Glam rock

Glam rock (also known as glitter rock) is a style that developed in the UK in the post-hippie early 1970s that was "performed by singers and musicians wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots." The flamboyant costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a campy, theatrical blend of nostalgic references to science fiction and old movies.

Largely a British phenomenon, glam rock visuals peaked during the mid 1970s. According to many researchers, the most famous exponents of the fashion were David Bowie,Marc Bolan and T. Rex, Gary Glitter, and Slade.Other influential British and American performers include: Queen,Sweet, Wizzard, Roxy Music,Mud, Mott the Hoople, The Glitter Band, Elton John, and Suzi Quatro.

Glam fans (usually referred to in the contemporary music press as "glitter kids") and performers distinguished themselves from earth-toned hippie culture with a deliberately "artificial" look. This is derived in large part from a fusing of transvestism with futurism. Evoking the glamour of 'Old Hollywood' whilst consciously wallowing in 1970s drug and sleaze success, the stars of Andy Warhol's films and his stage play Pork were crucially influential to the nascent glam movement. The Warhol coterie were provocatively camp, flamboyant, and sexually ambiguous. Mid-1960s Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick cultivated an androgynous, ultra-hedonistic image.

Science fiction imagery was a core strand of glam rock's stylistic weave. Themes of spaceflight and alien encounters were prevalent at the more cerebral end of the glam rock spectrum. Glam style strongly referenced this anticipated era with silver astronaut-like outfits, multicoloured hair and allusions to a new multi-gender social morality. This trend was often musically represented with science-fiction-oriented lyrics and music tinted with early synthesizers such as the Moog. Glam performers and fans combined nostalgic, "decadent" and "space age" influences alike into a uniquely "glam" synthesis of Victorian, cabaret, and futuristic styles.