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Alright, after a month in a cloud of 70's hard rock, carpeted van clambaked smoke, I'm ready to tackle a new sub-genre: glam.

Once again this is inspired by the fact that it's a pocket of music history that I know a bit about, but need some schooling and making it a contest seems to inspire a more vigorous discussion. It seems Glam at best generated some outstanding rock and roll, challenged masculinity and broke down gender norms. At worst it could be considered responsible for hair metal, and drug overdoses.

I encourage anyone to point out glaring omissions from the glittery cage match.

There are a few artists I considered including but didn't based on some vague sense of what these half a dozen were doing:

Lou Reed
Mott the Hoople

I'm open to debate if the above should qualify.

For this category I'd say T-Rex, though I'd rank Bowie's Berlin albums above any of this stuff. Early Roxy Music is pretty glam-adjacent too.

penningtron wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:22 am Early Roxy Music is pretty glam-adjacent too.

Yes! Added.

That's a tough one. I'll say Bowie for his lasting influence, but it's hard to vote against T. Rex and NYD. I prefer the first two Mott records to the later glam stuff.

Slade, by an absolute fucking mile.

Just jammed Slayed? last week. That said, I'm voting T. Rex for their simplicity and groove.

"All Alone" is the best T. Rex song.

Roxy for the brilliant peaks across a wide range of material. Mott from Dudes onwards is awesome (baroque and quintessentially English eccentricity yet it rocks hard), but the pre-Dudes material ain't great and there's quite a bit of it. They HATED the glam tag, FYI. Bowie comes very close but it's really Ronson's genius that makes the glam-era stuff sparkle and even occasionally rock (a rarity for Bowie). There's a lot of great records w/ Bowie's name on them but I loath his approach.

I love Thunders but Heartbreakers > Dolls, easily.

Found the rest very one-dimensional outside of the hits - sitting through an album's worth of T.Rex or Slade is a serious chore.

M.H wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 2:38 pm Found the rest very one-dimensional outside of the hits - sitting through an album's worth of T.Rex or Slade is a serious chore.

Really? You ever spin Slade In Flame? So good.

I wondered if Heartbreakers count as glam. I suppose that's a clear vote for yes they do.

I went with Bowie.. but shit, most of this happened before I was born.

If you are so much as even considering voting in this thread and have not seen the film Velvet Goldmine start to finish?

Tighten your game up.

(Never mind if you have no damn idea what the film Velvet Goldmine even is...)