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| Mar 10, 2008 09:24 am |
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1. Introduction
In this thread you can learn about the Goth Subculture, its history and the music that has helped shape its course over the last thirty-fourty years. This topic is designed to be easy and simple to understand and can be a useful resource for members of the Goth Scene, new or old. If you have any questions, after reading this, feel free to post your queries and they will be answers as well as possible by other members of the Cult.
1A. What IS Goth?
Gothic (sometimes called gothic rock or simply goth) is a genre of rock music that originated during the late 1970s. Originally bands from the genre were referred to as positive-punk by the music press and had strong ties to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk styles.
The genre itself was defined as a separate movement from punk rock during the early 1980s. Some gothic rock bands were more art and introspectively based than punk rock. Gothic dealt with dark themes and intellectual movements such as gothic horror, Romanticism, existential philosophy, and nihilism. Notable gothic rock bands include Bauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy and The Mission.
Largely separate from other genres of alternative rock of the 1980s, gothic gave rise to a broader goth subculture that includes goth clubs, goth fashions, and goth-oriented magazines.
1AA. Musical Style
As the genre of gothic contains sub-genres whose boundaries overlap, it is difficult to identify musical characteristics that are common to all gothic. Nonetheless, certain musical styles from early English gothic have remained common, such as the guitar tone. In gothic rock, the guitar tone is usually processed with electronic effects. A clean or warmly overdriven guitar sound is processed through chorusing, flanging, analog delay, and/or dense reverb, resulting in a timbre that resembles those used by Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure.
As well, gothic has a characteristic guitar playing style. Gothic 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, with a flattened 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 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 CDs (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.
1AB. List Of Related Genres
These are genres of music which either have a lot in common with the original Gothic movement, or have been accepted into the Goth Subculture over the course of its existence:
• Post-Punk
• Dark Wave
• Horror Punk
• Psychobilly
1AC. List Of Goth Bands
1919
26 Tears
45 Grave
Actifed
After Dusk
Alien Sex Fiend
All Gone Dead
Asmodi Bizarr
A Spectre Is Haunting Europe
Astrovamps
Ausgang
Avant-Garde
Bauhaus
Bell, Book & Candle
Black Chanterelle
Black Ice
Bloody Dead & Sexy
Bohemien
Bolshoi, The
Bone Orchard
Breath Of Life, The
Brotherhood of Pagans
Burning Image
Cemetary GirlZ, The
Chants of Maldoror
Christian Death
Cinema Strange
Corpus Delicti
Craft, The
Cure, The
Damned, The
Daughters of Bristol, The
Deadfly Ensemble, The
Doppelgänger
Eat Your Make-Up
Erato
Eva O
Ex-VoTo
Faith And The Muse
Fields Of The Nephilim
Flesh Eaters, The
Frank The Baptist
Ghost Dance
Gorgonas
Gotterdammerung
Inkubus Sukkubus
Jacquy Bitch
Katzenjammer Kabarett
Kommunity FK
La Peste Negra
Last Days of Jesus, The
Lestat
Love and Rockets
March Violets, The
Mephisto Walz
Miguel And The Living Dead
Mission, The
Naughty Zombies
Neva
Nosferatu
Pink Turns Blue
Quidam
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
Rosetta Stone
Scarlet and the Spooky Spiders
Scarlet's Remains
Scary Bitches
Sex Gang Children
Shroud, The
Siouxsie and The Banshees
Sisters Of Mercy, The
Skeletal Family
Solemn Novena
Southern Death Cult
Specimen
Spiritual Bat, The
Star Industry
Two Witches
UK Decay
Violet Stigmata
Virgin Prunes
Voodoo Church
Witching Hour UK
XMal Deutschland
Zadera
Please report if you want a band added to the list.
1B. What IS NOT Goth?
Below is a list of bands commonly, but wrongly, associated with the Goth Subculture or Gothic music
HIM, A Perfect Circle, Dimmu Borgir, AFI, Combichrist, Lacuna Coil, Moonspell, Nightwish, Wumpscut, Evanescence, Marilyn Manson, Cradle of Filth, Slipknot, Korn, Emilie Autumn, Andrew W.K., Children Of Bodom, Good Charlotte, Hatebreed, Jack Off Jill, In Flames, Kittie, KoRn, Linkin Park, Ministry, Morbid Angel, Mudvayne, Murderdolls, My Chemical Romance, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana,
Ramstein, Rasputina, Razed In Black, Skinny Puppy, Slipknot, Tool, VNV Nation, Wednesday 13 etc.
1BA. List Of Unrelated Genres
These are genres of music that are often wrongly associated with the Goth Subculture, due to misconceptions or simple ignorance. Either way they do not belong with the subculture, and thus not in this Cult:
• Gothic Metal
• Black Metal
• Death Metal
• Nu-Metal
• Industrial
• EBM
• Synthpop
• Futurepop
• “Emo”
• Pagan/Folk Metal
• Symphonic Metal
• Symphonic Power Metal
• Dark Ambient
• Visual Kei
2. Related Genres
Section 2 will help to further explain the various musical genres correctly associated with the Goth Subculture. Please Note: Even those these bands have been accepted into the Goth Scene, that does not make them Gothic Rock. Gothic Rock still remains as it was described in the “Musical Styles” section.
2A. Post-Punk
Post-punk was a popular musical movement beginning at the end of the 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid 1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental. Post-punk laid the groundwork for alternative rock by broadening the idea of what punk and underground music could do, incorporating elements of Krautrock (specifically the use of synthesizers), Jamaican dub music (specifically in bass guitar), American funk, studio experimentation, and even punk's traditional polar opposite, disco, into the genre.
The original post-punk movement ended as the bands associated with the movement moved away from its aesthetics, just as post-punk bands had originally left punk rock behind in favor of new sounds. Many post-punk bands, most notably The Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees, evolved into gothic rock (formerly a style of the larger post-punk movement) and became identified with the goth subculture. Some shifted to a more commercial New Wave sound, while others were fixtures on American college radio and became early examples of alternative rock.
2AA. List Of Post-Punk Bands
Birthday Party, The
Echo And The Bunnymen
Joy Disaster
Joy Division
She Wants Revenge
2C. Darkwave
2CA. List Of Darkwave Bands
Bella Morte
Clan Of Xymox
Crüxshadows, The
Deathcamp Project
Deine Lakeien
Diary Of Dreams
Frozen Autumn, The
Imaginary Stigma
Lacrimosa
London After Midnight
Other Day
Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows
Switchblade Symphony
Tragic Black
Umbra Et Imago
Wolfsheim
2D. Horror Punk
2DA. List Of Horror Punk Bands
Other, The
Zombina and the Skeletones
2E. Psychobilly
2EA. List Of Psychobilly Bands
The Cramps
Cult of The Psychic Fetus
3. Goth & Gothic: The Difference Between Goth & Gothic Imagery
In this section I will try and explain why some bands have been wrongly inserted into the Goth Subculture, despite of the obvious fact that they are not an Goth band. The first thing you will notice is the use of the terms "Goth" and "Gothic". For the sake of this essay, "Goth" will refer to bands and elements which do belong in the subculture, and "Gothic" will apply to those bands and elements which do not belong.
First off, I will try and define the term "Goth." As I said previously, Goth will refer to bands that do belong within the subculture. Therefore making them an Goth band. Now your next question is probably going to be; What's Goth? How do we define it? Easy. Like most musical genres, Goth has it's own defining characteristics which seperate it from the rest of rock.
I believe Wikipedia managed to sum these characteristics up best, so I will refer you to it here:
"As the genre of gothic rock contains sub-genres whose boundaries overlap, it is difficult to identify musical characteristics that are common to all gothic rock. Nonetheless, certain musical styles from early English gothic have remained common, such as the guitar tone. In gothic rock, the guitar tone is usually processed with electronic effects. A clean or warmly overdriven guitar sound is processed through chorusing, flanging, analog delay, and/or dense reverb, resulting in a timbre that resembles those used by Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure.
As well, gothic 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, with a flattened second scale degree contributes to the gothic sound with its "haunting" and dissonant mood. Gothic songs are typically mixed so that there is a heavy bass sound, which creates a moody and gloomy atmosphere.
Gothic 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 CDs (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."
Common Goth Rock themes include gothic horror, Romanticism, existential philosophy, and nihilism (Note how this does not include Gothic literature, which we will talk about later).
Now that we have established what Goth is, let's define Gothic and the what separates the two.
Gothic, in terms of music, is often accepted as being an imagery based around the Gothic Literature movement of the late 18th century and early 19th century. Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses.
These are all themes portrayed by Gothic bands (and some Goth bands). However, the term has nothing to do with the sound of Goth. Simply the imagery from which the band has drawn their influences both lyrically, and maybe even musically.
To put it simply: Goth is a genre of music. Gothic is a theme of music, used by several different genres.
Bands which can be considered Gothic (meanings bands who use Gothic Imagery), but not Goth (meaning the musical genre) may include: Cradle Of Filth, Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, Paradise Lost etc. Though these bands use Gothic themes within their music, their music is not defined as Goth. They do not belong to a singular "Gothic" genre, they're all Gothic bands within wider genres.
However, since this Cult is dedicated to the Goth Subculture; which evolved out of the Goth movement. "Gothic" bands do not belong here. I hope this has cleared up a few things for people.
If you have any questions about anything I have said, feel free to ask away, and I will try and answer as best I can.
P.S. Though I have separated the terms Goth & Gothic in the essay. They are both interchangeable, thus the reasoning for this Cult being called "Gothic_International." However for the sake of this essay, I needed to separate the terms. |
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| Mar 10, 2008 09:43 am |
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| you know I think this is a pretty good thread O.o I hope lots of people visit it. maybe Ger would appreciate it xD he loves everything about the goth culture and subculture :) |
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| Mar 10, 2008 11:27 am |
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| Yes I know, and I hope all babybats/mall-goths here take a look at it too and maybe learn something. |
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| Mar 20, 2008 06:28 am |
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| Was this an essay you had to write for college or just something you felt you had to get off your chest. As a family member of Kev Haskins, I have to tell you he read this and laughed so hard he almost pee-ed himself! |
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| Mar 20, 2008 10:16 am |
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| Mar 23, 2008 04:20 pm |
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| I think you're little presentation is a bit limited. |
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| Mar 24, 2008 02:53 am |
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| Mar 24, 2008 08:22 am |
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| i think it's great that he took the effort to add this post up. You should try to contribute as well, if you think it's incomplete somehow. |
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| Apr 25, 2008 12:32 am |
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| Pretty well said, if you ask me. Thank you. |
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