How did goth music get started and how has it evolved over the years? In previous posts, I have written about goth music recommendations as well as the history of the community surrounding the goth music scene. In this post, we will follow the evolution of goth music genres from its original roots in the ’77 punk scene through modern day.
Punk Roots
In the mid-1970’s, the punk rock music genre and punk Subculture surrounding it emerged. Punk rock bands typically consisted of a vocalist, guitarist, bass player, and drummer. The sound is defined by simple guitar progressions, gritty distortions, fast pacing, and aggressive vocals. It was common for the subject matter of early punk lyrics to protest political and social conditions facing working-class youth of the time. During this era, the punk movement became particularly popular in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia. This popularity became evident through the success of punk rock acts like Sex Pistols, Misfits, and The Damned. This time period was critical to the eventual formation of the goth subculture as many future goth icons, such as Siouxsie Sioux and Robert Smith, got their start in the early punk movement.
Post-Punk and Proto-Goth
By the late 1970’s, many artists who started out in the early punk scene began to evolve their sounds to be less aggressive, more experimental, and less politically and socially-focused in lyrics. This marked the formation of a genre that came to be known as post-punk. Some examples of early post-punk bands (outside of the goth umbrella) that achieved mainstream popularity are The Smiths, Gang of Four, and Talking Heads.
During this time period, music that would later shape the first wave of goth also emerged. The darker-sounding artists within the early post-punk movement, such as Joy Division, became largely influential to the sound of early goth artists. This darker sound within the early post-punk movement is sometimes categorized as “proto-goth.” Many artists within this proto-goth category, like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure, would later go on to produce early goth music.
**It is worth noting that most goth music that subsequently followed, from the first wave of goth through modern day, is considered to be post-punk. However, not all post-punk is goth. Because of this, when I share post-punk music and bands on this blog and social media, I will designate them as “goth adjacent.” The distinction is that goth adjacent music is not goth, merely related to goth genres.
First Wave Goth
In 1979, the band, Bauhaus, made a splash into the post-punk scene with the release of their debut single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” The track is over 9 minutes long and features percussion dominated by rim shots, simplistic guitar with canned distortion, haunting and deep vocals, and morbidly tongue-in-cheek lyrics. It is widely considered to be the first goth record.
By the early 1980’s, the first wave of goth music (an offshoot of post-punk) was sweeping across the U.K. and Europe. Along with Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure, other popular artists began to release music into the newly forming goth scene. Other popular artists that fell into this category include Specimen, Xmal Deutschland, Skeletal Family, and many more.
Deathrock
In conjunction with the first wave of goth music happening in the U.K. and Europe during the early 1980’s, goth music in the United States was still overlapping with its punk roots. The sound of early American goth music is more aggressive than post-punk but more experimental than punk rock. This combination of punk influence and early goth music sounds quickly gained the moniker of “deathrock.” Popular deathrock artist like 45 Grave and Christian Death appealed to a largely goth audience as well as some members of the punk subculture.
During the late 1990’s, a revival of the deathrock scene in Los Angeles began. By the 2010’s, deathrock had reached its greatest level of widespread popularity since the 1980’s with artists such as Christ vs. Warhol and Annex producing deathrock-style albums.
Darkwave (a subgenre of New Wave)
During the early 80’s, an offshoot of post-punk called new wave came into popularity. New wave combined traditional post-punk sounds with elements of synthpop. Some examples of new wave artists (outside the goth umbrella) are A Flock of Seagulls, Indochine, and Information Society.
The darker side of new wave birthed a new genre within the scope of goth. This genre came to be known as darkwave. The most notable of the 1980’s goth, darkwave artists is Clan of Xymox.
The 1990’s saw the second generation of darkwave with artists such as Lycia and Faith & The Muse. Today, popular darkwave groups continue to pop up with artists like She Past Away and Drab Majesty gaining widespread popularity.
Gothic Rock
1985 marked a year when goth music took a distinct turn from it’s first wave of post-punk artists into the modern goth rock genre. The release of the album First and Last and Always by The Sisters of Mercy created a blueprint for subsequent goth rock bands to follow. The sound took on a slightly more hard rock approach than its first wave predecessors with prominent dance beats and jangling guitar distortions. During this time, other bands produced albums with a more modern goth rock sound such as Talk About the Weather by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry (1985) and Dawnrazor by Fields of the Nephilim (1987).
Modern goth rock continued to experience success among the goth subculture through the 1990’s with band like Rosetta Stone, the 2000’s with bands like Arts of Erebus, and in the modern era with bands like Angels of Liberty.
For a list of my favorite music artists by genre, please click here.
