Need Advice For Writing '70S Style Glam Rock!

[heartofglasses]

I seem to be having a problem branching out of the unfortunate "freak folk" genre I've been labeled with. I'd really like to write some glam songs on keyoard a la "Here Come the Warm Jets" era Brian Eno, or Aladdin Sane era David Bowie. Or even better, any era Sparks. But everything I write ends up sounding too...twee? And a little bit too emo? I'd also like to use my vocal range more, but I'm having trouble writing songs that challenge me. I have pretty much the same range as Bowie. Could my problem be the scales I'm using? I tend to use somewhat exotic scales, just because I always have the urge to break out of minor or major scale. Sometimes I use whole scales, sometimes Spanish gypsy, sometimes melodic minor, etc. But I haven't been able to find a glammy sort of sound. And is there a particular key I should be writing in to get a nice glam sound? Or maybe there's a special way to approach the rhythm? I'm completely new to writing this genre, but it's my favorite genre to sing to. I should mention that we're a stringless band, but some of my favorite glam songs are the theatrical, piano-based ones. I appreciate any help!!

[Retrosaurus Rex]

All the scales span 8+ octaves, so that can't be the problem... no reason you can't bring some exotic scales to the table (Eno was pretty progressive), but nailing the vibe is going to be more about style than scales. Bowie for instance was really heavily influenced by 60s Soul and R&B.

[chrisnaish]

The king of Glam, for me at least, is T.Rex.

Most of their big glam songs are in E and use very simple groovy rhythms for the verses with minimal chord changes, then swing into a C-Am-F-G on the choruses, pretty back stuff. It's all very rockabilly/girl group styled 50's "changes."

an example would be "Children of the Revolution" by T.Rex. Here's a Youtube version with crazy nice piano.

For his ballads he often just rocks out the C-Am-F-G the whole time...which of course sounds epic on piano.

Bowie, of course, is more tricky... but alot of his best tracks are also super simple boogie/blues based riffs with insane lyrics.

Glam is more about taking basic rock, kicking up the rhythm and attitude, imho.