yourself into a select few. And why not bang the
hell out of a five thousand dollar guitar or nail all the furniture in your hotel room to the ceiling? You can afford it! Furthermore, as a rock star you are expected to be wild and do the things the average fan could only dream of doing.
However, breaking guitars was only the beginning of rock’s more aggressive attempts to shock the audience. While the act is still pretty cool to witness, by the 70’s, rockers were ready to shock the hell out of you instead of just make you jump.
Which leads us into make-up, hair, costume and the adoption of an outer-worldly persona.
“Absent were the flower children and euphoria of psychoactive enlightenment, replaced by personal narratives of heroin addiction, ghetto drug connections, and sexual perversity. These shocking explorations of self-destructive behavior tested society's cultural sensibilities; they also didn't have much of an impact on the rock/pop mainstream.”
The first band to come to mind when 70’s rock, make-up, and costumes collaborate are the Knight’s In Satan’s
Service, or more commonly known by their abbreviation:
KISS. KISS, like many glam rockers, performed to huge stadium audiences. They had to be larger than life to get the attention of all the people in the middle and back rows as well as the front. Furthermore, their personas were highly marketable (From t-shirts to comic books to action figures, etc.). Despite their name and appearance though, their songs such as “Rock an’ Roll All Night”, “Detroit Rock City”, “Calling Dr. Love”, were tame compared to the likes of Iggy Pop or David Bowie.
"David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (1972) carries advice on the back cover: TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME." . The epitome of androgyny, Ziggy Stardust was Bowie’s first persona, an intergalactic rock star, with orange hair, make-up, and futuristic costumes, trying to save the world but doomed to fail (Campbell 1999:196). As with all his personas, the music on the album served to complete his mysterious character. Fans could probably guess that Gene, Paul, Ace, Peter, Eric, and Vinnie of KISS did not walk around all day in their outfits but Bowie could play his part so well that it was hard to tell whether or not he was only trying to be
the most outrageous or if he was like that in the real world too.
" 'As we approach the '8o's, the country is literally laughing, dancing, jogging and dressing up again. We have entered The Glitter Era.' "
-John Davidson
Androgyny became a trend in 70’s rock that held over into 80’s rock. It was the ultimate way to shock your audience and make a statement. In the 70’s there was of course, Bowie, Marc Bolan, Freddy Mercury, and the immensely popular Rocky Horror Picture Show featuring everyone’s favorite transvestite from the planet Transexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, Dr. Frank N. Furter. The 80’s brought in Prince, Boy George, Grace Jones, and sometimes Madonna. All challenging society’s set gender roles. Why androgyny though? Many say that rock music itself, while still predominantly performed by males, is an androgynous form of music because it combines all other forms of music considered “male” or “female”. Others maintain that the trend was in response to the sexual revolution.
Though these rock shockers succeed in getting
the attention they so adamantly strive for, the most
successful rock stars had always been presented as "real people." The illusion that we could know the real Elvis, McCartney, or even the real Monkees was fostered by such superficial means as fan magazine interviews or facts on
the back of bubble-gum cards, but it was also implicit in Elvis's insistence on his own style of recording the songs of others, and explicit in those performers who wrote their own songs. Still, the diversity and color that glam rockers add to the spectrum is not something to discourage. Many fans strive on the fact that their heroes are super heroes, gods and goddesses with fantastical powers who they can fantasize about being. Who wants to be a “real” person all the time anyway? We get to be that everyday.
References
Campbell, Michael. 1999. “Rock and Roll: An Introduction” pp.196 Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Group/Thompson Learning
