David Bowie, celebrated throughout his career for fearlessly exploring an enormous range of musical styles, revealed that country and western was the one genre he never listened to. This stands out because Bowie was famed as a musical chameleon who moved fluidly between glam rock, soul, electronica and experimental art rock, making his outright avoidance of one specific genre notable and revealing about his artistic identity.

Bowie stated plainly that country and western was "the only music I didn’t listen to," adding that this remained true throughout his life even as he embraced everything else "from jazz to classical to popular." Commentators suggest this makes sense given country's traditional songwriting conventions sat at odds with Bowie's reinvention-driven, avant-garde persona, and unlike contemporaries such as Bob Dylan, he had little interest in adopting a countrified sound later in his career, preferring to remain distinct from that tradition's crooning outlaws like Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.