The time period of this genre was split into two separate time spans, being the first wave of glam metal, the early to mid 1980's and the second wave being the mid to late 1980's. This was mainly separated as there were all the mainstream glam metal bands like Bon Jovi and then there were the more underground bands forming outside of the L.A.
One very important aspect that really makes glam metal is the fashion and appearance of the artists and bands. Glam metal can also be called 'Hair metal' and it got this name because all the bands and artists that were associated with this genre all had very long big hair and dressed 'over the top'. Glam metal style and the new romantic style were very similar. It was unusual for men at this time to wear makeup and have very long hair but glam metal made it ok for them to wear it. It probably did seem very strange to start with but it obviously got accepted as this new genre, at the time, was a massive hit. Also another aspect to the fashion of glam metal was that the men were wearing tight, often black leather, studded clothes and accessories. I think that this was to give the impression of been scary, loud people which was often shown in their music.
Some of the big important albums from the glam metal scene that have had a major influence on artists and bands since they were released include:*Quiet Riot - Metal Health reached number one in the charts in the early 1980's (And I think for a new genre that has just formed in the beginning of the 1980’s for it to go quickly to number one shows how big of an impact and how liked glam metal was.)
*Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
*W.A.S.P - W.A.S.P
*Twisted Sister - Stay hungry
*Def Leppard - Pyromania
The genre took a lot of influences from the 1970's mixing glam rock, heavy metal and some punk elements. And although there were formally bands who had tried mixing these genres together, it was on the sunset strip in America that it was where the real glam metal found its place and became a part of music history. It wasn't just bands from America that were part of the glam metal scene though, in 1981 an English band called Wrathchild formed as well as others but no glam metal bands quite made as big of an impact as the ones formed in L.A in America.
The main and biggest influence, some say responsible for the explosion of glam metal is Mark Bolan.
"Marc Bolan (born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977), was an English singer, songwriter and guitarist whose hit singles, fashion sensibilities and stage presence with T.Rex in the early 1970s helped cultivate the glam rock era and made him one of the most recognisable stars in British music of the time." (Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bolan)
As many artists do he started out being in little bands but was first majorly noticed when he created a band called 'Tyrannosaurus Rex' which was later shortened to 'T.Rex'. This was started in the mid to late 1960’s and between then and his early death he achieved many great things that artists today are still crediting him for, with covers and tributes, some even reaching the charts like ‘20th century boy’ after been used in a Levi’s commercial in 1991 was re-released. Without Marc Bolan I doubt that glam metal would have been the huge success that it was and still is.
Glam metal doesn’t really take a great deal of talent to write the music that they did, I think it was more about the way they presented what they had done. But never the less it was done is in a very good way, proven in the success of the genre. The line up to the majority of the bands was very similar, mainly including drummer, bassist, guitarist (sometimes two) and vocalist, the basics to any rock band but also sometimes featured a keyboardist as well.
"Musically, glam metal songs often featured distorted guitar riffs based around power chords, shred guitar solos, a catchy melody with an anthem like chorus, hard hitting drumming and complementary bass."
(Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glam_metal) This style of music was always very loud and ‘in your face’ lyrics. They sang about the typical rock and roll lifestyle, including drugs, sex and, alcohol.
But as with all genres of music, their time in the spot light seems to go as quickly as it came and the huge downfall to glam metal was mainly because of grunge in the early 1990's. But with nearly a decade of success it has left some lasting memories and major influences in music history that will carry on influencing young and new musicians for a long time to come.
The reason why I choose to write about glam metal for my 1980’s blog was because it is one genre of music that has influenced me as a musician and music that I am interested in and listen to a lot, so getting the chance to find out more about the genre appealed to me. It was only a couple of years ago that I started to listen to this genre of music and have never really looked a great deal into the history of it so I wanted to take this opportunity to do so.
