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on the first wave of punk rock.

While these three branches of early glam rock made waves in much of the world with their shocking image and music that ranged from pop gems to crude and primitive, they were to some degree cult heroes in America. In the states what would start as glam took a more shocking turn as artists such as Alice Cooper and Kiss played loud, hard (yet often simple) rock with images that recalled horror monsters and comic book heroes. In 1970s American culture, these bands managed to shock parents and snared young people in a way that Bowie and the British glam movement couldn't.

Then there's Zolar X, the house band of Rodney's English Disco in Los Angeles. Taking on an alien aesthetic, they stayed in that mode at all times, playing a type of music that drew from both glam's poppier elements and the hardest of hard driving rock. While they never got the big contract, they were known for opening for many of the band's who played Rodney's and even appeared on the late night TV show Tomorrow. Their one album would be posthumously released leading to a long dormant period.

While it's easy to look back at the early glam rock era as a wild and colorful time, it was also meant to change and evolve. While Bowie would move from Ziggy to the Thin White Duke and continue towards mega stardom, a lot of bands weren't so lucky. Sweet eventually took control of their career and let the hard rock of their single's B sides come through by the mid 70s. Other bands would move towards a more streamlined image (as Roxy Music went fro wearing sequined capes to tailored suits) as times began to change and glam rock got waning interest. Young people started gravitating towards punk (which musically drew a lot from the Dolls) and heavy metal (where bands such as Kiss, Slade, and Alice Cooper would eventually find their footing) instead of glam's colorful image.

However, to say glam rock died would've been a massive understatement. The metal scene of the 1980s took liberally from glam rock whether it was hair metal's borderline androgyny (Motley Crue, Poison) or a more modernized take on what glam originally was (Hanoi Rocks). In addition, glam would influence the English new romantic movement of the early 1980s as well as get revived as some artists found themselves in comeback mode in this period (Slade being the most notable for their crossing over to American success). While some of this momentum would fade with the rise of grunge rock in the early 1990s, it would return.

So what is the state of glam rock now? While not a massive movement per se, it has managed to endure through the rise of bands like the Darkness. In addition, the return of Zolar X after a long hiatus also shows the subgenre's ability to attract new fans that are curious about the music. It might never reach the success it did nearly 40 years ago (though there will probably be more criticism about it), but at a time when you hear T. Rex songs in car commercials it seems that glam rock will continue to influence and inspire people in strange, bizarre, and sometimes intriguing ways.

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