Once frumpy skinheads
Slade and hippie wannabe Marc Bolan failed to set charts alight, they followed David Bowie's lead: dabbing on glitter, pulling on platform boots and proptly plundering the hearts and wallets of a generation of teenyboppers.
The genre's hallmarks were lyrical ludicrousness, musical unsophistication and visual excess, epitomised by Gary Glitter (hence the offshoot Glitter Rock), satirised by David Bowie's 'Rebel Rebel' and appropriated by Kiss. Glam died at the feet of Punk, although a mid-80s revival under the Heavy Metal umbrella spawned Poison, Guns N' Roses and, to their subsequent embarressment, Pantera.