Music in the Rock Era Exam 2 Practice

Glam rock takes its energy from bold fashion, makeup, and theatrical personas that fuse rock with oversized, cinematic performance. David Bowie crystallized that style with his Ziggy Stardust era, creating a character and a whole sound that defined the look and feel of glam rock. The Ziggy persona—glittery costumes, striking makeup, and dramatic storytelling—gave audiences a visually and sonically new way to experience rock, and it kicked off a movement that many artists followed in the early 1970s.

Iggy Pop and The Stooges are foundational to stage energy and punk-adjacent performance, but their impact sits outside glam’s distinctive aesthetic. Alice Cooper amplified theatrical shock in rock, which is a different branch of performance art within rock. David Gilmour and Pink Floyd are rooted in psychedelic and progressive rock rather than glam. Because Bowie’s persona-driven style and production became the defining blueprint for glam, he is the artist most closely associated with pioneering glam rock.