Glam rock

Glam rock (also known as glitter rock), is a style of rock music, which initially surfaced in the post-hippie early 1970s. Those who participated in the genre drew on several past youth cultures, musical styles, movie images and art movements to produce a distinct sound and aesthetic which essentially combined science fiction, nostalgia, camp, theatre, and a hard rock sound.

Largely a British phenomenon, glam rock peaked culturally during the period 1971-1974, and was made famous by artists such as Marc Bolan and his band T.Rex, David Bowie, Queen, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, Slade, Gary Glitter, Sweet, Mott The Hoople, Alvin Stardust, Mud, and The Glitter Band.

Key stylistic themes
Musically, glam rock was characterised by a combination of languid, narcotic ballads and raunchy, high-energy Rolling Stones–influenced rock. Lyrically, the genre's emphasis was most often centred on standard hedonistic pop/rock themes, but other key subjects included classic literature, mythology, esoteric philosophy, science fiction and (apolitical) 'teenage revolution' (such as in T.Rex's "Children of the Revolution", Sweet’s "Teenage Rampage", and David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel").

Glam fans (usually referred to in the music press as "glitter kids") and performers distinguished themselves from the denim-clad hippiedom with a deliberately "artificial" look. This was derived in large part from a fusing of transvestism with futurism.

Evoking the glamour of 'Old Hollywood' whilst consciously wallowing in 1970s drug and sleaze success, the stars of Andy Warhol's films and his stage play Pork were crucially influential to the nascent glam movement. The Warhol coterie were provocatively camp, flamboyant, intelligent and sexually ambiguous.

In hindsight, Edie Sedgwick may be seen as a very early ultra-hedonistic 'look good/live fast/die young' glam star, but other Warhol Superstars like Jackie Curtis, Viva, Cherry Vanilla and Holly Woodlawn were also influential on the glam rock visual style.

With then-recent homosexual reforms in the United Kingdom and the militant Stonewall Riots in the U.S., sexual ambiguity was briefly in vogue as an effective cultural "shock tactic". David Bowie caused something of an outrage in early 1972 when he told the UK press he was "gay", but in actuality he meant "bisexual".

Part of glam rock's allure was a wilful denial of traditional gender-representation, but this may be seen as part of a continuum with 1960s Mod as a precursor. Genuinely gay glam rock musicians were rare; the late Jobriath was amongst rock culture's first openly gay stars, whilst Queen's Freddie Mercury stayed mostly "in the closet" (bisexual) until he also died of AIDS.

Science fiction imagery was a core strand of glam rock's stylistic weave. The Apollo moon landings (1969-1972) took place simultaneously with glam rock's rise to popularity, and were popularly held to herald the dawn of the "Space Age". Glam style strongly referenced this anticipated era with silver astronaut-like outfits, multicoloured hair and allusions to a new multi-gender social morality. Themes of spaceflight and alien encounters were prevalent at the more cerebral end of the Glam rock spectrum, and even the pop stars often dressed in futuristic drag.

Glam performers and fans combined nostalgic and "space age" influences alike into unique interpretations of Victorian, cabaret, and futuristic styles. The best-known exemplar of glam style was David Bowie, a musician and songwriter already given to often-radical revamps of image and sound. In early 1972, Bowie changed from long-haired singer-songwriter to short-haired "A Clockwork Orange"-influenced proto-punk. Over the next few years, his images grew more extreme, as did those of the Glitterkids.

Glam became a quasi-subculture; however by the early 1970s, the social upheavals of the 1960s had produced a fertile post-hippie era in which not only "futuristic" glam rock could (briefly) exist, but the undercurrent of nostalgia which had run throughout the 1960s (after all, 1950s celebrants Sha-Na-Na had performed at Woodstock amongst the blues-rockers) could surface and become a mainstream interest. 1973 encompassed the New York Dolls' debut album, the launch of Skylab, and the American Grafitti movie alike.

Glam rock in theatre and cinema
Some examples of movies that reflect Glam Rock include:
 * Brian DePalma's Phantom of the Paradise;
 * The Rocky Horror Picture Show;
 * T.Rex's documentary Born To Boogie;
 * Sweet's documentary "All That Gltters"
 * David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture (1973);
 * Alice Cooper's Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper, Alice Cooper: The Nightmare and Welcome to My Nightmare (film);
 * Gary Glitter's Remember Me This Way;
 * Slade's Flame;
 * Robert Fuest's Final Programme (1973);
 * Oz (1976);
 * Black Moon (1975);
 * Side By Side (1975);


 * Never too Young to Rock (1975);
 * KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978);
 * Todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine (1998);
 * John Cameron Mitchell's film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
 * Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto (2005)

Subsequent influence
Although not a hugely successful genre in term of record sales (nothing like Disco, which became immensely popular over glam rock's declining years), glam's air of wilful decadence, society-baiting clothes, near-cultish behaviour and pop-rock sound were a major influence upon the punk rock movement of the late 1970s. Bowie and Bolan held a huge sway but it was the New York Dolls in particular who most influenced early Punk bands such as the Heartbreakers (which included two ex-Dolls), Ramones, Sex Pistols, Voidoids, Dead Boys, The Damned (with whom Marc Bolan toured during 1977) and Siouxsie And The Banshees.

The German The 80's New wave/Post-punk-artist often had a glammy image: German Nina Hagen and Klaus Nomi, Bosnian Lene Lovich and others.

The Gothic rock movement, particularly the bands who played at the Batcave in London (such as Specimen) took obvious cues from glam, in particular Roxy Music and David Bowie. Another movement from around the same time was dubbed the "New Romantics" and included the likes of Adam and the Ants, Culture Club, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Dead Or Alive, Visage, Norman Iceberg and Soft Cell. Bands in other countries locked onto the glam look and sound, such as Hanoi Rocks of Finland.

In the 1980s, the Los Angeles music scene spawned glam metal bands, including Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Poison, Cinderella and many, many others, who were vaguely influenced by Glam in appearance and pop sensibility, but were more akin to metal in attitude and sound. Their look and sound dominated MTV for several years.

In the 1990s, Britpop strongly referenced glam rock, with bands like Oasis taking Slade and Mott The Hoople among their primary influences. Placebo, Suede, Manic Street Preachers and Spacehog are other notable United Kingdom bands from this time with heavy glam rock leanings. Morrissey's album Your Arsenal is also a paradigm example of this trend.

Marilyn Manson's album Mechanical Animals was heavily influenced by 1970s glam rock, and Manson created the androgynous space alien "Omega".

In 2000, Japan's Visual kei scene was heavily influenced by Glam Rock. Jzeil was band that used glam rock as centre for the bands image. The lead singer went solo under the name Daigo Stardust. He used David Bowie as his main influence.

Although glam rock's outrage value has long passed and in the purest sense is rarely played any more, Sweden's The Ark, Finland's Negative, Canada's Robin Black and the I.R.S. and Norway's Turbonegro are examples of a modern day incarnation.

Glam rock acts

 * List of glam rock artists