Fox Reviews Rock

What Do You Think Glam Rock Expressed Beyond The Music Itself

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Glam was not just a sound but a wider statement. Using style, performance and attitude to push it far beyond the traditional ideas of identity and rock itself.

Fluid identity

Glam blurred the lines around gender and self-expression. Making room for ambiguity and reinvention (Something that some did more than others).

David Bowie – Starman (All Rights Are Retained By David Bowie)

The power of image

It glam the look was almost as important as how you sounded. Fashion, makeup and staging became not only central to the message artists wanted you to know. But essential.

New York Dolls – Personality Crisis (All Rights Are Retained By New York Dolls)

Escapism and fantasy

Alternative worlds and larger than life personas because common place. Sci-fi themes and theatrical storytelling too rock to somewhere it had never been before!

Sweet – Ballroom Blitz (All Rights Are Retained By Sweet)

Challenging rock norms

Glam pushed back against the idea that rock had to be raw and “authentic.” It embraced artifice, showing that performance itself could be meaningful.

It helped push back the idea that rock has to be this raw thing. It embraced the performance and a bit of polish!

T.Rex – 20th Century Boy (All Rights Are Retained By T.Rex)
All rights to the songs used in this post are retained by the relevant artists. This site claims no rights over them.

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13 responses to “What Do You Think Glam Rock Expressed Beyond The Music Itself”

  1. missparker0106 avatar
    missparker0106

    Glam Rock in general, and David Bowie (and many of his contemporaries) specifically taught me that it’s OK to be me. That was so important at a time in my life when I felt like an outcast. It carries through with me today.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. richardbist avatar
      richardbist

      Totally agree with Miss Parker. These artists showed me that being different, not conforming to the norms, and being creative and artistic was okay. I didn’t have to be the stereotypical ‘macho man’, I could be me.

      Plus, their music was (and still is) awesome. 🎶

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
        Fox Reviews Rock

        Yeah for sure the music helped! 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

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    2. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      It is a very important lesson! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. lyndhurstlaura avatar
    lyndhurstlaura

    I loved all of these, and so many more, but Bowie was the main man, ‘Starman’ a particular favourite with me. Their mode of dress encouraged me to break boundaries and wear what I liked, evolving my own style. Magical times. 😎

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      It’s all about experimentation and being who we really are 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. lyndhurstlaura avatar
        lyndhurstlaura

        Exactly. 😊

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply
  3. robjtriggs avatar
    robjtriggs

    I got into glam after watching the Top Ten channel four special repeatedly in the mid-late nineties. The curious thing is that Bowie, though mentioned, didn’t make the cut. It’s easy to forget that he didn’t have many big-selling singles through the early seventies – or, indeed, throughout his career in relation to his output.

    Glam was a product of a particular time and (mostly) place. Pop was safe, culture was stratified and the youth had little hope or direction. Conformity was a necessity – and then there was glam, which just rejected everything, from social norms to the earnestness of flower power and prog. Here was fun! Unashamed, over the top entertainment. Most people still had black and white TVs, remember.

    Glam was rebellion, and freedom, and it was remarkably short-lived. I’d compare it to punk – same suburban/urban roots, same blaze of glory here-and-gone burn-out spirit. Punk seems to have had more of an afterlife, though, with the honourable exception of Lordi.

    From a personal point of view, I’m trying to think where I was that made me fall for glam. Obviously there’s the Bowie thing, but I think a lot of it comes simply from good, memorable tunes, and also a lot of diversity. Slade rocked pretty damn hard, and I’m not entirely sure if they can be compared with the fey weirdness of Marc Bolan (I tried liking T-Rex, I really did). I think the longest glam survivors were Sweet, who were bothering the charts into the eighties, and also had the classic arc of escaping the Chapman-Chinn music factory to write their own records. Fox on the Run is a great song still.

    Glam was an image I never dreamed of living myself. Those costumes, the theatricality – that was in no way me. But it was nice to know that it existed. It was nice to know there were mad people in the world, people who dreamed and could hold a mirror up to world, to show us how ludicrous it all is, when you get right down to it.

    I was digging into glam at the same time I was listening to Load (I saw Poor Touring Me, the show with the burning roadie) and Alice Cooper, glam’s other great showman (Hey Stoopid is still great) – but also Swervedriver and REM and Pink Floyd, who are almost the exact opposite.

    We contain multitudes. It’s good that at least one part of us knows that life is often stupid, and setimes the best way to look at it is from the top of six-inch platforms

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
      Fox Reviews Rock

      I love the comparison between glam and punk. But id throw grunge into the mix for the same reason. Slade is my father in laws favourite band!

      Although T-rex are great 🙂 But we cant all like the same thing right!

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      1. robjtriggs avatar
        robjtriggs

        Yeah, very much grunge, good call. As for T-Rex, I love Ride a White Swan. Problem is that all his songs sound lovely but essentially it’s just the same few lines repeated repeatedly. I just found that really frustrating – I just want something a little more substantial

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
          Fox Reviews Rock

          Yeah I see the reason behind the complaint, I think I just love the guitar tbh 😛

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          1. robjtriggs avatar
            robjtriggs

            The guitar is lovely, can’t argue with that

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply
            1. Fox Reviews Rock avatar
              Fox Reviews Rock

              🙂

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