Gothic rock (also referred to as goth rock or simply goth) is a musical subgenre of post-punk that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes. According to both Pitchfork[2] and NME,[3] protogoth bands are Joy Division,[2][3][4] Siouxsie and the Banshees,[2][3] Bauhaus[2][3] and The Cure.[2][3] The genre itself was defined as a separate movement from punk rock during the early 1980s largely due to the significant stylistic divergences of the movement; gothic rock, as opposed to punk, combines dark, often keyboard-heavy music with introspective and depressing lyrics. Gothic rock then gave rise to a broader subculture that included clubs, fashion and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s.
According to music journalist Simon Reynolds, standard musical fixtures of the Gothic rock include "scything guitar patterns, high-pitched Joy Division basslines that often usurped the melodic role; [and] beats that were either hypnotically dirgelike or 'tribal'".[5] Reynolds described the vocal style as consisting of "deep, droning alloys of Jim Morrison and Leonard Cohen".[5] Siouxsie and the Banshees tended to play the flanging guitar effect, producing a brittle, cold, and harsh sound that contrasted with their psychedelic rock predecessors.[6] Several acts used drum machines that do not stress the back beat in the rhythm.[7]
Gothic rock typically deals with dark themes addressed through lyrics and the music atmosphere. The poetic sensibilities of the genre led gothic rock lyrics to exhibit literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and/or supernatural mysticism.[8] Musicians who initially shaped the aesthetics and musical conventions of gothic rock include Marc Bolan,[9] The Velvet Underground,[10] The Doors,[10] David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and The Sex Pistols.[10][11] However, Reynolds considers Alice Cooper as "the true ungodly godfather of Goth" due to his "theatrics and black humor".[9] Nico's 1969 album, The Marble Index, was also particularly influential.[12] Gothic rock creates a dark atmosphere by drawing influence from the drones used by protopunk group The Velvet Underground, and many goth singers are influenced by the "deep and dramatic" vocal timbre of David Bowie, albeit singing at even lower pitches.[7] J.G. Ballard was a strong lyrical influence for many of the early gothic rock groups; The Birthday Party drew on Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire.[13]
In 1976, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice was published. The main character, although dark, wanted companionship and love. The book, according to music journalist Dave Thompson, slowly created an audience for gothic rock by word of mouth. The same year saw the punk rock band The Damned debut. The group's vocalist Dave Vanian was a former gravedigger who dressed like a vampire 24 hours a day. Brian James, a guitarist for the group, noted, "Other groups had safety pins and the spitting and bondage trousers, but you went to a Damned show, and half the local cemetery would be propped up against the stage".[14]
The term gothic was used to describe Velvet Underground singer Nico as early in 1971. The term was used occasionally in the years that followed.[14] In the late 1970s, the word "gothic" was used to describe the atmosphere of post-punk bands like Joy Division. In 1979, Martin Hannett described Joy Division as "dancing music with Gothic overtones"[1] and in September, their manager Tony Wilson described their music as "gothic" on the television show Something Else.[15] In 1980, Melody Maker wrote that "Joy Division are masters of this gothic gloom".[16] When their final album Closer came out a couple of months after the death of their singer, Sounds noted in its review that there were "dark strokes of gothic rock".[17] Not long after, this appellation "became a critical term of abuse" for a band like Bauhaus that had arrived later on the music scene.[1] However, the term would not be adopted as "positive identity, a tribal rallying cry" until a shift in the scene in 1982.[1] In addition, Simon Reynolds identifies The Birthday Party and Killing Joke as essential proto-goth groups.[18] Despite their legacy as progenitors of gothic rock, these groups disliked the label.[19] Adam Ant's early work was also a major impetus for the gothic rock scene, and much of the fan base came from his milieu.[20]
Bauhaus's debut single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released in late 1979, is retrospectively considered to be the beginning of the gothic rock genre.[21] According to Peter Murphy the song was written to be tongue in cheek but since the group performed it with "naive seriousness" that is how the audience understood it.[14] Around the same time, post-punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure included more gothic characteristics in their music.[22] According to Simon Reynolds, with their fourth album, 1981's Juju, Siouxsie and the Banshees introduced several Gothic qualities, lyrically and sonically[22] but for The Guardian, Juju was also art-rock on certain songs and pop on the singles.[23] Bassist Steven Severin attributes the aesthetic used by the band around that time to the influence of The Cramps.[22] The Cure's "oppressively dispirited" trio of album Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in the genre.[24] The line "It doesn’t matter if we all die" began the Pornography album, which is considered as "The Cure’s gothic piece de resistance".[25] They would later become the most commercially successful of these groups.[26] The Cure's style was "withdrawn",[24] contrasting with their contemporaries like Nick Cave's first band The Birthday Party, who drew on funk, blues, and spastic, violent turmoil.[27] With the Birthday Party's Junkyard album, Nick Cave combined "sacred and profane" things,[28] using old testament imagery,[29] with stories about sin, curses and damnation.[29] Their 1981 single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential in the scene.[30]
Killing Joke were originally inspired by Public Image Ltd., borrowing from funk, disco, dub, and later, heavy metal.[31] Calling their style "tension music", Killing Joke distorted these elements to provocative effect, as well as producing a morbid, politically charged visual style.[31] After being a punk band, The Damned performed dramatic surges with a crooner's voice on The Black Album.[32]
Gothic rock thrived in the early 1980s. In London, the Batcave club opened in July 1982[33] to provide a venue for the goth scene.[34] That same year, Ian Astbury of the band Southern Death Cult used the term "gothic goblins" to describe Sex Gang Children's fans.[35] Southern Death Cult appeared on the cover of NME in October:[36] they became themselves icons of the scene, drawing aesthetic inspiration from Native American culture.
In February 1983, the emerging scene was described as "positive punk" on the front cover of the NME:[10] in his article, journalist Richard North described Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate as "the immediate forerunners of today's flood" 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".[10] That year, myriad Goth groups emerged, including Flesh for Lulu, Play Dead, Rubella Ballet, Gene Loves Jezebel,[37] UK Decay, Blood and Roses, The Virgin Prunes and Ausgang.[29] The 4AD label released music in a more ethereal style, by groups such as Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and Xmal Deutschland.[29] The Icelandic group Kukl also appeared in this period, which included Björk and other musicians who later participated in The Sugarcubes.[29]
Simon Reynolds speaks of a shift from early Goth to gothic rock proper, advanced by The Sisters of Mercy.[38] As journalist Jennifer Park puts it, "the original blueprint for gothic rock had mutated significantly. Doom and gloom was no longer confined to its characteristic atmospherics, but as the Sisters demonstrated, it could really rock".[39] The Sisters of Mercy, influenced by Leonard Cohen, Gary Glitter, Motörhead, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, The Birthday Party, Suicide and The Fall, created a new, harder form of gothic rock.[40] In addition, they incorporated a drum machine.[40] Reynolds identifies their 1983 single "Temple of Love" as the quintessential Goth anthem of the year, along with Southern Death Cult's "Fatman".[41] The group created their own record label, Merciful Release, which also signed The March Violets, who performed in a similar style.[42] According to Simon Reynolds, The March Violets "imitated Joy Division sonically".[43] Another band, The Danse Society was particularly inspired by The Cure in their Pornography period.[42]
Southern Death Cult reformed as The Cult, a more conventional hard rock group.[41] In their wake, The Mission UK, which included two former members of The Sisters of Mercy, achieved commercial success in the mid-1980s,[44] as did Fields of the Nephilim and All About Eve.[45] Bands who continue to be associated with gothic rock include Alien Sex Fiend, All Living Fear, And Also the Trees, Balaam and the Angel, Claytown Troupe, Dream Disciples, Feeding Fingers, Inkubus Sukkubus, Libitina, Fields of the Nephilim, Nosferatu, Rosetta Stone and Suspiria.[46]
American gothic rock began with 45 Grave and Christian Death, both of whom were strongly influenced by The Cramps.[47] This style is often described as deathrock.[48] European groups inspired by the style have also proliferated, including Xmal Deutschland[49] and Clan of Xymox.[50] These groups are associated with Dark Wave, which draws on gothic rock in addition to synthpop and industrial.[51]
In the nineties, several mainstream acts including PJ Harvey,[52][53] Marilyn Manson[54] and Nine Inch Nails[55] put gothic characteristics in their music without being assimilated to the genre. According to Rolling Stone, PJ Harvey's music in 1993 "careens from blues to goth to grunge, often in the space of a single song"[52] where as American bands like Marilyn Manson combined "atmosphere from goth and disco"[56] with "industrial sound".[57]
In the years 2000s, critics regularly noticed that new comers were marked by the genre.[58][59] English band The Horrors mixed sixties garage with eighties goth.[58] When presenting female singer Zola Jesus, writers questioned if she announced the second coming of the genre[60] as her music was described with this term.[61][59]
Members of the Toronto goth scene after leaving a goth rock event in 2008.
The gothic subculture that grew up with the beginnings of the genre in London, spread to continental Europe and North America in the 1980s.[62] Although going through periods of decline, as in the late 1980s, it has enjoyed several revivals and has continued to diversify and develop, with active subcultures in places such as Portland, Oregon, New Orleans and Toronto.[63] In terms of dress it incorporated influences from 19th-century Gothic literature along with horror films and to a lesser extent the BDSM culture.[64] Gothic fashions within the subculture range from deathrock, punk, androgynous, Victorian, some Renaissance and Medieval style attire, or combinations of the above, most often with black clothing, makeup and hair.[11] Modern gothic novels and films, particularly the works of Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite, have been highly influential on the development of the sub-culture.[62] Gothic subculture has also become incorporated into works of fiction, including graphic novel The Crow and role playing games, including Vampire: The Masquerade, which has also been adapted into two video games.[65]
- Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Reynolds, 2005, p. 420.
- ^ a b c d e Abebe, Nitsuh. "A Life Less Lived". Pitchfork.com. January 24 2007. Retrieved 2011-09-22. "Familiar classics from the bands who turned out to be goth's godfathers-- Joy Division, the Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees-- but the heart of the thing remains England's 1980s goth heyday, where the urge to dance comes out in grim, grinding, relentless music for the fake undead: Look to the Sisters of Mercy's steamroller Temple of Love".
- ^ a b c d e f "NME Originals: Goth". NME.com. October 2004. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
- ^ Rambali, Paul. "A Rare Glimpse into a private world". The Face (July 1983). "Curtis' death wrapped an already mysterious group in legend. From the press eulogies, you would think Curtis had gone to join Chatterton, Rimbaud and Morrison in the hallowed hall of premature harvests. To a group with several strong gothic characteristics was added a further piece of romance. The rock press had lost its great white hope, but they had lost a friend. It must have made bitter reading."
- ^ a b Reynolds, 2005, p. 423.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 426.
- ^ a b Charlton, p. 353.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, pp. 430-431.
- ^ a b Reynolds, Simon. A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box. Reynoldsretro. Retrieved 2011-09-06. "More than Bowie or Bolan, though, it was Alice Cooper who was the true ungodly godfather of Goth, his grisly theatrics and black humor blazing the trail for the likes of Christian Death and Specimen".
- ^ a b c d e North, Richard (19 February 1983). Punk Warriors. NME.
- ^ a b Park, 2008, pp. 118-125.
- ^ Richie Unterberger. "The Marble Index review". Allmusic.com. Access date: March 8, 2009.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, pp. 428-429.
- ^ a b c Dave Thompson "Alternative Rock" p. 61 republished by Google Books
- ^ Park, 2008, p. 127.
- ^ Bohn, Chris. "Joy Division: University of London Union - Live Review". Melody Maker (16 February 1980).
- ^ McCullough, Dave (26 July 1980). "Closer to the edge (Joy Division Closer album review)". Sounds. "Young men in dark silhouettes, some darker than others, looking inwards, looking out, discovering the same horror and describing it with the same dark strokes of gothic rock."
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 433.
- ^ Hannaham, 1997, p. 114.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 421.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 432.
- ^ a b c Reynolds, 2005, pp. 428-429.
- ^ Petridis, Alexis (21 November 2007). "1000 albums to hear before you die". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/nov/21/1000tohearbeforeyoudie5. Retrieved 2-1-2012. "Perennial masters of brooding suspense, the Banshees honed their trademark aloof art-rock to its hardest and darkest pitch on Juju. With their musical alchemy at its peak and Siouxsie at her most imperious, pop marvels such as Spellbound and Arabian Knights were poised, peerless exercises in magic realism that you could dance to."
- ^ a b Reynolds, 2005, p. 429.
- ^ John Doran, John (27 October 2008). "The Cure: Selecting The Best For One Side Of A C90". thequietus. http://thequietus.com/articles/00620-the-cure-selecting-the-best-for-one-side-of-a-c90. Retrieved 2-2-2012. "It doesn’t matter if we all die” begins Pornography, The Cure’s gothic piece de resistance - a laudably existential opening salvo on this acid fuelled, sensuous and senseless gape into the void."
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum searchable database. Access date: March 24, 2009.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, pp. 429-31.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 429.
- ^ a b c d e Reynolds, 2005, p. 431.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 431.
- ^ a b Reynolds, 2005, pp. 433-435.
- ^ Raggett, Ned. "The Black Album - Review". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 552
- ^ Park, 2008, p. 151.
- ^ Park, 2008, p. 150.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 422.
- ^ Bush, John. "Gene Loves Jezebel biography". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 437.
- ^ Park, 2008, p. 144.
- ^ a b Park, 2008, p. 145.
- ^ a b Reynolds, 2005, p. 438.
- ^ a b Park, 2008, p. 147.
- ^ Reynolds, 2005, p. 435
- ^ Chris True, Chris. "God's Own Medicine review". Allmusic.com. Access date: January 14, 2009.
- ^ Mercer, 1994, p. 63.
- ^ Mercer, 1996, pp. 78-95.
- ^ Mercer, 1988, p. 60.
- ^ Kilpatrick, 2004, p. 89.
- ^ Mercer, 1998, pp. 56-57.
- ^ Sutton, Michael. "Clan of Xymox biography". Allmusic.com. Access date: January 14, 2009.
- ^ "Composing noises". Sorted magAZine. 1999. http://sortedmagazine.com/archive/magazine/sordid/attrition.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ a b "500 Greatest Albums: Rid of Me - PJ Harvey | Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/rid-of-me-pj-harvey-19691231. Retrieved 20 January 2012. "charged with aggressive eroticism and rock fury. It careens from blues to goth to grunge, often in the space of a single song.""
- ^ "500 Greatest Albums: To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey | Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/to-bring-you-my-love-pj-harvey-19691231. Retrieved 20 January 2012. "To Bring You My] Love was a towering goth version of grunge"
- ^ Lewis, Luke (5 March 2009). "Release The Bats - It's The 20 Greatest Goth Tracks". http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&p=5890&more=1&c=1. "3. Nine Inch Nails – Hurt
In 90s America, under the influence of grunge, goth mutated into something more pain-wracked and confessional. Trent Reznor's hymn of self-disgust was more literal and self-lacerating than anything, say, Robert Smith would have written.
Most gothic moment: And you could have it all/My empire of dirt."
- ^ Lewis, Luke (5 March 2009). "Release The Bats - It's The 20 Greatest Goth Tracks". http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&p=5890&more=1&c=1. "10. Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
From Bauhaus to the sleek, alien Nuremberg Rally stomp of 'The Beautiful People' might seem a giant leap, but there are clear continuities: the rattling tom-toms, the agonized vocals, the sense of the macabre, the powerful feeling of embittered 'outsider-ness'.
Most gothic moment: The Hammer Horror 'waaargh's at 1.44."
- ^ "100 Best Albums of the Nineties: Antichrist Superstar - Marilyn Manson". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-nineties-20110427/marilyn-manson-antichrist-superstar-19691231. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
- ^ "Marilyn Manson Biography". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/marilyn-manson/biography. Retrieved 18-3-12.
- ^ a b Hodgkinson, Will (08 July 2011). "The Horrors: Skying". TheTimes.co.uk. "...seemed to be people who liked the idea of being in a band more than...themselves through music. They were on the cover of NME long before they...Sixties garage meets Eighties Goth"
- ^ a b Hewitt, Ben (August 23, 2010). "Album review: Zola Jesus – 'Stridulum II'". NME. IPC Media. http://www.nme.com/reviews/zola-jesus/11522. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
- ^ Richards, Sam (Saturday 21 August 2010). "Will Zola Jesus herald the second coming of goth?". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/aug/21/zola-jesus-stridulum-goth.
- ^ Orton, Karen (October 2011). "20 Q&As: Zola Jesus". Dazed & Confused. http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/11560/1/20-qas-zola-jesus. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
- ^ a b Melton, 1994, pp. 298-303.
- ^ Goodlad and Bibby, 2007, pp. 26 and 336.
- ^ C. Wilson, "You just can't kill it", The New York Times, 17 September 2008, retrieved 18 September 2008.
- ^ Melton, 1994, pp. 273-82.
- Bibliography
- Collins, Andrew. "Bluffer's Guide to Goth." NME. 30 November 1991.
- Charlton, Katherine. Rock Music Styles. Fourth edition. McGraw-Hill, 2003. ISBN 0-07-249555-3
- Furek, Maxim W. "The Death Proclamation of Generation X: A Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Goth, Grunge and Heroin." i-Universe, 2008. ISBN 978-0-595-46319-0.
- Goodlad, L. M. E., and Bibby, M., Goth: Undead Subculture, Duke University Press (2007), ISBN 0822339218.
- Hannaham, James. "Bela Lugosi's Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Either", in Karen Kelly and Evelyn McDonnell, Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth, NYU Press, 1999, ISBN 0814747272, pp. 78-87.
- Kilpatrick, Nancy. The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2004, ISBN 0312306962.
- Melton, J. G., The Vampire Book: the Encyclopedia of the Undead, Visible Ink Press, 1994, ISBN 0822339218.
- Mercer, Mick. Gothic Rock. Los Angeles: Cleopatra Records, 1993, ISBN 0963619314.
- Mercer, Mick. Gothic Rock Black Book. London: Omnibus Press, 1988, ISBN 0711915466.
- Mercer, Mick. The Hex Files: The Goth Bible. Woodstock: Overlook Press, 1996. ISBN 0-87951-783-2.
- Park, Jennifer. "Melancholy and the Macabre: Gothic Rock and Fashion" in Valerie Steele and Jennifer Park, eds Gothic: Dark Glamour, Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 0300136943.
- Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984. Chapter 22: "Dark Things: Goth and the Return of Rock." London: Faber and Faber, 2005. ISBN 0-571-21569-6.
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