Glam Rock

Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diverse sources across music and throwaway pop culture, ranging from bubblegum pop and 1950s rock and roll to cabaret, science fiction, and complex art rock. The flamboyant clothing and visual styles of performers were often camp or androgynous, and have been described as playing with other gender roles. Glitter rock was a more extreme version of glam.

The UK charts were inundated with glam rock acts from 1971 to 1975. The March 1971 appearance of T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan on the BBC's music show Top of the Pops, wearing glitter and satins, is often cited as the beginning of the movement. Other British glam rock artists include David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Sweet, Slade, Mud, Roxy Music and Gary Glitter. Those not central to the genre, such as Elton John, Rod Stewart and Queen, also adopted glam styles. There was a similar scene in the United States, with Alice Cooper, Kiss, The Tubes, Brownsville Station, and Lou Reed being the most popular American exponents of the style. Other American glam artists include the New York Dolls, Sparks, Suzi Quatro, Iggy Pop, Zolar X, The Runaways, Cherry Vanilla, The Magic Tramps, Ruby and the Rednecks, and Jobriath - many of these acts constituted the "glam punk" style, a movement that was most prominent in New York City, Los Angeles, and the Northeastern United States. Glam rock declined after the mid-1970s, but influenced other musical genres including punk rock, glam metal, New Romantic, deathrock and gothic rock.^[1]

In the late 70s, bands like Hanoi Rocks and Japan the Band (before they went to New Romantic and City Pop) embraced a punk-tinged version of this aesthetic and musical sound. They went on to influence a few Goth bands (Gene Loves Jezebel especially), some Japanese Goth and Visual Kei, and nigh the entirety of the Hair Metal scene.