Glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a music that came into being in Britain in the early 1970s. Its main distinctive feature is that the male singers wore makeup and were dressed up in female clothes. The vast majority of the musicians came from a British working-class background and had already been in contact with music hall theatre. Another aspect of glam rock was that the media became part of the lyrics and the artists had an ambivalent stance towards it, as they were aware of the exerted power, but at the same time they admired it. Furthermore, glam rock was characterized by the fear of the future, which was generated by scenarios described in science fiction.
In addition, it was constituted of components belonging to the sphere of queerness. Glam rock was called in several ways, as for instance glitter rock, shock rock and gay rock. However, it is important to keep in mind that some of these terms might have been offensive. Although it was an eclectic genre and the artist had “spectacular visual and sonic imaginations” (Lenig, 3), it was the object of criticism or denigration.
The most prominent exponents of this genre were David Bowie, Elton John and Queen. In the aftermath glam rock was also able to gain a foothold in the US, where it became somewhat rougher with musicians and bands like Alice Cooper or the New York Dolls.
•Glam rock." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 Feb. 2008. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/glam-rock/110274. Accessed 3 Jun. 2017.
•Lenig, Stuart (2010): The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger, p.1-13