Source: http://home.echo-on.net/~ifftay/images/gslamf.htm
"Straight White Punks In Drag" by Jessamin Swearingen (adapted and edited by Allan Metz)
‘We Created It: Let's Take It Over!' web site, 1999-2001
What the New York Dolls meant to punk–Ed.
Source: http://home.echo-on.net/~ifftay/images/gslamf.htm
Watching the aggressively macho strains of heavy metal rock videos today, it is difficult to fight the urge to dismiss most of the bands as cheap clones of the New York Dolls. The forces urging male rock stars in the early 1970s to wear women's clothing onstage returned full force with the arrival of MTV-ready heavy metal. What was once called "glam rock" reemerged in the early 1980s to affirm that whatever provoked male rock stars in the early 1970s to dress in female attire still meant "bad boy" in the rock industry. By adopting a female persona by wearing makeup and women's clothing, the heavy metal musicians asserted an even more daring male identity than that of the typical male rocker. Dressing in drag for these bands held no connotation of homosexuality; it was merely a means of getting attention.
Glam rock stemmed directly from the Velvet Underground's portrayal of so-called deviant sexuality. The cross-dressers and name-droppers clinging to Andy Warhol's factory studio space in the late 1960s provided ample material for Lou Reed's impressive narrative lyrical skills. Author Tricia Henry notes that in 1971, after the ending of his career with the seminal Velvet Underground, Reed was visited by English pop star David Bowie. Bowie recognized Reed's talent and saw the potential of his subject matter. During the sexually permissive atmosphere of the late 1960s, it was in vogue for pop stars to experiment with drugs and sexual partners. Bowie wrote "Queen Bitch" on his 1971 LP, Hunky Dory, in homage to the Velvet Underground. The song patterned Lou Reed's chanting drawl and straight-from-the-street narration. Reed's influence on Bowie is also evident in Bowie's song "Andy Warhol." Bowie understood Warhol's powers of media manipulation whereby Warhol and the "silver screen" were indistinguishable....