Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (review)

{ 165 } BOOK REV IEWS ganda but also utilized aspects of the folk art tradition, such as spirituals. And, by focusing on the humanitarian reasons against mob rule, Johnson develops her most notable lynching dramas, which reconceptualize lynching as a permanent scar on American national identity. Though similar, Yet They Paused and A Bill to Be Passed deliver different endings to demonstrate the stalling and filibustering that contributed to “Congress’s failure to pass a federal antilynching bill” (37). When Johnson defines lynching as not simply a “racial problem” but an “American problem,” she integrates the identity of whites and blacks as Americans fighting injustice for all (187). This universal call to arms suggests a new element in Johnson’s lynching genre. If her blatant protests against lynching and her concern with miscegenation underscore Johnson’s place as one of the more revolutionary, political female dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance, then it is precisely this position as a black woman activist in this era that jeopardized her reception. As Stephens points out, Johnson’s lynching dramas “reflect her role as an outspoken critic of racial violence as well as her vision of theatre as a tool for social change” (39). For this reason, this collection is a tremendous resource for scholars, artists , and students of American theatre, African-American studies, and gender studies and ideally will ensure greater visibility for Johnson’s under-recognized theatrical contributions through discussion and production. —ADRIENNE C. MACKI Tufts University Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music. By Philip Auslander. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. xii + 260 pp. $60.00 cloth, $24.95 paper. With Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music, Philip Auslander has solidified his role as one of the most important scholars of a small but growing field focusing on the visual elements of music performance. Although scholars have largely ignored glam rock—the outrageous, spectacledriven music genre popularized in the 1970s by David Bowie and other musical acts—Auslander argues that glam not only gave peripheral identities agency but also made it possible to perform queerness in public. Auslander’s knowledge of and passion for glam rock and other music (e.g. psychedelic and punk rock) infuse the study. \ { 166 } BOOK REV IEWS In chapter 1, Auslander traces the evolution from psychedelic rock, in which the “antiocularity was particularly acute,” to a distinctly new genre of rock music that privileged the visual (15). According to Auslander, whereas psychedelic rock stars (Jimi Hendrix notwithstanding) largely ignored spectacle, glam rock stars placed as much importance—if not more—on the spectacle as they did the music and lyrics. In this chapter, even more fundamental to his argument is the concept of “persona” inherent in glam rock: “defined by three layers: the real person (the performer as human being), the performance persona (the performer’s self-presentation) and the character (a figure portrayed in a song text)” (4). Auslander further illustrates glam rock’s distinction from psychedelic rock with a comparison of live performances by John Lennon, exemplifying psychedelic rock, and by Sha Na Na, a band that anticipated glam. In chapter 2, Auslander provides more background on the birth of glam rock, highlighting the importance of queerness to glam. He defines glam“queerness ” as a subversive sexual or gender identity: “glam masculinity, like Mod masculinity before it, alluded to the possibility of homosexuality or bisexuality ”(60–61).Auslander argues that glam is not solely a musicological category but also a sociological one: “Socially, glam represented a rejection of countercultural values, particularly with respect to sexual identity” (50). These first two chapters help clarify how exploring peripheral identities became central to glam. The remainder of the book is a series of case studies on glam rock stars. Chapter 3 focuses on glam’s first star, Marc Bolan, the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band T. Rex. This chapter includes an examination of three different filmed performances of the same song, illustrating the evolution of glam. Auslander further affirms Bolan’s role as glam’s architect with a comparison of guitar solos by Jimi Hendrix and Bolan, both of whom simulated masturbation with their instruments. While the very...