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Music Favorites! Master List

Posted on by Cadaver Kelly

Below are my recommendations for deathrock, post-punk, goth, wave, snythpop, punk, and other underground alternative music. Each section is ordered A-Z. Bandcamp or Discogs pages are linked if available.

Deathrock & Dark Punk:

Goth & Punk – Deathrock is the grey area where goth and punk overlap and is considered to be the first style of goth to come out of the United States. It originated in Los Angeles in the early 1980’s. It is widely prolific in the Americas, particularly in Latin America.

Dark Post Punk:

Goth – Though not all styles of post-punk are goth, the darker sounding post-punk is widely accepted as the earliest style or “first wave” of goth music to come out of the UK and Europe starting in 1979.

Darkwave:

Mix of Goth & Goth Adjacent – Darkwave is a combination of synthpop elements and either dark post-punk or goth rock elements. Its earliest iterations were intertwined with the New Wave music movement in the early 1980’s.

Cold Wave:

Mix of Goth & Goth Adjacent – Cold wave is post-punk with a “cold” machine-like quality to its beat or overall sound. There are two distinct coldwave movements, one that originated in France in the 1980’s and one that originated in Eastern Europe and is thriving in modern day.

Goth Rock and Dark Rock:

Goth – Goth rock is the hallmark genre of the goth subculture. It is characterized by dance percussion beats, driving bass lines, jangly guitar distortions, dramatic vocals, dark scales, and reverb or delay. The advent of this genre was around the early to mid-1980’s and is credited to bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, and Fields of the Nephilim for its inception.

Synthpop, New Wave, & Industrial:

Goth Adjacent – Synthpop is an early style of electronic music that originated in Germany in the 1970’s and relies on synthesized instrumentation as its dominant sound. New Wave is a style of post-punk that incorporates synthpop elements but has a brighter sound than darkwave, usually from making greater use of major-keys and ascending scales.

Ethereal & Shoegaze:

Goth Adjacent – Shoegaze and Ethereal Wave are both styles of post-punk or art rock that utilize dreamlike tones, distortions, and effects to give it an atmospheric “ethereal” quality. Shoegaze tends to be experimental and can incorporate more sound impressions from outside genre influences like psychedelic. Shoegaze is sonically similar to dream pop, but darker.

Classic Post-Punk, Garage Post-Punk, Art Rock, & No Wave:

Not Goth or Punk – The below artists are not quite goth or punk adjacent but share enough musical commonalities that they may be played at a goth club or punk show.

’77 Punk, Horror Punk, Hardcore, & Anarcho-Punk

Punk (Not Goth) – Punk rock was an underground music movement started by working-class youth in the U.K. during the mid-1970’s to protest political and social conditions. It is characterized by simplistic guitar progressions, gritty distortion, and aggressive vocal styles.

Mid-Century: Pyschobilly, Surf Punk, Rockabilly Revival, & Surf Rock

Punk (Not Goth) – Psychobilly and surf punk are both fusion genres that combine punk rock with early mid-century styles of rock’n’roll (rockabilly & surf rock).

Riot Grrrl

Punk (Not Goth) – Riot Grrrl was a feminist punk rock movement that originated in Olympia, Washington in the early 1990’s and created a nation-wide support network focused on empowering young women and girls.

Cadaver Kelly

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