Who was first in glam rock?*

So true. Thousands of 1960's teenage musicians rehearsing in their parent's garages didn't call themselves "garage bands".
It was the music historians (Greg Shaw, Dave Marsh etc.) and rare record dealers in the 1970s that came up with that term.

 

I don't know

 

Exasperated, "that's right". Something like that right? Or is it " I don't know?

 

Ok.
The Wikipedia entry for Glam Rock says right near the top "Cultural Origins - early 1970's United Kingdom"
Glam rock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »

The AllMusic site for Glam Rock, when you scroll down and click 'About' says "...glam rock was an almost entirely British phenomenon...during the first half of the 70's."
Glam Rock | Music Highlights | AllMusic »

Britannica.com says (along with a picture of Alice Cooper ) "musical movement that began in Britain in the early 1970's"
glam rock | music »

So that's 3 places online to start out with that all say the same thing. The movement began in Britain! I'm sure you know glam is a shortened word for glamorous. Notice it's more of a particular way to dress and present yourself on stage, all while playing the music. Campy. Theatrical. Exaggerated. Now, Little Richard could be said to be glam, long before Bowie and the rest. But Little Richard is at the forefront, a pioneer of rock n roll itself; he wasn't called glam rock. He was called rock. It's true that he was probably an influence on the glam rockers, though.

So the term glam rock was first used in early 1970's Britain, to describe what was happening in rock n roll music there, at that time.

 

Music genres are tools to understand music history, therefore they can't be but "after-the-fact" terms.

 

Nah. People called The Eagles "country rock" when their first album came out, just as
they called David Bowie "glitter rock" when Ziggy Stardust was released. "glam rock"
was pretty much a UK/NME term for the genre that didn't really catch on in the U.S.
until years after the genre peaked in 1972/1973. I used to call it "tall shoes music" in
the early 70s in honor of the ridiculous platform shoes that most of these acts sported.

 

When it comes to such terms as heavy metal, punk rock, the NWOBHM; we know exactly who used those term first and in what context/in what articles. Who was it that first used the term glam rock? Can you link to the article or quote?

 

“I can’t believe Nixon won. I don’t know anyone who voted for him.”

 

I think origins of "glam rock" begin with Little Richard honestly. From him, it progresses to Screaming Lord Sutch and then to New York Dolls. Probably Bowie led the charge with the Ziggy character. Did Bolan predate him?

 

Are you saying that Pauline Kael invented glam rock?!?!?

 

Probably in the NME. Who has a run from approx. 1970 to 1972?

 

Reminds me of two kids eyeballing two glasses to see which one is fuller!

 

I vote for Little Richard

 

Little Richard probably, maybe, more than likely:


Esquerita was arguably right in there with Richard:



There is also Wayne Cochran . . who was just plain weird

 

on the fashion side... a wee bit of glam country, Hank Snow

 

I at the time thought of Bolan, Dave Dee etc. and other bands as Glam, Bowie was just Bowie doing what he did.

 

Somebody called it, so here's the Beatles post. As I already wrote in some other thread, when talking about the glam rock sound, I think you should check the White Album, namely the following tracks:

Glass Onion
Savoy Truffle
Revolution
Birthday

Also give an ear to Polythene Pam.

 

Here's this...... Saturday November 4, 1972. It's a link to an article/interview about David Bowie, when he first came to tour in America! Whoa. It is from The Nashua Telegraph in southern NH.
It's a column called Teen-Age Page, written by one Mary Campbell, an AP Newsfeatures writer. "David Bowie Is Newest Rock Star Imported From England". You may have to enlarge the article, I did. Scroll down the second column and you will see he himself said 'glam rock'; it's highlighted in yellow. He is talking about the movement and the people in it in Britain. The columnist herself uses "theatrical rock" in the first column...

The Telegraph - Google News Archive Search »

That's the earliest mention that I can find, in bringing the term to the U.S. You or someone else may find something earlier.

 

Agreed, this is one of the few questions on this forum where there there should be a consensus.

I'll now read forward to see just how wrong I am.

 

Before Maggie May, before Starman, before Seven Seas of Rhye that was my wake up moment watching TOTP. Little else was discussed the next day at school.

 

It might only be me, but I think The Velvet Underground's Loaded sounds like a pretty clear touchstone for glam rock.

 

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown...

 

I think it was a free-for-all, definitely British, but T. Rex, Bowie, Mott the Hoople and plenty of others jumped on that train, basically as soon as that train left the station.

 

Ride the White Swan - october 1970

Easy Action - MARCH 1970.

zing!

oh....and we know that photo shoot of the Stones in drag a couple years before Bowie 's TMWSTW

 

Wasn't the birth of glam rock accredited to the 22nd Feb 1970 Roundhouse gig by The Hype where Visconti wore a Superman outfit and Bolan was in the audience wearing a Roman chest plate? That was a few months before Ride A White Swan.