Global Glam and Popular Music

Style and Spectacle from the 1970s to the 2000s

Ian Chapman, Henry Johnson, Ian Chapman, Henry Johnson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317588184
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medien & darstellende Kunst
• Subtopic: Popmusik

This book is the first to explore style and spectacle in glam popular music performance from the 1970s to the present day, and from an international perspective. Focus is given to a number of representative artists, bands, and movements, as well as national, regional, and cultural contexts from around the globe. Approaching glam music performance and style broadly, and using the glam/glitter rock genre of the early 1970s as a foundation for case studies and comparisons, the volume engages with subjects that help in defining the glam phenomenon in its many manifestations and contexts. Glam rock, in its original, term-defining inception, had its birth in the UK in 1970/71, and featured at its forefront acts such as David Bowie, T. Rex, Slade, and Roxy Music. Termed "glitter rock" in the US, stateside artists included Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, The New York Dolls, and Kiss. In a global context, glam is represented in many other cultures, where the influences of early glam rock can be seen clearly. In this book, glam exists at the intersections of glam rock and other styles (e.g., punk, metal, disco, goth). Its performers are characterized by their flamboyant and theatrical appearance (clothes, costumes, makeup, hairstyles), they often challenge gender stereotypes and sexuality (androgyny), and they create spectacle in popular music performance, fandom, and fashion. The essays in this collection comprise theoretically-informed contributions that address the diversity of the world's popular music via artists, bands, and movements, with special attention given to the ways glam has been influential not only as a music genre, but also in fashion, design, and other visual culture.

Part I
Britain from the Early 1970s

1 “All that Glitters”

Glam, Bricolage, and the History of Post-War Youth Culture

Christine Feldman-Barrett and Andy Bennett

Introduction

Glam rock in the 1970s was often interpreted as a backlash to the pretense of the hippie culture and its failed ambitions to install a new social sensibility based around love, peace, and music (Stratton 1986). In this respect, glam’s colorful costumes and garish make-up were regarded as a self-mocking send-up of the late 1960s era. Not discounting its emphasis on parody and satire, this chapter offers a different reading of glam, as a style that drew on and celebrated a broader and more nuanced post-war history of youth, style, and popular music. If glam has been described as a form of proto-punk in terms of its musical sensibilities, the same could be said of its stylistic assemblage. In much the same way that Dick Hebdige (1979) argued that punk presented in cut-up style the whole sartorial history of post-war youth, we suggest that glam actually paved the way in its revisiting of quintessential moments of 1950s rock ’n’ roll and 1960s mod music and fashion.

Children of the Revolution?

The late 1960s have often been described as a watershed moment in terms of attempts made to meld popular music and political expression (Bennett 2001). As Simon Frith (1981) has argued, the notion of music as a basis for an alternative form of community—an intrinsically problematic claim—became a potent discourse for the late 1960s counterculture (see also Whiteley and Sklower 2014). The original Woodstock Music and Art Fair, held in Bethel, New York, from August 15 to 17, 1969, brought these various streams of consciousness together, combining a back-to-the-land romanticism with compelling performances from some of the premiere rock and folk artists of the day, including Jimi Hendrix, The Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Joan Baez (Bennett 2004). In many respects, Woodstock represented the high watermark of the countercultural era. In December of the same year, The Rolling Stones, who had not performed at Woodstock, staged their own outdoor event in Altamont, California. The event was marred by tragedy when Hells Angels, hired to oversee security, killed audience member Meredith Hunter amidst ongoing violent clashes among crowds at the event. The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was further evidence that the hippie dream was in decline. A documentary film made about the festival shows organizers squabbling about the economic losses they were accruing as those without tickets stormed the perimeter fence. The film also depicts a security firm equipped with guard dogs patrolling outside the festival site (Message to Love 1970).

Although many artists who had risen to fame during the mid- to late 1960s continued to have successful careers into the 1970s and in a number of cases well beyond that, the beginning of the decade saw the drug-induced deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison. The year 1970 was also the one in which The Beatles officially announced their decision to break up following an eight-year professional career during which they had defined much of the musical and popular-cultural tapestry of the era. Although the early 1970s saw musical developments with clear connections to the late 1960s, notably the emergence of heavy metal and progressive rock, many saw these as cynical twists in the 1960s legacy as corporate interests became more visibly aligned with music (Frith and Horne 1987).

Conventionally, punk has been identified as the musical form that broke this particular mold through its reassertion of a political imperative and return to more straightforward musical forms. Certainly, several accounts exist that attempt to relate punk to earlier musical scenes and styles, notably Laing (1985) and Friedlander (1996), who identify strong links between the musical aspects of punk and the London-based pub rock scene of the early 1970s. Arguably, however, the emergence of glam in the early 1970s marks its own response to the political and artistic implosion of the late 1960s. Like punk, glam represents a return to earlier musical forms, with notable references to the 1950s. Chart-topping glam artists of the early 1970s, such as Gary Glitter (and subsequently The Glitter Band), Marc Bolan and T. Rex, and Roy Wood’s Wizzard, all drew on musical motifs from 1950s rock ’n’ roll and made references to 1950s cultural icons—dance halls, jukeboxes, college sock hops, and so on—in their song lyrics. In contrast to the late 1960s, where much of the emphasis in song lyrics had been on changing the world order, glam’s lyrics reemphasized the simpler pleasures of teenage life.

In its apparel, too, there are some interesting parallels with punk. Hebdige (1979) famously suggested that punk took the stylistic repertoires of previous youth-cultural eras from the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, cut them up, and repositioned them on the surface of the body. But this kind of stylistic bricolage seems equally evident in glam. For example, Roxy Music’s early look combined influences from the 1950s Teddy Boy style with the psychedelic and hippie eras. Alongside Roxy Music, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and The Sweet began experimenting with face make-up, a trend that started with US artists such as The Velvet Underground and The New York Dolls (bands cited as influential on both glam and punk). Indeed, while glam fashion has been conceptualized as comprising a relatively narrow range of items—jumpsuits, platform boots, and sequin jackets to name three of the most typically cited items—in truth its stylistic repertoire was much broader. Lesser-known glam artists such as Chicory Tip sported an image that frequently drew on face paint and outfits that depicted a quasi-space rock image, while Suzi Quatro (whom Auslander [2006] argues was the only female glam rocker) opted for a leather jumpsuit reminiscent of the leather clothing worn by Elvis, American greasers, and bikers during the 1950s.

Maybe less obvious than its citations of 1950s rock ’n’ roll was glam’s appropriation of mod-culture motifs from the pre-hippie 1960s. This proved to be another font of inspiration for various glam artists. Musically, strains of rhythm and blues (adored by the original, subcultural mods) found their way into songs by, for instance, David Bowie and T. Rex. Although not as overt in its references to the rock ’n’ roll 1950s, glam’s emphasis on alternative forms of sophistication, its space-age themes, and its allusions to pop art harkened back to iterations of both subcultural and mainstream mod culture.

Glam and Postmodernity

Postmodernity’s emergence is typically associated with the mid-1980s and early 1990s, a period in which hypercommodification and the rapid proliferation of media and “new media,” as it was then called, were beginning to define everyday reality as societies in the West transitioned from production- to consumer-based societies. At its most extreme, postmodernity has been linked with a waning of reality as individuals have become increasingly subject to the influence of free-floating signifiers, that is to say objects, images, and texts detached from their original meanings and repositioned in increasingly arbitrary ways (see Lash 1990). A notable example of this is Hebdige’s (1988) observation of how punks seamlessly combined a swastika (the symbol of Nazi Germany) with a T-shirt bearing the image of Karl Marx. The rupture and disconnection associated with postmodernity’s cultural landscape arguably signaled an end to modernity’s grand and totalizing narratives (Jameson 1984). For some theorists, this aspect of postmodernity offered a compelling critique of capitalism (Baudrillard 1983), while others saw it as a form of dandyism in which any capacity for criticism was removed through the alleged meaninglessness of postmodern cultural forms (Callinicos 1989).

Andy Bennett (1999) has suggested that such a postmodern rupture has been exaggerated and that the self-referential aspect of popular culture, if always present, has become increasingly evident since at least the mid-1950s due to shifts in how popular-culture resources have been produced and consumed. Through the sheer amount of music and associated cultural resources that have been made available to consumers in the global flow of popular culture, the ability of people to connect affectively and aesthetically through common forms of cultural consumption is increasingly apparent. At the same time, the propensity for such collectivities or “scenes” of popular culture to evolve with reference to their own sonic and sartorial histories has also become a more seamless process. It is of course possible to argue that these properties have been key elements of much popular music and associated aspects of popular culture that have emerged since the 1950s. There is undoubtedly some truth in this argument. Thus, for example, it would be difficult not to identify elements of postmodernism in The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a work often regarded as the first concept album and one that draws on various eras of British popular music. The same could be said of the broader countercultural movement of the late 1960s that, in its dissatisfaction with the technocratic nature of mainstream society (see Roszak 1969), attempted subversion by drawing on elements of an imagined premodern folk music and idealized notions of leaving behind city life for pastoral lifestyles.

Nevertheless, it could be argued that the emergence of glam in the early 1970s represents something of a departure in how postmodernism came to be realized in and through contemporary popular music and style. In contrast to the music of the 1960s, which in certain quarters had become increasingly political and where the emphasis had been squarely on evolution and innovation, glam represented something different. Its open acknowledgement of the music of the 1950s in its own sonic and lyrical textures suggested a musical scene where an emphasis on innovation was not a core consideration. Even some of the more “serious” glam artists, such as David Bowie and Roxy Music, openly referenced previous eras in post-war popular music, a period that then barely spanned 20 years. Similarly, while shifts in notions of sexuality and sexual politics have been attributed to glam and, in particular, David Bowie at the time of its greatest reach in the early 1970s (see, for example, Hebdige 1979), glam had a distinctly apolitical feel. Indeed, most glam artists rarely commented on political issues and seemed more interested in talking about their music and the connection they felt with their audience. Then and now, many glam artists have suggested that the image they portray is largely about self-mockery and fun; for example, Dave Hill, the lead guitarist of Slade, has repeatedly said that each of his stage outfits was designed to be more spectacularly outrageous than the last. This is supported by British music journalist Stuart Maconie who has said of Hill, “He usually wore a jumpsuit made of the foil that you baste your turkeys in and platforms of oil-rig-derrick height. All of this paled in comparison with his coiffure, a sort of demented tonsure with a great scooping fringe. He even had one outfit around 1973 famously called his ‘Metal Nun’ suit” (2004, 34).

The primary text of glam then seems to embrace a postmodern discourse exemplar. It was perhaps the first popular music scene to celebrate a variety of different stylistic and musical influences without the need to justify its bricolage qualities. This jubilance also extended to the performative qualities of glam-rock artists who primarily focused on “fun” and entertainment, both for themselves and for their audiences. Lyrically, the darker political resonances of much late-1960s popular music gave way to an emphasis on teenage leisure (for example, in Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize”) or bizarre skits using disingenuous word plays (such as The Sweet’s “Blockbuster”). In the work of Roxy Music and David Bowie, too, lyrical themes relate to things such as conspicuous consumption, urban dandyism, and personal self-indulgence—themes that would come to punctuate studies of postmodern societies 15 years later.

The second part of this chapter gives further detailed examples of how glam artists drew on the cultural references of the previous 20 years. Consideration is given to how music, styles, and cultural motifs from both 1950s rock ’n’ roll and 1960s mod culture were reexplored in the music and image of glam artists. Particular attention will be paid to Marc Bolan and David Bowie, both considered preeminent figures within this genre. Before doing so, however, it is necessary to look at the socio-cultural landscape of the early 1970s and to consider why this era set the tone for a first wave of pop-cultural retrospection.

Britain’s Early 1970s

That a 1970s revival happened during the 1990s was shocking to many who had grown up in the earlier era. Despite the decade’s varied pop-cultural offerings, including glam rock, the 1970s is often ridiculed or maligned (see Bennett 2007). Ostensibly, prejudices held against this decade are due to its proximity to the more celebrated 1960s. Most historicizing of the 1970s, however, is reflective of the middle-to-latter half of that decade. The financial and political debacles often connected to the punk and post-punk eras that Hebdige (1979) discusses, such as the IMF Crisis and the Winter of Discontent, only reflect the later 1970s. How might one better understand the period of 1970 to 1974, when glam dominated the UK charts and the country’s youthful sensibilities? Moreover, how was glam, rather than punk, the first truly “backwards-looking” popular-music genre of the late twentieth century (Reynolds 2011, 197)?

While the 1990s hosted much 1970s nostalgia (Waldrep 2000) via TV shows (That 70s Show), films (Todd Haynes’s Velvet Goldmine), and tribute bands (ABBA impersonators, Björn Again), some authors have revisited the 1970s more recently. Howard Sounes’s Seventies: The Sights, Sounds, and Ideas of a Brilliant Decade (2006), Alwyn Turner’s Crisis? What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s (2008), and Andy Beckett’s When the Lights Went Out: What Really Happened to Britain in the Seventies (2009) examine both the awful and the sublime qualities of the decade in equal measure.

Stereotypical impressions of the 1970s paint the decade as lost and forlorn from the start. Although the focus here is on British glam, the broader, transatlantic narrative cannot be overlooked entirely. Certainly, escalating inflation and the OPEC crisis affected both the US and the UK. Even if Watergate and continued involvement in the Vietnam War were American problems, they paralleled Britain’s own “acute industrial unrest, political polarisation, and [a] low-level war in Northern Ireland” (Pemberton 2009, 583). Sounes (2006) nonetheless depicts the 1970s as an avant-garde wonderland, particularly in the arts and popular music. Beckett, however, counters that any residual 1960s esprit, especially in Britain, “could not disguise the fact that much of everyday life took place on streets of worn-out brown and grey” (2009, 15).

While cultural observers continue to argue about how “bad” (or “good”) the early 1970s were, it is important to acknowledge that the early part of the decade was rife with retrospection. As Elizabeth Guffey (2006) shows, a transatlantic 1950s revival was in full swi...