The History of Glam Rock at a glance……
May 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Rock & Roll music which was the predominant music genre in the 1940s and 1950s in the United States , particularly in the West Coast started to wane in the 60s. A new band of musicians raised to the occasion in the late 1960s to bring about what came to be known as Glam Rock or Glitter Rock . Velvet Underground was formed in 1965 performing in Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastics Inevitable Events. They were very experimental and was credited with pioneering Punk Rock as well. The more famous members of the band included John Cale and Lou Reed ( who partnered David Bowie at a later part of his career. )
Glam Rock also brought about a change in the showmanship elements of singers. Instead of just playing their instruments and singing their songs, groups like The Doors started to draw crowds with their dramatic antics and unpredictable behaviours.Jim Morrison started to incorporate theatrical influences and confrontational behaviours into his gigs and started to involve the audience for a more gratifying experience. Affected by Julian Beck, Morrison created the Persona of Lizard King who dared to do anything on stage including indecently exposing himself.
Like any musical movement is a reflection of the times. Glam rock was born during the period whereby existenalism ( a school of thought that preaches living life meaningfully and giving it meaning instead of waiting for fate to decide what is to happen. ) was common. It was the after the hypies movement was dying off and the Beatles disbanded.
Alice Cooper was also part of the glam rock movement in the initial stages and was crossdressing but the albums at this point did not do well. ( It was only when Cooper turn their attention to horror did they start becoming popular mainstream. )
Surprsingly, one of the most famous Glam Rock Artistes was not from America but from England. David Bowie however did not gain much fame until he publicly proclaimed in 1972 he was gay. This was after homosexual reforms in the UK and the Stonewall Riots for Gay Rights. Glam Rock was the music movement that first denied Traditional Gender Roles and Representations. In his first visit to New York, Bowie ran into Iggy Pop and Andy Warhol along with his theatre group – Pork , which influenced him to change his image and direction altogether.
Bowie was thus transformed into his alter ego – Ziggy Stardust.
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars indulged in heavy stage makeup, was sexually promiscuous and added Eastern Influences like Kabuki and Noh Theatre.
Ziggy also borrowed heavily from Stanley Kubrick’s films like A Clockwork Orange and 2010: A Space Odyssey thus adding a futuristic feel to the glam age. Ziggy was extremely successful in Britain but bombed in America .
Band like T-Rex, Slade, Sweet , Hanoi Rocks and KISS also made their presence felt. More effort was also put into stage design and pyrotechnics to enhance the entire visual experience. KISS was in particularly extremely popular due to this. That and their elaborate stage makeup and costumes. The outlandish makeup was in fact a recflection of their own personalities like how Paul Stanley is the StarChild and Gene Simmons is the the Demon.
Glam rock however did not last forever and faded from mainstream back into quasi subculture by 1974 as a lot of the singers went on to explore other kinds of music, but it left a big impact on music as we know it and will continue to be in years to come.
Megalomaniac Euphoria 