Glam Rock
Glam rock, also known as glitter rock, is a flamboyant rock style characterized by a return to rock 'n' roll simplicity, delivering an energetic sound often driven by guitars and a driving rhythm section. Emerging in the UK between 1971 and 1975, it was a reaction against the seriousness of progressive rock, emphasizing spectacle and provocative imagery. Key artists who defined the genre include T. Rex, David Bowie, and Roxy Music, with American acts like the New York Dolls also making significant contributions. Its audacious theatricality and rebellious spirit laid groundwork for later movements like punk.
More about Glam Rock
Glam Rock is the flamboyant and iconoclastic child of British rock in the early 1970s. Emerging between 1971 and 1975 as a direct reaction against expansive progressive rock and perfectionist blues rock, it deliberately chose provocation, spectacle, and androgyny over virtuosity and seriousness. Glam Rock placed fun, colour, and theatricality back at the heart of rock music — and in doing so, permanently changed the image of pop culture and opened unprecedented possibilities for identity expression in popular music.
Musically, Glam Rock returns to the sources of 1950s rock and roll — electric boogie, simple and effective riffs, immediate melodies, and singalong choruses — while dressing them in thoroughly contemporary production and sometimes sophisticated arrangements. T. Rex, David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust persona, Roxy Music, Slade, and Sweet define the glam aesthetic during its classic period. The New York Dolls brought a rawer, more punk-inflected American version, paving the direct road to punk rock in 1977 and glam metal in the 1980s.
Alice Cooper, pioneer of rock spectacle and theatrical staging, is among the most represented figures on FestT with nine festival appearances. Black Veil Brides carry the glam aesthetic into contemporary metal across eight festivals. The Last Dinner Party are the genre's most exciting recent revelation, with their theatrical and literary rock across seven festivals. Palaye Royale and Michael Monroe also embody this glam rock renaissance.
On FestT, Glam Rock is featured at 88 festivals. Fifty years after its golden age, the influence of Bowie, T. Rex, and Roxy Music on artists who refuse to separate music from spectacle remains total and unsurpassable. What Glam Rock ultimately proved is that music can be both genuinely radical and genuinely popular — a lesson that every subsequent generation of rock provocateurs has taken to heart.