Glam metal first began 2 emerge in the early 80's with bands such as Motley Crue,Ratt,W.A.S.P. these were some of the early Glam Metal bands. Many of the early bands came from Main American states such as California, New York and San Francisco. The bands Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, W.A.S.P, Dokkon, Faster Pussy-cat, and L.A. Guns all came from L.A. Warrent and Styper were from California and Ratt from San Diego. North Eastern bands were Twister Sister from New York and Poison from Pennsylvania. The sound of Glam Metal was a combination of early hard rock bands such as AC/CD, Aerosmith, Led zepplin. As well as some Punk influences many of the riffs in Glam Metal are punkish riffs, slowed down. These two influences combined gave a very fat sound that consisted of big guitar riffs along with bigger guitar solos, hard hitting loud drumming and generally a male singer with a high pitched voice. Here is an example, this is an early motely crue song, Livewire.Usually the lyrics of these songs were mainly about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, because at the time this is what the 'rockstars' lifestlye was portrayed to be like. One of the most significant artists of this era were Motley Crue, still at the present day they are still together and touring. Their 1989 album 'Dr. Feelgood' sold over 7 million copies worldwide and managed to top the US charts. Bands such as Bon Jovi, Metallica and Nirvana were all influenced by Motley crue
As for the image of Glam Metal is was very bright and extravagant. Big hair, ripped jeans and make-up on boys all played a part in the fashion of Glam Metal. Once again its noticeable that some of the fashion aspects of Glam Metal were taking from Punk, for example the chains and spikes. Heres and example of punk fashion and glam metal clothing, u will notice many similarities.
Denim, spikes and leather are obvious connections.
As the 80's countinued, other glam metal bands emerged, but they wernt as hard rock they were softer, bands like bon jovi, def lepard, van halen and whitesnake spawned the birth of the 'Rock Ballard'. A rock ballard being a love song with a loud chorus woth huge sounding drums and quiet verses, and usually a very long blazing guitar solo, most bands had at least one rock ballard on their album. The band poison released 'Every rose has its thorn' which was a very big rock ballard in 1988. Not many more glam metal bands came after the 80's only bands that were unfluenced by them, some examples of these bands would be Nickelback or Alter Bridge etc... The Darkness were a band massively influenced by Glam Metal they made and appearance in 2003 but were short lived due to the poor market for glam metal.
Here is a track from the Darkness called 'i believe in a thing called love'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xBZ3kjeG-A&feature=related. U can notice alot of apects from clasica glam metal, for example 'cheesy' guitar riffs, big guitar solos and really high pitched male vocals.
PHOTO OF MOTLEY CRUE IN 1980-http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://gamesnet.vo.llnwd.net/o1/gamestar/objects/141395_main.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sucksorrules.com/battles/detail/people/316494/battle-of-glam-metal/&usg=__8RBVAqtcdqLlBW_LdyXRTaPUW3s=&h=320&w=320&sz=94&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=rVGW4I11Vd_iGM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmotley%2Bcrue%2B1980%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26ie%3DUTF-8
LINK TO LIVEWIRE-MOTLEY CRUE VIDEO-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xZBp8TLG20
GLAM METAL PHOTO-http://www.deesnider.com/CMS/images/stories/ts/posed_01.jpg
