Glam!: (David) Bowie, (Marc) Bolan and the Glitter Rock Revolution (Paperback)

~ Barney Hoskyns (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The complete, behind-the-scenes story of the flamboyant glitter rock of the early 1970s.

David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Bryan Ferry, and Iggy Pop were the icons that defined the music known as glam rock. With outrageous getups and glitz cosmetic artistry, they were the gender-bending, trendsetting performers of the music movement that was centered in London but electrified the world. Now, in the first book of its kind, a rock music journalist takes a no-holds-barred tour of a chapter in pop music history that was as transient as stardust...and which influenced countless musicians in the decades that followed, including Prince, Madonna, Annie Lennox, Guns 'N' Roses, and others.

Published in time for the release of Todd Haynes' eagerly awaited film, Velvet Goldmine, Barney Hoskyns' GLAM! captures a thrilling, thoroughly over-the-top time in pop's life, an age of visual excess as rococo as it was space-age. From Oscar Wilde to Ziggy Stardust, from Liberace to Lou Reed and T Rex to Roxy Music, here is the flamboyant decadence, the androgyny, and the sheer unadulterated fun of the early Seventies -- in an incredible rock history that tells it like it was.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Faber and Faber (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671034405
• ISBN-13: 978-0671034405
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #935,673 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wham bam, June 7, 2001

By	John B. Maggiore (Buffalo, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

GLAM is not so much a book as it is an outline for a book. Still, it is a useful outline, providing a Cliff-Notes history of the Glam music in the early 1970's. GLAM does a good job of listing key Glam albums, chronicling significant events in the period, and describing the basic act of every major and most of the minor Glam acts. What's missing are deeper stories about the personalities of Glam, a serious treatment of the music (surely some of the music deserves serious treatment), or anything other than a superficial sociological explanation of what was going on. Yet this is not meant as a complaint. GLAM serves its purpose, is enjoyable to read, and functions as a really good outline. Now if only someone writes the real book. In the meantime, wham bam, thank you GLAM.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I was a bit disappointed., November 21, 1998

By	Philip J. Johnson "tarankapel" (Columbia, Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

Although I lived and experienced the Glam Rock era in the UK back in the early 70s, reading this book did little to rekindle my memories of that period. There is much emphasis placed on who influenced who and when and how. For me, it was written in a somewhat stale manner.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wham bam, June 8, 2001

By	John B. Maggiore (Buffalo, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

GLAM is not so much a book as it is an outline for a book. Still, it is a useful outline, providing a Cliff-Notes history of the Glam music in the early 1970's. GLAM does a good job of listing key Glam albums, chronicling significant events in the period, and describing the basic act of every major and most of the minor Glam acts. What's missing are deeper stories about the personalities of Glam, a serious treatment of the music (surely some of the music deserves serious treatment), or anything other than a superficial sociological explanation of what was going on. Yet this is not meant as a complaint. GLAM serves its purpose, is enjoyable to read, and functions as a really good outline. Now if only someone writes the real book. In the meantime, wham bam, thank you GLAM.