Editing New York Dolls (section)

== Musical style ==
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 |quote = Certainly neither ''great'' nor ''[[punk rock|punk]]'' in any of its variations were words applied to the Dolls when they began performing late in 1971{{snd}} ''awful'' and ''ugly'' were more like it. Moreover, at the time, the Dolls were associated with [[glam rock|glam-rock]] and [[David Bowie]] in his most flamboyantly gay period, an understandable mistake.
 |source = — [[Ken Tucker]]<ref name="Tucker"/>
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{{quote box|quoted = 1|quote=[[Clive Davis]] once told [[Lisa Robinson]] not to talk about New York Dolls uptown if she wanted to work in the music biz. They were petrified of the Dolls. They thought they were homosexual. It wasn't just homophobia; it was still [[LGBT rights in New York|illegal to be homosexual]]. People don't remember that it was the law. To say the Dolls, guys who wore makeup, were your friends was like saying you knew a criminal.|source=— [[Bob Gruen]] (2006)<ref>{{cite book |last=Blush |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Blush |year=2016 |title=New York Rock: From the Rise of The Velvet Underground to the Fall of CBGB |page=102 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |isbn=978-1250083616}}</ref>|width=30em|align=right|style=padding:8px;|salign=right}}

According to [[AllMusic]] editor [[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]], the New York Dolls developed an original style of [[hard rock]] that presaged both [[punk rock]] and [[heavy metal music]], and drew on elements such as the "dirty [[rock & roll]]" of [[the Rolling Stones]], the "anarchic noise" of [[the Stooges]], the [[glam rock]] of [[David Bowie]] and [[T. Rex (band)|T. Rex]], and [[girl group]] pop music.<ref name="Erlewine"/> Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it".<ref name="Erlewine">{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/new-york-dolls-mn0000866786/biography |title=New York Dolls |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=June 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130910091914/http://www.allmusic.com/artist/new-york-dolls-mn0000866786/biography |archive-date=September 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Ken Tucker]], who referred to them as a [[proto-punk]] band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of [[Lou Reed]]: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with [[the Velvet Underground]] embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."<ref name="Tucker">{{cite book|last1=Ward|first1=Ed|author-link1=Ed Ward (writer)|last2=Stokes|first2=Geoffrey|last3=Tucker|first3=Ken|author-link3=Ken Tucker|year=1986|page=549|title=Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll|publisher=[[Rolling Stone|Rolling Stone Press]], [[Fireside Books]]|isbn=978-0-671-54438-6}}</ref>

When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore [[spandex]] and [[platform boots]],{{sfn|Ward|Stokes|Tucker|1986|p=549}} while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"—<ref>{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|year=1998|title=Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|isbn=978-0-674-44318-1|page=194}}</ref> often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally.<ref name="Tucker"/> Fashion historian [[Valerie Steele]] said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of [[androgyny]]—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hemsvn9ZbRkC&pg=PA583|access-date=June 24, 2013|page=583|title=The Berg Companion to Fashion|year=2010|publisher=[[Berg Publishers]]|isbn=978-1-84788-592-0|editor-last=Steele|editor-first=Valerie|editor-link=Valerie Steele}}</ref> According to James McNair of ''[[The Independent]]'', "when they began pedalling their trashy [[glam punk|glam-punk]] around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/new-york-dolls-anarchy-from-the-usa-1830913.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/new-york-dolls-anarchy-from-the-usa-1830913.html |archive-date=June 18, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=New York Dolls: Anarchy from the USA |access-date=December 3, 2018 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] }}</ref> Music journalist [[Nick Kent]] argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kent, Nick|page=[https://archive.org/details/punkwholestory00blak/page/14 14]|title=Punk: The Whole Story|editor-last=Blake|editor-first=Mark|editor-link=Mark Blake (writer)|publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]]|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7566-2359-3|display-authors=etal|url=https://archive.org/details/punkwholestory00blak/page/14|author-link=Nick Kent}}</ref>

By contrast, [[Robert Christgau]] preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xauNk09IVKAC&pg=PA158|access-date=June 24, 2013|page=158|title=Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers And Cool-Headed Cruisers|editor-last=Lindberg|editor-first=Ulf|publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]]|isbn=978-0-8204-7490-8|year=2005}}</ref> [[Robert Hilburn]], writing for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by ''[[Too Much Too Soon (album)|Too Much Too Soon]]'' (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock".<ref>{{cite news|last=Hilburn|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Hilburn|date=May 7, 1974|page=C12|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/603093642.html?dids=603093642:603093642&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=May+07%2C+1974&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Touch+of+Stones+in+Dolls%27+Album&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130624231120/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/603093642.html?dids=603093642:603093642&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=May+07,+1974&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Touch+of+Stones+in+Dolls'+Album&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 24, 2013|title=Touch of Stones in Dolls' Album|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=June 23, 2013}} {{subscription required}}</ref> [[Simon Reynolds]] felt that, by their 2009 album ''[[Cause I Sez So]]'', the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."<ref>{{cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Reynolds|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FI3dVT9t34C&pg=PA42|access-date=June 24, 2013|page=42|title=Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]]|year=2011|isbn=978-1-4299-6858-4}}</ref>