Glam rock

Style of 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 in feminine clothes. The vast majority of the musicians came from a British working-class background and had already been in contact with music-hall theatre. 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. 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, Queen and T-Rex. 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.

Sources:

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"Glam rock." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 Feb. 2008. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/glam-rock/110274. Accessed 3 Jun. 2017.

Lenig, Stuart. The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010. 1-13.