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Notes on video lecture:
Theatrical Rock: KISS, Bowie, and Alice Cooper
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on February 15, 2015 (go to class or lectures)


Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
stage, live, dangerous, seeing, glam, guises, pyrotechnics, videos, Morrison, Madonna, Genesis, Detroit, death, androgynous, arenas, Stardust, kill, fictional, mainstream, marketing, UK, Gothic, Americans, development, bombastic, ambitious, Oddity, Price, Beatles, progressive, theatrical, bar
theatrical rock
sometimes referred to as rock
but glam rock only become popular in the
e.g. David Bowie
the U.S. really didn't have a glam movement as you did in the mid 1970s in the UK
in this genre, rock music which was conceived primarily for its production
relied in an important way on you it to understand it
in the 1980s, this happened with music in that the music was dictated by how the video was produced
albums came with elaborate shows
involved performers taking on alternate
taking on various characters
has its roots in
the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Jim with the Doors and his idea of being the Lizard King
make up and costumes used on stage
you could include the band
these shows were designed to play not in small theaters but in
forced the in the rock concert industry that hadn't been there before
David Bowie
success in U.S. was later than others in theatrical rock
1969 Space
wasn't a hit in the U.S. until 1973 when it was rereleased
one of the most important British glamstar performers with images
challenges gender identity
Ziggy
a fairly androgynous character
album was 5 in UK but only 75 in US
the question of gender is very much put in the forefront
this is what was shocking and about what Bowie was doing
in the 80s reproduced much of what Bowie did in questioning gender roles
1973 Aladdin Sane
1974 Diamond Dogs
1975 Young
hit "Fame"
you couldn't get everything from the record, you "had to see the show"
Alice Cooper
originally from
landed in Los Angeles
characterized by gruesome and stage shows
each show ended with Alice Cooper's
the question was always, how do we Alice Cooper at the end of the show
hanged
head chopped off
electric chair
eventually they sort of ran out ways to kill him
no one had ever seen this kind of staging
a "crazy band of desperadoes"
1975: Welcome to My Nightmare
Vincent did narrations
first records produced by Frank Zappa, influenced by Jim Morrison
1971: Love It to Death
"I'm Eighteen"
1971: Killer
"Be My Lover"
1972: School's Out
Alice Cooper and David Bowie were raising the in the early 70s for what it meant to do a rock show
KISS
when it came to theatrical display, there was no group that took the idea and ran with it quite like KISS
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
they all adopted characters with very heavy makeup
a cross between Alice Cooper and the Monkees
four individual characters like the Beatles
so you could identify with each of them
stage shows with lights, flames, explosions, costumes, spitting blood, Gene Simmons with that big old tongue of his
KISS was a big, sort of scary cartoon with lots of rock and roll fun
the first major success comes from a album
after three studio albums
1975 Alive!
"Rock and Roll All Nite"
you had to see them in concert
contrast that to a Led Zeppelin album, you didn't have to go to a show to experience it
or with Yes
KISS exploited the
feature film
action figures
theatrical rock was defined by the stage progression
KISS was a blues based rock band
Alice Cooper was a quasi rock
David Bowie was more of singer song writer, pop
was the precursor to music videos in 1980s
Spelling Corrections:
androgenous ⇒ androgynous
androgeny ⇒ androgyny
Ideas and Concepts:
A 1969 classic from the Theatrical Rock genre, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Space Oddity is a song written and performed by David Bowie and released as a music single in July 1969, just nine days before Apollo 11 landed on the moon. German singer Peter Schilling's 1983 hit "Major Tom (Coming Home)" is written as a retelling of the song. In 2013, Bowie's Space Oddity gained renewed popularity after it was covered by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who performed the song while aboard the International Space Station, and therefore became the first music video shot in space."
From the androgynous glamstar department, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "David Bowie was one of the most important British glamstar performers to challenge gender identity. With his Ziggy Stardust venture, he questioned the core belief of rock music of his day and created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture. Dressed in a striking costume, his hair dyed red, Bowie launched his Ziggy Stardust stage show with the Spiders from Mars on February 10, 1972. The show was hugely popular, catapulting him to stardom as he toured the UK over the course of the next six months and creating a "cult of Bowie" that was truly unique, its influence lasting longer and its originality more creative than perhaps any other personality within pop fandom history. Bowie's love of acting led his total immersion in the characters he created for his music:"Offstage I'm a robot. Onstage I achieve emotion. It's probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David."