Varda the Message

Wow, fabulous points!
It does seem that anyone reading about the Beatles or the Stones at the time came across names like Orsmby-Gore and Armstrong-Jones as part of their circle. And it was the aristos who wanted to hang with the cool rockers, not the other way around. Supposedly even Princess Margaret had a crush on Mick Jagger - who can blame her. I agree that rock and roll was possibly the greatest leveler ever. I think John Lennon's "the people in the cheap seats clap your hands, and the rest of you just rattle your jewelry," set the tone for the generation who wasn't intimidated or impressed with 'their betters'. And the drug aspect of it - going to Tangier to buy heroin and smoke kif, was what led them all to meet people like Burroughs and Brion Gysin.

It's often said that Glam was a literate and intellectual phenomenon. Without the breaking of boundaries between social classes that came before - and the mutual sharing of information, inspiration and communication that came along with that – Glam would probably never have happened.

Yes, I agree. Glam is a reaction to the era right before, not just in being the antidote to the hippies but in being the phenomenon that declared you could reinvent yourself - after all, if the class barriers had fallen what was to stop you?