Glam Rock Bands - Great Music from the 1970s

I really enjoyed the music from the glam rock bands, but I think I enjoyed what they wore just as much. Ler's take a dive into the history of rock 'n' roll.

At the beginning of the 70's, a new wave of rock music virtually took over the music scene in the U.K. To many, glam rock seemed to come out of nowhere and quickly became a phenomenon which dominated much of the music scene in the UK. The movement launched the careers of artists who are world famous to this day and spawned hits which nearly everyone in the Western world is familiar with.

Musically, there was nothing truly new about most of the British glam rock bands. Their sound drew from the rock and bubblegum pop music which preceded it.

What truly set the glam rock bands apart was their emphasis on over the top performances and wardrobes. In sharp contrast to its musical antecedents, glam abandoned innocence in favor of a much more boisterous show of sexuality - in most cases in the form of 'glitzy camp'.

It is this very distinction which accounts for why glam rock didn't make quite as big of a splash in the US. Many glam rockers adopted androgynous looks, complete with bright, sparkly makeup and costumes that could make most drag queens blush. The U.S wasn't quite ready for this eccentricity that the British accepted with arms wide open.

You could define most glam rock artists as falling into one of two camps. One is the flashier, more bubblegum glam of T-Rex, Slade, Gary Glitter or Sweet. Marc Bolan's T-Rex and the bands who followed were known for their outrageous, flashy costumes and playful power pop. It should be noted here that T-Rex definitely worked in styles other than teen-oriented pop and Slade was already an established "suedehead" band with a harder sound before wholeheartedly adopting glam rock.

The other camp came from a different sort of musical background, with artists who aspired to do things differently and were known more for their music than for their wardrobes. This group includes David Bowie, Roxy Music and Wizzard; artists with a more ambitious, experimental and often darker sound and lyrics, especially compared to Sweet or Gary Glitter.

While glam didn't take off in the States as it did at home, there were some notable American glam rock acts as well. The New York Dolls, Alice Cooper and Kiss managed to put the US on the glam rock map; The Dolls had less of a glam rock sound than a glam rock look; while the androgynous looks were there, their music had more in common with the Rolling Stones and the Stooges than with Gary Glitter or Roxy Music.

Also hailing from New York City were Kiss. Their early sound was very similar to Slade and other hard rock influenced glam rock acts - and with their face paint, glitter and high heeled boots, Kiss had the glam look down from the start.

Perhaps glam rock was too much fun to last. By the mid 70s, the genre had begun to fade from the public consciousness, supplanted by punk, new wave and the heavy metal revival of the early 1980s, all movements started by young people who'd been inspired by the music of Slade, the New York Dolls, David Bowie, T-Rex and the other artists who put glam rock into the lexicon.

If you have read other parts of my site then you know I loved a good show and part of this to me was the way the bands dressed. Slade was my favorite glam rock band; to this day I still listen to their music for a nice change of style.

I'm glad America could answer with some good glam rock bands of our own. Alice Cooper and KISS was just what us kids wanted to see and they were from the good ol' USA.

A lot has changed musically over the years but I'm glad I was around in the early days to see it all happen. In the 70's I was paying about $7.00 for a concert ticket!

Rock & Roll is Rock & Roll is Rock & Roll -no matter what decade you're from. ROCK ON!

Learn what role glam rock bands played in my personal history of rock 'n' roll