By Grace Palmer

Glam Rock oversteps boundaries, is gregarious, outrageous and theatrical. This genre is all down to one man: David Bowie. Needing no introduction by me, Bowie is what some have coined the 'everchanging musician' or, more appropriately, a rock legend. (I encourage anyone who hasn't heard any Bowie music to stop reading and come back when your life has been changed). My article will focus on Bowie’s uniqueness, show how he singlehandedly constructed the glam rock genre and comment on this genre’s far-reaching impacts on music in general.

Obviously, I must begin with Bowie’s performance. This man had a flair for the dramatic, the artistic, the unique; a massive transgression from the classic '60s rock 'n' roll. Most notably, his solo performance at the Roundhouse in 1970 saw his early form of experimentation shy away from the 'good old blues' and turn into something more innovative and unorthodox. Bowie’s development of pantomime flamboyance caught the public's attention, but more importantly, it enamoured upcoming artists such as Roxy Music. For Bowie, looks were no longer second-hand afterthoughts, instead they became the focal point of the music; with the persona of ‘Ziggy Stardust’ the pinnacle of what it meant to be an 'artist’.

It is this persona of Ziggy Stardust that thrust the world into a new age of coinciding rock and glam. To confuse things for you dear reader, David Bowie is Ziggy Stardust, but Ziggy Stardust is not David Bowie. Ziggy - a separate entity, an artist separated from the maker, two distinct characters in one: something that glam rock truly took in its stride by the early '80s. The Friars in Aylesbury was the publics first interaction with this 'new' Bowie and subsequently 'new' music, with songs like 'Queen Bitch' and 'Changes' shifting the way traditional rock music was experienced. Bowie himself said after such a performance, 'Next time you see me I'm going to be totally different'; the everchanging musician fully coming into its form by that point. From this, artists such as Slade and The Sweet saw the spirit of experimentation as something to embrace rather than fear, moving the glam rock scene away from musicians being seen as 'singles artists' and into a force within the wider music industry.

Singularity became the staple of what glam rock represented, cemented when Bowie 'killed off' Stardust in the ‘70s at the height of his popularity – rock was not a means of monetary gain, it was an attempt to portray deeper meanings. I mean Bowie was challenging ingrained notions of homophobia, present even in the glam rock industry with strong visions of hyper-masculinity. We could probably propose that had Bowie not been so volatile in his expression, artists such as Harry Styles would not be so willing to delve into unconventional and androgynous styles of music and fashion (a component that arguably saw the success of 'Fine Line' in 2019). As Bowie once stated, 'gender is between the ears, not the legs' and it's this freedom of expression that not only made Bowie such a unique artist but saw an internal shift in the way glam rock was represented and consumed.

The dynamic of artistry came to symbolise glam rock, thanks to Bowie; no longer was the genre cheesy one-hit-wonders that graced the Top 40, instead, it became a means of conveying key socio-political messages mixed in with delightful throwaway pop. Bowie’s notable performance of Starman cemented this change, singing on defying the English bourgeois, dressed in a Brunetti diamond jumpsuit – opposites forming into one. As critic Bolan puts it, Bowie was a 'pop superhero', framing ideas and beliefs into his albums rather than singles crossovers; incorporating innovative concepts alongside critically acclaimed artists. Andy Warhol became a huge contributor to the persona of Ziggy Stardust, with the pop art funk effectively a leaping pad to which Bowie launched his style. It is from this point that art saw a greater prevalence in the Glam Rock genre and the relationship between the two becoming more intermingled: seen with Warhol's creation and direction of the Velvet Underground. Had it not been for Bowie's bravery in breaking from the traditional normativity of glam rock and fighting the so-called 'status-quo', the rock genre and the art movement would have remained independent of each other, limiting the two styles to their separate realms.

Although the man is a genius, it must be noted that Bowie is not the creator of glam rock. The Glam Rock movement originated as early as the '60s with festivals such as Woodstock encapsulating the post-war anti-political views and anger fuelled by the recession. It was this emergence of transformative bubble-gum pop that Bowie took hold of and brought into the wider public eye, sophisticating the work of artists like T-Rex into music that both challenged and complemented the views of the younger generations throughout the late '60s and '70s. Arguably, even though Bowie was not the origin of Glam Rock, he most definitely was the catalyst for what Glam Rock became. Bands like Roxy Music took what it meant to be glam to the next level, argued to be 'glam for grown-ups' and even performers such as Elton John and The Who saw the proliferation of Bowie's glam rock and toyed with the genre early on in their careers. It even seems that what Bowie had started did not end with Glam Rock, with new genres born out of the theatrics of that style, evidently with the New Romantics (e.g., Adam and the Ants) with even further experimentation of androgyny, inspired by the English Romantic Period. Even Kiss, a band that could not appear further from Bowie’s style, found their inspiration in the glam rock movement; developing this idea of 'glam metal’. Undeniably, what Bowie took from the early forms of glam rock in bubble-gum pop not only placed the glam rock genre of the centre stage of music in the '70s but instigated new aspects of a musical style that formed their basis through the ideals of glam rock.

What I hope I have made clear through this article is that Bowie is a mastermind! Not only was he unique as a sole artist, forming distinctive ideas of what music could be; he also found the basis to what glam rock had the potential to be. No longer did it represent cheap lyrics wrapped in a cheesy style, but instead saw a desire to express unconventional views, with the element of experimentation that went against the grain of traditional rock. This freedom of expression that Bowie encapsulated through Ziggy Stardust and his early work, allowed other artists at the time to feel comfortable in branching out into this new androgyny and artistry. Glam Rock, although no longer as prestigious, never truly died; with its characteristics felt in punk rock, gothic rock and even '80s Japanese visual kei. We have Bowie to thank for what 21st Century artists like Harry Styles and Lady Gaga have become, for glam rock is effectively interwoven into this post-modern idea of gender fluidity and 'being whoever the hell you want to be'. Glam rock is glam rock because of David Bowie, and music today would be monumentally different had it not been for his confidence in breaking social norms.