1950s–1970s: Forerunners influenced the
post-punk bands that helped spawn the gothic rock genre During the late 1960s and early 1970s, several musicians became influential in shaping the aesthetics and musical conventions of gothic rock such as
Marc Bolan,
Lou Reed and
the Velvet Underground,
Jim Morrison and the Doors, David Bowie,
Brian Eno, and
Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Journalist
Kurt Loder would write retrospectively that the song "
All Tomorrow's Parties" by
the Velvet Underground and
Nico is a "mesmerizing gothic-rock masterpiece" while
Rolling Stone claimed their song "
Venus in Furs" made the band "goth pioneers". Nico's 1968 album
The Marble Index has been described by
Alternative Press as "the first truly gothic album". With its stark sound, somber lyrics, and dark visual aesthetic. However, music journalist Simon Reynolds considers
shock rock artist
Alice Cooper as "the true ungodly godfather of goth" due to his "theatrics and
black humor", that was inspired by the sound and visual aesthetic of
Arthur Brown. In March 1979, Kent used the gothic adjective in his review of Magazine's second album,
Secondhand Daylight. Kent noted that there was "a new austere sense of authority" to their music, with a "dank neo-Gothic sound". The second Siouxsie and the Banshees album, also released in 1979, was a precursor in several aspects. ''
The Guardian's
Alexis Petridis retrospectively stated, "A lot of musical signifiers of classic gothic rock - scything, effects-laden guitar, pounding tribal drums – are audible, on [...] Join Hands''". In September, Joy Division's manager
Tony Wilson described their music as "gothic" on the television show
Something Else, and their producer
Martin Hannett described their style as "dancing music with gothic overtones". In 1983,
The Face Paul Rambali recalled that there were "several strong Gothic characteristics" in the music of Joy Division. In 1984, Joy Division's bassist
Peter Hook named
Play Dead as one of their heirs: "If you listen to a band like Play Dead, who I really like, Joy Division played the same stuff that Play Dead are playing. They're similar." English
punk rock band
the Damned have been cited as an influence on and forerunner to gothic rock, in both music and aesthetics; their later musical style began shifting to goth, particularly on their 1985 album
Phantasmagoria. Retrospectively,
Pitchfork described
glam rock as having a pivotal influence of the development of the gothic rock genre, stating, "Although it abandoned the psychedelic color palette and exchanged alien worship for a vampire cult, goth kept glam's theatricality intact, as well as its openness to experimentation", adding that early glam and
art rock musician
Brian Eno "may have contributed more to goth’s sonic DNA" than David Bowie, regarding the 1974 track "
Third Uncle" as a "proto-goth" song. However, Bauhaus's debut single, "
Bela Lugosi's Dead", released in late 1979, was retrospectively considered to be the beginning of the gothic rock genre. 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. Bauhaus released their debut album
In the Flat Field in 1980, and the album is often considered the first gothic rock album. of the Cure in 1989, who was on the front cover of
NME Originals: Goth in 2004. In the early 1980s, post-punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure included more gothic characteristics in their music. According to Reynolds, with their fourth album, 1981's
Juju, the Banshees included several gothic qualities, lyrically and sonically, whereas according to
The Guardian,
Juju was
art rock on certain album tracks and
pop on the singles. Their bassist,
Steven Severin, attributed the aesthetic used by the Banshees around that time to the influence of
the Cramps.
The Cure's "oppressively dispirited" trio of albums,
Seventeen Seconds (1980),
Faith (1981) and
Pornography (1982), cemented that group's stature in the genre. 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". They would later become the most commercially successful of these groups. The Cure's style was "withdrawn", contrasting with their contemporaries like
Nick Cave's the Birthday Party, who drew on
blues and violent turmoil. With the Birthday Party's
Junkyard album, Nick Cave combined "sacred and profane" things, using
Old Testament imagery with stories about sin, curses and damnation. Their 1981 single "
Release the Bats" was particularly influential in the scene. Killing Joke were originally inspired by
Public Image Ltd., borrowing from funk,
disco,
dub and, later,
heavy metal. Calling their style "tension music", Killing Joke distorted these elements to provocative effect, as well as producing a morbid, politically charged visual style. Reynolds identified the Birthday Party and Killing Joke as essential proto-goth groups. Despite their legacy as progenitors of gothic rock, those groups disliked the label.
Adam Ant's early work was also a major impetus for the gothic rock scene, and much of the fanbase came from his milieu. Other early contributors to the scene included UK Decay and Ireland's
Virgin Prunes.
Expansion of the scene In February 1981,
Sounds writer Steve Keaton published an article on "punk gothique", entitled "The Face of Punk Gothique", a term coined by
UK Decay frontman
Steve Abbott to describe their music. Writer
Cathi Unsworth believes that Abbott was the first to ascribe the term "goth" to the music and subculture with which it would come to be associated, citing an interview in May 1981 where he once again used the term "punk gothique". Gothic rock would not be adopted as "positive identity, a tribal rallying cry" until a shift in the scene in winter 1982-83. In London, the
Batcave club had opened on 21 July 1982: it became a venue for the emerging scene and subculture. Bands like
Specimen performed many concerts there. That same year,
Ian Astbury of the band
Southern Death Cult used the term "gothic goblins" to describe
Sex Gang Children's fans. Southern Death Cult became icons of the scene, drawing aesthetic inspiration from
Native American culture and appearing on the cover of
NME in October. On 19 February 1983, the emerging scene was described as "positive punk" on the front cover of
NME, in an article titled "Punk Warriors" by music journalist
Richard North.
Rubella Ballet, Sex Gang Children and
Southern Death Cult. On 14 June 1983, BBC radio DJ
John Peel noted that the
NME had dropped the term "positive punk" and had now opted for "
goth" to describe the emerging subculture. That year, myriad goth groups emerged, including
Flesh for Lulu,
Play Dead,
Rubella Ballet,
Gene Loves Jezebel, Blood and Roses, and
Ausgang. in 2005. Reynolds cited the shift between gothic music to traditional gothic rock or goth rock being primarily influenced by the
Leeds band,
the Sisters of Mercy. As journalist Jennifer Park put 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". The Sisters of Mercy, who cited influences such as 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. In addition, they incorporated a
drum machine. Reynolds identified their 1983 single "
Temple of Love" as the quintessential goth anthem of the year, along with Southern Death Cult's "Fatman". The group created their own record label,
Merciful Release, which also signed
the March Violets, who performed in a similar style. According to Reynolds, the March Violets "imitated Joy Division sonically". Another band,
the Danse Society was particularly inspired by the Cure's
Pornography period. The 4AD label released music in a more
ethereal style, by groups such as
Cocteau Twins,
Dead Can Dance, and
Xmal Deutschland. vocal style|left Later stages of Gothic Rock in the UK came with a shift in sound and commercial success. Southern Death Cult reformed as
the Cult, a more conventional
hard rock group. Bauhaus members reformed as the psychedelia-influenced
Love and Rockets achieving both critical and commercial success during the late 1980s and '90s. In their wake,
the Mission, which included two former members of the Sisters of Mercy (Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams), achieved commercial success in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, as did
Fields of the Nephilim and
All About Eve. European groups inspired by gothic rock also proliferated, including
Clan of Xymox. Other bands associated with the genre included
All Living Fear,
And Also the Trees,
Balaam and the Angel,
Claytown Troupe,
Dream Disciples, Feeding Fingers,
Inkubus Sukkubus, Libitina,
Miranda Sex Garden,
Nosferatu,
Rosetta Stone, and
Suspiria. Record labels like
Factory,
4AD and
Beggars Banquet released much of this music in Europe, and through a vibrant import music market in the US, the subculture grew, especially in
New York and
Los Angeles, California, where many nightclubs featured "gothic/industrial" nights and bands like
Black Tape for a Blue Girl,
Theatre of Ice,
Human Drama and
The Wake became key figures for the genre to expand on a nationwide level.
United States American gothic rock began with Californian bands such as
45 Grave and
Christian Death, whose harder, more
punk rock-influenced style of gothic rock became known as
deathrock. Christian Death combined "self-consciously controversial tactics" with
Los Angeles punk and
heavy metal influences. Their singer
Rozz Williams committed
suicide by hanging in 1998 at age 34. 45 Grave was more inspired by heavy metal than Christian Death and featured female singer
Dinah Cancer. Some punk acts like
the Cramps,
the Gun Club,
Lydia Lunch,
the Nuns,
the Misfits and
T.S.O.L. have been credited to be influential on both the sound and the aesthetics of the
Goth subculture in America, being subsequently credited to be pioneers in contemporaneous goth-related styles such as "deathrock", "
horror punk", "
gothabilly" and "goth punk". Notable 1980s American goth bands include
Super Heroines,
Human Drama,
the Wake and
Kommunity FK.
1990s–2000s The 1990s saw a resurgence of the goth subculture, fueled largely by crossover from the
industrial music, electronic and metal scenes; and goth culture and aesthetic again worked itself into the mainstream consciousness, inspiring thriving goth music scenes in most cities and notoriety throughout popular culture as well as new goth-centric U.S. record labels such as
Cleopatra Records, among others. ''
The Guardian's
Dave Simpson stated, "[I]n the 90s, goths all but disappeared as dance music became the dominant youth cult". As a result, the goth movement went underground and fractured into cyber goth, shock rock, industrial metal, gothic metal, and Medieval folk metal. Marilyn Manson was seen as a "goth-shock icon" by Spin'', and combined "atmosphere from goth and disco" with "industrial sound". "Undercore", a short-lived movement identified with the bands
Deadsy,
Orgy and
Videodrone, synthesized glam, goth and
synth-rock with science fiction. In the 2000s, critics regularly noticed the influence of goth on bands of that time period. English band
The Horrors mixed 1960s
garage rock with 1980s goth. as her music was described with this term. ==Legacy==