Gothic rock:

This article is about the musical style of gothic rock. For the goth scene in general, see goth subculture.

Gothic rock (alternatively called goth rock or simply goth) is a genre of alternative rock that originated during the late 1970s. Originally, bands from the genre had strong ties to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk^[2] styles. The genre itself was defined as a separate movement from punk rock during the early 1980s. Gothic rock artists deal with dark themes and intellectual movements such as gothic horror, Romanticism, and nihilism. Notable gothic rock bands include Bauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, and Fields of the Nephilim. Gothic rock gave rise to a broader goth subculture that includes goth clubs, goth fashions, and goth-oriented magazines.

Musical style

The guitar tone is usually processed with electronic effects.^[2] The genre is also known for its frequent use of synthesizers.^[2] As well, gothic rock has a characteristic guitar playing style. Gothic rock guitar playing takes its downstroke playing style from punk, and emphasizes angular melodic lines instead of thick chords. Minor keys and minor mode melodies are prevalent, but major keys are also used. The Phrygian mode, characterized by a lowered second scale degree contributes to the gothic sound with its "haunting" and dissonant mood. Gothic rock songs are typically mixed so that there is a heavy bass sound, which creates a moody and gloomy atmosphere.

Gothic rock often uses repetitive snare drum snap to propel the beat, either a real drum beat or, later on, usually a drum machine beat. The metronomic snare drum sound can be first heard on Iggy Pop's The Idiot. It continues on in Joy Division's songs, Gary Numan's early music, on early Cure albums (beginning with Seventeen Seconds) and early Sisters of Mercy recordings. More sophisticated variations of the snare drum snap are used by Kevin Haskins in Bauhaus's music. In the 1990s, some bands in the gothic genre wrote songs with a more hard rock feel, such as the Sisters of Mercy's Vision Thing album, and Fields of the Nephilim, Rosetta Stone, London After Midnight, and The Wake.

History

First generation (c. 1979–c. 1985)

The first generation of gothic rock bands were associated with styles such as punk rock, post-punk,^[3] and new wave. Some of the late-1970s and 1980s gothic rock bands created their own record labels or released their material through independent record labels (such as Beggars Banquet Records); however, like punk rock, this was not a general rule, as some bands in the movement also appeared on major labels.

United Kingdom

Two early post-punk groups labeled "gothic" were Joy Division^[4]^[5] and Siouxsie & the Banshees^[3] in 1979. Between 1978 and 1979 these bands developed a haunting sound and dark-themed lyrics. Killing Joke and John Lydon's Public Image Ltd also influenced the development of the goth sound. Siouxsie & the Banshees' output from their debut album The Scream (1978) to Nocturne (1983) were influential on the goth sound. Joy Division was short-lived, due to vocalist Ian Curtis' suicide. Nevertheless their two albums Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980) were influential in the gothic scene.

As the gothic label began to stick to Joy Division and Siouxsie & the Banshees in 1979, Bauhaus appeared.^[5] They started out wearing plain jeans and t-shirts, but after appearing on the same bill as Gloria Mundi, Bauhaus ended up having a makeover, dressing in all black and wearing makeup. Strongly influenced by English Glam rock such as David Bowie and T. Rex, Bauhaus's debut single "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (released in late 1979) is considered to be the beginning of gothic rock^[6]^[7]. Despite their legacy as progenitors of gothic rock, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and The Cure chiefly self-identified as punk acts at the time.^[8]^[3]

In 1980 and 1981, Danse Society, Theatre of Hate, March Violets, Play Dead, and The Sisters of Mercy were formed. UK Decay, a late-1970s punk band, influenced the emerging gothic movement of the early 1980s. The first written reference to Goth, as a derivation of the punk scene, was by Steve Keaton in an article about UK Decay, entitled 'The face of punk gothique', for UK rock weekly Sounds. Published on February 21, 1981, Keaton writes that the band’s vocalist, Abbo “once told me that they had a fascination with death (it’s OK he was laughing at the time.) Even so, their imagery is striking and the music is thick with Victorian menace – and Banshee/Antz spice. Could this be the coming of Punk Gothique? With Bauhaus flying in on similar wings could it be the next big thing?” Keaton concludes: “Punk Gothique? It’s looking just fine.”

In February 1981, Abbo from UK Decay used the term gothic to describe the style of bands such as Danse Society and Play Dead. A year later, Ian Astbury of the band Southern Death Cult used the term "gothic goblins" to describe Sex Gang Children's fans. However, the term "goth" did not become a label for a movement or "scene" until 1983[1]. The emerging scene was described as "positive punk" in a February 1983 article in the NME magazine. Journalist Richard North described Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate as "the immediate forerunners of today's flood" (which included Southern Death Cult, and Sex Gang Children) and declared, "So here it is: the new positive punk, with no empty promises of revolution, either in the rock'n'roll sense or the wider political sphere. Here is only a chance of self awareness, of personal revolution, of colourful perception and galvanisation of the imagination that startles the slumbering mind and body from their sloth."^[9]

Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure have retained the goth imagery in their on-stage appearance and albums throughout most of their careers, but their music has explored other related genres. Bauhaus were more consistently gothic in their on-stage appearance and musical styles until their break-up in 1983. Some members of Bauhaus had a side project called Tones on Tail which continued during the mid 1980s, releasing gothic-styled music influenced by The Beach Boys experimental Pet Sounds album and 1970s drug subculture psychedelic music. Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance also contributed to Gothic rock with a distinctively ethereal style, borrowing from ambient music.^[3]

By 1982, gothic rock had become a broader sub-culture, with the emergence of bands such as Sex Gang Children, Southern Death Cult, Skeletal Family, Marc and the Mambas, Specimen,^[3] and Alien Sex Fiend. Clubs such as the Batcave in London contributed to gothic rock's broader scope by providing a venue for the goth scene.^[10] The Batcave aimed at reinventing David Bowie's vision of glam rock, but with a darker, horror-influenced twist. Gothic rock band members, hangers-on, and fans socialized at the Batcave, which became the prototype goth club environment. By 1984, Batcave DJs were playing Siouxsie, The Cramps, Sweet, Specimen, Eddie Cochran, and Death Cult. By 1983, the British press began commenting on the gothic rock scene gaining at the Batcave and similar venues.

Europe and Australia

Goth was as much a continental European phenomenon as it was British or American. At the same time bands like Bauhaus and Christian Death were forming in those countries, bands with dark, gothic musical styles, such as Xmal Deutschland (1980), Malaria! (1981), Belfegore (1982), Girls Under Glass (1986) and Pink Turns Blue (1986), were being formed in Germany. Amsterdam-based Clan of Xymox formed in 1983. By 1992, Germany developed a large wave and gothic festival, the yearly Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig. In Finland, the first, the most influential and most popular gothic rock band were Musta Paraati (Black Parade in English), which was active in 1982-84. The first Finnish band to release a gothic rock album in English was Russian Love, founded in 1986.

In Australia and New Zealand, Nick Cave's second band, The Birthday Party (c. 1979 and later moving to London), influenced the development of gothic music, fashion, and aesthetics. New Zealand's film archive New Zealand Film Archive site states that Fetus Productions operated "...as an audio-visual company from 1980-1989,...part of a small global 'industrial' culture network, which included Throbbing Gristle in Britain, and Survival Research Laboratories on the West Coast of America. They released seven albums, designed clothing, wrote manifestos, made films, and challenged the parameters of music and art, blending pop, industrial and philosophical methodologies. Their music attacked advertising's promulgation of perfect images and lithe bodies using images of medical misadventure and mutation." In 2004, Foetus Productions were still exhibiting their controversial depictions of deformed human beings in museums.

Second generation (c. 1985–c. 1995)

In the UK, goth bands became more popular and the subculture grew and broadened. Throughout the 1980s, there was much cross-pollination between the European goth subcultures, the Death Rock movement, and the New Romantic (New Wave) movement. The rise in popularity of alternative rock music in the mid-1980s was mirrored by the rise of gothic rock, most notably in the form of the seminal goth rock bands, The Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim (1984), a new version of Christian Death (1985), The Mission (1986), and Mephisto Walz (c.1987) founded by former Christian Death composer / guitarist Barry Galvin. Galvin defined the dark, droning style of Christian Death on the album Atrocities, the songs of which he composed and later transferred to the Mephisto Walz repertoire.

By 1985, the post-punk era was giving way to new musical styles, and many of the first generation gothic groups disbanded or changed their style. The Sisters of Mercy's debut album First and Last and Always (1985) cracked the British top ten, which showed the important influence that this 'first generation' goth band was having on the second generation. Vocalist Andrew Eldritch's voice earned him the moniker "the Godfather of Goth", and the bands' use of a drum machine (along with fellow Leeds residents March Violets) was innovative for the goth scene. The Three Johns and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry (also Leeds-based bands) used drum machines as well, which became much more common during the second generation (drum machines continued to be common in goth music in the 2000s).

During the second wave of goth, the term and the style became noticed in mainstream British publications like The Face and the NME. Goth fans developed fanzines, and goth clubs began to spring up in imitation of London's Batcave. The 1983 vampire-genre film "The Hunger", starring David Bowie, featured an appearance by Bauhaus, which helped to cement the relationship between glam, horror, goth and mainstream. 4AD recording artists such as Clan of Xymox (who had a mainstream hit with "Imagination"), Dead Can Dance, and the Cocteau Twins got US college radio airplay, and 'first generation' acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees became the goth scene's de facto spokespeople to the mainstream press.

By 1987, gothic groups started to emerge in Canadian cities such as Toronto and Montreal, such as Masochistic Religion, which included the singer from Armed and Hammered.

By this time, a cross-pollination with the growing global post-industrial scene was developing. The blending of goth and 'industrial' music scenes and subcultures can be heard in the music of industrial bands such as Skinny Puppy. Synthpop groups such as New Order^[3] and Depeche Mode blended goth, industrial, and pop and synthesized sounds.

Gothic rock

Contents

Musical style

History

First generation (c. 1979–c. 1985)

United Kingdom

Europe and Australia

Second generation (c. 1985–c. 1995)

See also

References

Footnotes

External links