GlamPop

Throughout pop music culture there has always been a pattern of fluctuation. The fluctuation occurs in the form of what style of musical genre is popular at the time. For most pop cultures of the 60’s and 70’s the genre of music listened to actually originated as countercultural movements. For instance, psychedelic and jam styled music began as an alternative to the “pop” sound of bands like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Glam Rock is another example of a countercultural movement that landed itself in the public sphere and gained immense popularity (if only for a short time). The counterculture of Glam Rock involved homosexual and campy ideals and imagery, adding to the importance and impact of this style of music. Auslander writes, “The importance of glam rock resides not only in its social effects but also in its lasting influence on later music.” (pg 230) Although I do not necessarily agree with Auslander on the importance of the actual music of glam I do think that the messages spread by the glam culture helped to break down gender barriers and rolls within society.
The ideals of self-assertion, freedom of individuality, and having a rockin good time are found in Glam rock but did not necessarily originate from glam. Glam Rock did bring about the questioning of gender identities and led to a freedom within pop culture that allowed for a larger variety of artists to contribute. “…a fictionalized account of the rise of glam rock, eloquently depicts how glam provided such models by placing queer images in the public sphere.” (Auslander, pg 228) In this quote Auslander is acknowledging the importance of countercultural idols found within pop culture. Although Glam Rock may have gained popularity during this time period, the hegemonic views of society were still very heterosexual and therefore any form of campiness or homosexuality acted as a countercultural building block.
An idea we talked about in class is the cultural war over hegemony and it’s continuous never-ending struggle. The battle over hegemony involves struggle for consent, connections to symbols/ideologies, and the defining of cultural norms. Our current hegemonic system was built upon the ideals of the people who were in power when this country (and culture) was born. This means that we gear our ideals in society towards masculine identities and heterosexual beliefs. Glam Rock challenged these systems in place and made popular the act of cross-dressing and sexual exploration (not in the same way as the Hippie movement) causing identity shifts within the public sphere. Auslander critiques the idea of identities within pop cultural: “…what is finally at stake in the interaction between musical performers and their audiences is the audience’s identity, not the performer’s” (Auslander, 233) I agree with Auslander but in turn I also feel that Glam Rock managed to pull this off. The counterculture of glam allowed for audiences to open up to new ideas and therefore caused them to analyze their own identities.