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theatrical rock

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sometimes referred to as glam rock

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but glam rock only become popular in the UK

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e.g. David Bowie

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the U.S. really didn't have a glam movement as you did in the mid 1970s in the UK

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in this genre, rock music which was conceived primarily for its theatrical production

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relied in an important way on you seeing it to understand it

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in the 1980s, this happened with music videos in that the music was dictated by how the video was produced

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albums came with elaborate stage shows

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involved performers taking on alternate guises

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taking on various fictional characters

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has its roots in

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the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

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Jim Morrison with the Doors and his idea of being the Lizard King

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make up and costumes used on stage

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you could include the band Genesis

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these shows were designed to play not in small theaters but in arenas

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forced the development in the rock concert industry that hadn't been there before

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David Bowie

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success in U.S. was later than others in theatrical rock

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1969 Space Oddity

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wasn't a hit in the U.S. until 1973 when it was rereleased

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one of the most important British glamstar performers with androgynous images

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challenges gender identity

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Ziggy Stardust

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a fairly androgynous character

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album was 5 in UK but only 75 in US

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the question of gender is very much put in the forefront

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this is what was shocking and ambitious about what Bowie was doing

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Madonna in the 80s reproduced much of what Bowie did in questioning gender roles

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1973 Aladdin Sane

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1974 Diamond Dogs

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1975 Young Americans

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hit "Fame"

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you couldn't get everything from the record, you "had to see the show"

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Alice Cooper

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originally from Detroit

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landed in Los Angeles

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characterized by gruesome and Gothic stage shows

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each show ended with Alice Cooper's death

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the question was always, how do we kill Alice Cooper at the end of the show

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hanged

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head chopped off

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electric chair

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eventually they sort of ran out ways to kill him

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no one had ever seen this kind of staging

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a "crazy band of dangerous desperadoes"

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1975: Welcome to My Nightmare

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Vincent Price did narrations

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first records produced by Frank Zappa, influenced by Jim Morrison

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1971: Love It to Death

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"I'm Eighteen"

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1971: Killer

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"Be My Lover"

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1972: School's Out

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Alice Cooper and David Bowie were raising the bar in the early 70s for what it meant to do a rock show

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KISS

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when it came to theatrical display, there was no group that took the idea and ran with it quite like KISS

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it was one thing for Alice Cooper to scare you with a guillotine, hanging or electric chair or David Bowie to shock you with this androgyny and European stylishness, but KISS was going to amaze you with the pyrotechnics

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they all adopted characters with very heavy makeup

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a cross between Alice Cooper and the Monkees

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four individual characters like the Beatles

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so you could identify with each of them

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bombastic stage shows with lights, flames, explosions, costumes, spitting blood, Gene Simmons with that big old tongue of his

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KISS was a big, sort of scary cartoon with lots of rock and roll fun

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the first major success comes from a live album

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after three studio albums

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1975 Alive!

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"Rock and Roll All Nite"

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you had to see them in concert

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contrast that to a Led Zeppelin album, you didn't have to go to a show to experience it

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or with Yes

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KISS exploited the marketing

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feature film

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action figures

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theatrical rock was defined by the stage progression

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KISS was a blues based rock band

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Alice Cooper was a quasi progressive rock

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David Bowie was more of singer song writer, mainstream pop

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was the precursor to music videos in 1980s