Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music | 
| Author: Philip Auslander
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 895220
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0472068687
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.66
EAN: 9780472068685
ASIN: 0472068687
Publication Date: February 2, 2006
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Condition: Perfect First Edition Paperback. No Public Library markings, remainder mark, shelfwear, writing, underlining, highlighting, mars, marks, creases, tears, soil, etc.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Narrow focus and dry style make history less interesting. September 5, 2006
I have to disagree with other reviews of this book being accessible to the common reader. It is not. It's lengthy and dry and forced myself, a grad student and an avid rock fan, to skim over many of the lengthy and uninteresting descriptions.
It's not that the book isn't complete, it just has an extremely narrow view as to what was going on in the rock world during the 70's, and though I understand it's about Glam Rock, the fact is for anyone who has ever studied anything about rock movements in the 50's - the 90's it's too narrow to actually make me want to add to my library.
The really sad thing is that I was excited to read this book. It was assigned in our syllabus, which normally indicates that a student would be uninterested, but being required to study Glam Rock? Now that's just cool! I really wish I had better things to say.
The performance aspects are interesting but not really new information. Personally I probably could have gotten more by watching a really well produced film. (Because frankly, you need audio and visual to have the full on Glam Rock experience.)
 Defining this moment in rock music April 30, 2006
Glam Rock was a short lived moment in popular music that essentially lasted only about five or six years, say from 1970 to 1975. In 1970 we were long past the time when Ed Sullivan would only show Elvis from the waist up. The pill has made basic changes in the outlook of the young towards sex. Here in the US, the Viet Nam war, Watergate and Kent state were changing the view of the people.
In music the time was ripe for a change and a series of musicians did that with a new form of rock that featured extremely theatrical performances with outrageous (for the time) costume, makeup and sets. This was called Glam Rock. It drew upon the history of previous styles of rock and added a theatrical aspect to music that was minimally modified.
This book traces the history of Glam Rock from its beginnings with T. Rex and goes through the advent of Suzi Quatro. It explains what Glam Rock was and a bit about how it evolved into the next phase of music.
Performing Glam Rock Review April 16, 2006
I recommend this book to rock music aficionados who hunger for deeper analysis and more thoughtful work than is the typical fare for books about this genre. It helps to have some interest or fond memories for glam rock, but the chapters about performers one may not know that well or never cared for (e.g., Suzie Quatro, for me) are as compelling as those about ones personal faves. While some of the discussion may be a tad academic for the casual reader, I urge the casual reader to read on, because he will learn something and be entertained. The author is well aware that writing a book is a performance of sorts, and does not ignore his obligation to keep the reader entertained even as some sophisticated and/or obscure concepts are dealt with.
Full disclosure: the author is a college friend of mine and I am thanked in the credits for having read over a few chapters in draft. - Peter Shapiro
Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Mu March 31, 2006
Performing Glam Rock does a brilliant job of explaining this elusive moment in rock history. For the first time we have a book which makes sense of glam: pretty boys (and one girl) in lurex and make up who swept away rock's no-performance code. As Phil Auslander shows, glam subverted rock's gender sterotyping too, and opened up the possiblity of new kinds of expression around sex and identity.
Along the way we get some engaging, funny and always insighful anlysis of the performance of glam artists from Bolan to Quatro. It's too early to name a rock book of the year for 2006, but this is surely a candidate.
Jason Toynbee
Lecturer in Media Studies, Open University
Better Hang on to Yourself March 27, 2006
Although I've only recently begun to read up on performance studies, it seems to me that Auslander has chosen a particularly illustrative case study in glam rock. Within a genre so explicitly focused on the construction and performance of identity, it's actually a bit surprising that this book hadn't already been written.
While Auslander comes from the performance studies tradition, Performing Glam Rock also serves as a great overview of the genre. The book includes a great deal of history, making it a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the genre. The big guns are profiled in depth to illustrate the glam's traits: Bolan (style), Bowie (theatricality), Roxy Music (gender) and Suzi Quatro (more gender, specifically female masculinity).
Overall, an accessible and compelling read.
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