I hold goth in a special place in my heart. It is often wrongfully accused of many harsh criticisms found only in mainstream media. I sympathize with goth. It is not as easy as it appears to refer to a band or artist as “goth,” however. The term “goth” alone refers to a subculture in this day and age - not a style of music. I have heard everyone from The Velvet Underground to PJ Harvey to Soft Cell to Portishead being called goth. This is madness. It just has to stop.
To celebrate the beginning of the summer, I’m interested in doing a project to analyze all genres and subgenres typically championed by those in the gothic subculture. This article will focus on goth in rock music, the second will be about goth in electronic music, and the third and final installment will detail the history of industrial music, which I feel needs its own article altogether. So, goth, right?
The term “gothic” goes back quite some time. It first appeared in 12th century France to describe a form of church architecture, which was an elaboration of Romanesque architecture. Fast forward several centuries and the 19th century public began showing an interest in horror novels. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818, Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897, and Edgar Allen Poe wrote poems, short stories, and other depressing works in the early 1800s. In 1967, music critic John Stickney called The Doors’ single “The End” gothic rock. The most important usage of this word for our purposes, however, was when Joy Division’s manager Tony Wilson used it to describe their music, contrasting it from what was occurring in the mainstream.
England had a “post-punk landscape” in the late ‘70s, as gothic rock historian Pete Scathe describes it. Inspired also by the DIY attitude encapsulated by the Sex Pistols during the brink of the punk rock revolution, Joy Division’s sound mimicked Manchester, England’s bleak surroundings prevalent in the late ‘70s. Joy Division released the post-punk classic Unknown Pleasures in ’79 and followed it up the following year with a record filled with more mood, gloom, doom, and brood, Closer, which was by and large a blueprint for many gothic rock bands to come, who often borrowed from Ian Curtis’ unique vocal delivery (The Sisters of Mercy, She Wants Revenge, etc.).
(For reference: “Twenty Four Hours” by Joy Division)
In August of 1979, the Cure toured as Siouxsie & the Banshees’ opening act for their second album Join Hands. The Banshees' Steven Severin claims that the Cure's Robert Smith donned his signature look after playing with Siouxsie Sioux every night. In this way, these two acts helped to define the what came to be known as “goth” in the aesthetic sense, as both Smith and Sioux performed with their respective makeup-heavy fashion senses. The image at this time was equal parts punk rock and glam rock.
(For reference: “One Hundred Years” by the Cure)
Although Joy Division, the Cure, and the Banshees were probably the three bands most commercially successful that had any bearing on the yet-to-emerge goth scene, there were a handful of acts hugely important that gained most of their notoriety in the 1980s. Post-punk/proto-noise rock giants The Birthday Party revealed their B-movie gothic horror anthem “Release the Bats” in 1981 (with lyrics like “Damn that horror bat/Sex vampire,” what else but goth could they possibly be anticipating?). Killing Joke was another British proto-goth act that helped pave the way thanks to their minimal, bass-heavy style of post-punk. Their 1980 self-titled album yielded a handful of singles crucial to gothic rock’s history.
(For reference: “Release the Bats” by the Birthday Party and “Requiem” by Killing Joke)
It is nearly unarguable, however, that there is no single band that helped sculpt and solidify the gothic rock sound quite like Bauhaus. By the time their debut single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” dropped a few months before 1980, they had secured their place as the most important gothic rock act to date. They held a self-aware aloofness, tongue-in-cheek taste for the macabre, minimalist interest in gloomy atmosphere, and punk rock ethos in their arsenal. Perhaps the most extraordinary feat Bauhaus accomplished was to tie up any loose ends Joy Division, the Banshees, or anyone else had left. They had created gothic rock proper.
(For reference: “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus)
It is no surprise that Bauhaus’ and their progenitors’ actions had sparked a bit of a revolution in England in the early-mid ‘80s. Several other bands began to follow suit in image, attitude, and the rapidly developing sound that can be characterized by nothing other than “gothic rock.” Other groups to play in this style are the Sisters of Mercy (latterly the Sisterhood and the Mission), Theatre of Hate, and Southern Death Cult. By this time, the term “gothic” was not in common circulation. In the February 1983 issue of NME, journalist Richard North described the developing movement as “positive punk” or “posi-punk,” which denoted gothic rock’s tendency to not incite riotous behaviors in listeners. Many gothic rock musicians detested the label, and the term “goth” became relevant shortly thereafter.
(For reference: “Black Planet” by The Sisters of Mercy)
The most iconic nightclub in the gothic subculture is none other than the Batcave in London, England. It was opened in July of 1982 by a man named Olli Wisdom to be a club that specializes in new wave and glam rock. Wisdom had formed a London deathrock band in 1980 called Specimen. Just as readily as Wisdom opened the Batcave, Specimen became the house band. Attention quickly shifted from new wave to deathrock and gothic rock, and the Batcave became the place to be for British goths and deathrockers. Other notable bands that frequently played the Batcave include Alien Sex Fiend, The Virgin Prunes, and Sex Gang Children. Not only was the “goth” look solidified by this point, it had become a cultural phenomenon.
(For reference: “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” by Specimen)
*Fun fact: Johnny Slut of Specimen is generally credited as the inventor of the deathhawk.
Simultaneously, there was a similar movement happening on the other side of the Atlantic. Los Angeles, California’s deathrock scene had been flourishing just as the London scene had. LA deathrock was more hardcore than post-punk, more shock rock than glam rock. The majority took influence from American punk rock and hardcore bands that had an affinity for the gruesome, such as the Misfits (pioneers of horrorpunk) and the Cramps (pioneers of psychobilly*) and darker British punk bands like the Damned. The aesthetic in LA deathrock bands took even more influence from horror camp and less from punk rock. Some of the more important bands from this scene (45 Grave, Christian Death, Kommunity FK), indulged in an Alice Cooper brand of morbid theatricalism, which fans of this style mirrored in their fashion.
(For reference: “Evil” by 45 Grave)
Taking root from darkwave (which will be covered in the following article), a particularly unusual gothic rock derivative began developing in the early 1980s: ethereal wave. Ethereal wave took inspiration from not only the usual suspects of punk rock and post-punk, but also ambient music, art rock, progressive rock, and psychedelic rock. This gave the traditional ethereal wave sound an expansive, dreamy, oft exultant tonality that was entirely unique until dream pop, shoegaze, and ethereal wave itself began stepping on each others’ toes in the second have of the decade. Dead Can Dance, Faith & the Muse, and the Cocteau Twins are important acts in this genre.
(For reference: “Will You Fade” by Love Spirals Downwards)
A problematic development in the history of goth in rock music was the conception of gothic metal proper. It is a blurry genre that can get entangled with the likes of doom metal, pop music, black metal, and darkwave. Nonetheless, there are some metal bands that have an undeniably gothic feel to their music. Type O Negative, Tiamat, Saviour Machine, and Moonspell are all deserving of the aforementioned title. Death/doom metal was pioneered by the Peaceville Three (Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema), three British groups that all signed to Peaceville Records in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s that had a similar, emotional style of death/doom. This became a huge inspiration for bands like Type O Negative, and even the gothic-kissed rock band HIM. The gothic metal style is often seen as a subgenre of doom metal, and therefore tends to be slow, dirge-like, and massive. Influences from death metal, epic doom metal, and symphonic metal are also common.
(For reference: “White Slavery” by Type O Negative)
Stay tuned for Part 2, Goth in electronic music.
-Thus spake the Atma
*I chose to not make mention of the gothabilly genre, as the scene is so small, it is nearly insignificant.
Author’s note:
New Romanticism was a type of fashion and music popular in the ‘80s, wrongfully often associated with the gothic subculture. Although, both subcultures take influence from glam, they go about it in entirely disparate ways. One needs to look no further than a Google Image search of Boy George or Adam Ant to see the blaring dissimilarity.
Suggested listening:
Joy Division - Closer (1980)
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Juju (1981)
Christian Death - Only Theatre of Pain (1982)
Alien Sex Fiend - Who’s Been Sleeping in My Brain? (1983)
Specimen - Batastrophe (1983)
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About the Weather (1985)
The Mission - Gods Own Medicine (1986)
Cocteau Twins - Victorialand (1986)
The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland (1987)
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (1993)
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