WHAT IS GLAM ROCK?

Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter. The flamboyant costumes and visual styles of glam performers were often camp or androgynous, and have been connected with new views of gender roles.

FAMOUS GLAM ROCKERS

Glam rock peaked during the mid-1970s with artists including T. Rex,

David Bowie

Sweet

Roxy Music

Gary Glitter

in the UK, and the Alice Cooper group

New York Dolls

Lou Reed

Iggy Pop

Jobriath

in the US.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GLAM ROCK

Musically glam rock was very diverse, varying between the simple rock and roll revivalism of figures like Alvin Stardust to the complex art rock of Roxy Music, and can be seen as much as a fashion as a musical subgenre. Visually it was a mesh of diferent styles, ranging from Hollywood glamour until science fiction style, to ancient and occult mysticism and mythology; manifesting itself in outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots.

INFLUENCE

Although glam rock went into a steep decline in popularity in the second half of the 1970s it was a direct influence on acts that rose to prominence later, including Kiss and American glam metal acts like Quiet Riot, W.A.S.P. It was a major influence on the New Romantics in Britain. It also had an influence on the formation of gothic rock, and even on punk rock, pop-art and simple but powerful instrumentation. In Japan in the 1980s, visual kei was strongly influenced by glam rock aesthetics.

Glam has since enjoyed continued influence and sporadic modest revivals in bands such as Marilyn Manson

Placebo

Chainsaw Kittens

the Darkness