In March 1971, Marc Bolan and his band T. Rex took to the stage of TV show “Top of the Pops.” It looked like another innocuous performance of their hit “Hot Love,” if not for the glittery gold teardrops Bolan adorned below his eyes. The teardrops, along with his silver satin sailor suit and corkscrew curls, helped usher in glam rock to the shores of Britain.
55 years later, it will be the topic for an edition of British Invasion — the column that explores the facets of British music history. Today’s column touches on the fashion, music and culture of this subgenre in the early 1970s and how it endures into the present day.
Glam rock was created as an antagonist to the mainstream rock scene of the late 1960s and the burgeoning progressive rock movement that was also gaining popularity. Instead, glam rockers embraced a range of retro styles. From musical theater, cabaret, 1930s Hollywood glamor and more.
The one thing glam rock was well known for was their fashion style. The outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles of glam rockers like David Bowie or the bands Slade and Sweet gave them an air of androgyny, as they looked more feminine than your typical male rockstar of the 1960s.
Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” look may have been modelled off drag queen Jackie Curtis, who was sporting bright red hair and glitter make-up well before Bowie did. Before his famous “Top of the Pops” performance, some sources claim that Bolan got the idea for the glitter from Chelita Secunda, his manager’s wife. It is possible that many women were behind the images of glam rockers — Angie Bowie and June Bolan helped their husbands dress more effeminate for their acts — but many of them were lost among the male-dominated subgenre and omitted from its history.
Suzi Quatro is one of the few female musicians who made her mark on the scene, and she did so by opposing the role of women in rock. She didn’t wear makeup and always wore pants onstage. Quatro played the bass and wrote her own songs, both of which were considered more male-centric jobs back in the 1970s.
Despite its flamboyant style, the musical content of glam rock leaned towards brash yet simple riffs — evoking the rock and roll 1950s — and pairing it with a theatrical performance and larger than life characters.
The glam rock scene also provided a space for numerous artists who came out or identified as LGBTQ+, including Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Elton John and Bowie. It also gave space for queer rock fans, such as music critic Jim Farber, to express their love toward rock music.
“The identification that glam gave me wasn’t to gay culture, then deep into disco, but to the throbbing new heart of rock’n’roll,” Farber said.
Glam rock came to a premature end on Oct. 11, 1974, in an event known as the Death of Glitter. People gathered inside Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco to bury the genre. But it turns out they were a year early on that front, as punk rockers would arrive in 1976 to become the biggest challenger to the rock mainstream, hoping to purge both its progressive and glittery excesses.
But to say that glam rock’s influence died in the 1970s is untrue, as you could still find the same countercultural spark that powered the scene aflame in other acts and other movements. Punk took up its mantle as the reactionary force to what’s popular and the hair metal of the 1980s carried its aesthetics into a new decade.
Pop artists like Lady Gaga and PinkPantheress arguably continue glam rock’s tradition into the present. For the teenagers of the 1970s, they realized that style on the surface could be as important as the substance and depth the previous generation so enamored.