Glam Rock 1971-1976 and Glam Metal 1983-1993, As Cohesive And Popular Genres Of Music

This thread is concerned with people's opinions about the cohesiveness of the glam rock genre and the cohesiveness of the glam metal genre. In other words, do the band's that we identify as "glam rock" have a lot in common with each other? Do the bands that we identify as "glam metal" have a lot in common with each other, musically speaking? This isn't a contest between the two genres, but both do have the "glam" tag. It could be interesting to see how people view each genre in terms of cohesiveness and representing actual musical similarities. The genres have artists that share descriptors, but the artists are also individuals with different types of songs and musical approaches.

Both genres played upon visuals, but also had musical talent that people esteem independent of the visuals. For instance, a blind person could recognize a talented glam rock singer, even though he can't see the visuals associated with the singer. What unites the bands from each genre in terms of music and in terms of visuals?Focus on what unites each genre, rather than how the two genres are different.

Try to focus on the common interpretations of which bands fit the genres, but with some people and artists there will be some gray area as far as who fits into the genres.

Glam Rock was primarily a UK phenomenon and rose in 1971 to major popularity with T-Rex and David Bowie. Shortly after: Roxy Music, Sweet, Slade, Mott the Hoople, Mud, Alvin Stardust, Suzi Quatro, Wizzard, and Sparks also enjoyed great success on the UK charts through 1976.

We will consider glam metal music from 1983 when acts such as Quiet Riot and Motley Crue first achieved massive popularity, up until 1993, when Def Leppard was still a factor on the international charts with their hits "Heaven Is" and "Tonight" and completed the tour for Adrenalize. Glam metal as a popular genre was quite a bit more of a popular international phenomenon than glam rock, with Def Leppard, Judas Priest, and Whitesnake representing the UK and Europe representing Sweden.

 

To me there are 2 eras of glam.
The first is the "glitter glam" of the early 70's. I like a lot of this stuff.
The second is the "hair metal glam of the mid 80's to early 90's." A lot of this stuff lacks "substance," due to the "corporate" element.
The second is a little harder to pin down as to what is actually glam, and what just simply constitutes hard rock, with a bunch of long hairs playing the music.

 

In the US, regarding glam metal I think you can there were two distinct phases: the early 80s were glam, mostly LA based, and the later 80s were hair metal, and broader based throughout the US.

The early 80s stuff was definitely influenced by punk and NWOBHM, whereas hair metal was more classic rock oriented and much more musicianship oriented with pop hooks.

 

I enjoy both genres quite a bit, but I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that the 70's glam rock scene was way more diverse, musically speaking. Any genre that could range from the intensely personal music of David Bowie to the next-gen bubblegum of The Sweet during their Chinnichap period must have had some serious depth going on, despite the visual trappings. Today I do hear some similarities, such as a lot of the bands being reliant on boogie rhythms so prevalent at the time (not a knock as I happen to love the boogie), but then there's definitely also some outliers as well. It's hard to reconcile any one genre that encompasses the cerebral weirdness of Eno-era Roxy Music alongside the football rock anthems of Slade.

As such, I think that while it was a less interesting time for music overall, the glam metal scene of the eighties was actually far more cohesive. At least in its formative days there was a strict template set, with seemingly every band on the Strip jockeying to inherit the crown from Van Halen who had gone on to national fame. Everything had to be big, from the amp stacks to the hair. If your band didn't have a rep for putting on an epic live show, then you risked losing your audience to one that did. As such the music was often a lesser concern than image, volume and the instrumental dexterity of the lead guitarist. So many of these bands (there had to have been dozens if not hundreds) trafficked in a warmed-over amalgam of Aerosmith, Van Halen, New York Dolls and Hanoi Rocks. There was little to be heard that could be considered groundbreaking, and notably the groups that could offer something different, such as the sleazier Motley Crue and especially Guns 'n' Roses, would ultimately transcend the "glam metal" tag and move on to bigger and better things.

Somewhere between 1985-86, around the time of Theatre of Pain and Look What the Cat Dragged In, there was a seismic shift as the major labels began toying with the image of the established groups to make them more appealing to mainstream America. It was around this time that the more Heavy Metal aspects of the acts like bondage gear and Flying-V guitars went away, replaced by synchronized stage moves and power ballads co-written with Desmond Child. Now instead of just your local scene bands setting the standards, what we saw was major label rock acts being shoehorned into the industry's version of glam metal, including more traditional rock bands like Tesla, Cinderella or Enuff Z'Nuff that had little in common with the first-wave Sunset Strip glam groups. Eventually the public tired of this overt commercialization of what was once a fairly grassroots thing and moved on to Nirvana, but that's another story...

Anyway, if there's one band that successfully straddled the fence between both eras, it would have to be Def Leppard. The song "Rocket" spells out just how influenced they were by the original U.K. glam rock scene, and how they were able to translate the music of their heroes (Bowie, Elton, Bolan, Mott, etc.) to a new generation of fans. One could argue that they were a bit slick or overproduced, but they had learned the lessons of proper songcraft from the previous generation and didn't get bogged down in guitar wankery and aqua net. The result was tens of millions of albums sold and a legion of fans flocking to see them in concert.

 

Disagree with your characterization of the public moving on to Nirvana from glam metal. The public had largely not been interested in any of the new glam metal of 1991, was intrigued by Nirvana, but put Def Leppard's Adrenalize to #1 on the Billboard 200 in April and May of 1992 after Nirvana's album had already peaked on the same chart. Adrenalize had two Billboard number one rock tracks and four other top fifteen rock tracks. Further, Slaughter had a #8 Billboard 200 album around the time of Adrenalize peaking on the same chart. Slaughter's album, The Wild Life, had four top ten rock tracks.

There were a few glam metal bands who released albums available in 1991 that people didn't want to buy albums of in large numbers, but there were outliers at the end of the glam metal era in Def Leppard and Slaughter that demonstrated that people weren't hungry for just any glam metal, but were willing to pay in droves for above average or great glam metal. Like glam rock, glam metal was far more than a fad. Many of the bands who flirted with glam metal prior to or after having success with other genres used glam metal as a means to stay relevant and expand their horizons.

For the artists who didn't remain mired in the glam metal genre that they were ill suited for in the long term, they were sometimes able to move on to other genres to sustain their success. Poison released a successful non-glam album in 1993. Warrant did the same in 1992. They were able to move on to other genres with success.

For all of the bands who released glam metal albums in 1991, however, it was a death sentence of sorts in the United States. L.A. Guns, Europe, White Lion, and BulletBoys never had any kind of album success in the United States afterwards. I haven't heard those albums and can't comment on the quality of them. Regardless, there was a glam metal stagnation of sorts, but not one that Slaughter and Def Leppard weren't able to overcome in 1992. It became more and more risky for labels to release a glam metal album due to the 1991 glam metal album failures, but Def Leppard's popularity in 1992 said that Nirvana had nothing to do with that.

 

No mention of Gary Glitter?

 

Go ahead and mention him.

 

Go away and crap over another thread smart guy

 

No, I'll stay here thanks.

 

Well, he did seem to be in the charts virtually every week other back then.

 

Well you can look at the band that straddled both eras; KISS

In the 70's they had a sound, but were fairly sloppy live players. In the 80's they sharpened their musical chops (mainly by hired guns who out shined the original members) but the song writing was pretty consistent.

I think the biggest change from 70's glam to 80's glam is the production, which like most other genres of music saw a sea change. Things got slicker, and more reverb drenched. We went from a live drum sound to triggers (or machines.)

Certainly the glam of the 80's spun out of an amalgam of KISS (showmanship, short catchy tunes) and Van Halen (DLR look, grab a guitar god)

 

Yes

Yes

Electric guitar and makeup

 

Def Leppard have never hid their love of the original Glam scene. Anyone who has ever tuned into Joe Elliott's Saturday night Planet Rock show would point out that most weeks at least 70% of his program is either original Glam songs or related to the genre in some way. In fact, he's probably the only person on the planet who will give Jobriath air-time. (I never said it was all good Glam he played....).