his legendary musical career."
NME wrote about the site last week, and it received an additional surge in popularity after the news of Bowie's death broke, with the site almost crashing on Monday morning.
SupBowie tells us that, at aged 22, he "had his first hit in the UK with 'Space Oddity.'"
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At 29, "he starred in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth by director Nicolas Roeg," and by 30 had "sung in a completely self-invented language on the 1977 Low album track 'Subterraneans.'"
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The site also includes information on Bowie's childhood, and the fact that he had a spider — Heteropoda davidbowie — named after him in Malaysia when he was 62.
Nguyen said he had no idea that Bowie had died until he was contacted by BuzzFeed News:
I had no idea about his cancer and his death until I read your e-mail. I was caught up in some other things and didn't check the news. I was truly shocked and still am. There is never going to be another David Bowie, but we should look at his awesome life and be inspired to make the most of our lives, just like he did – to the very end.
On Monday, however, the site was updated to reflect the singer's death. The entry for 69 — the age he turned on Friday, reads:
You can find out what Bowie was doing at your age here.