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Gothic

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There are so many definitions of Gothic around today its hard for anyone to define. Many claim that it is infact undefineable, but i dont agree with that. This page is where I will attempt to define goth, please dont take any of this as law its just my opinion and it will no doubt be flawed as most definitions are.

Firstly I think the most important aspect of Goth (Gothic) is the music, this is what the subculture is based on, not literature etc, even though they may play just as an important part of Goth as the music. So in order to define Goth I believe we have to define Goth music, and what makes the bands Goth.

There are several grounds for a band being called Gothic

1, The band sound fits into one of the Gothic music types
                  e.g    Gothic Rock
                           Folk / Occult Gothic
                           Industrial / Gothic
                           Darkwave

2, The band members appearance is Gothic, (not neccessarily the stereotypical goth look of dark make - up etc

3, The band calls itself and/or its music gothic regularly (however this only counts from the 90s onwards, as most previous Goth bands were termed Goth in retrospect and at the time were called Death rock/punk)

4, The most feeble reason for calling a band Gothic, yet probably the most accurate, is that the majority of the bands fans are Gothic, (NB ; Gothic not spookies, who are identifiable by their theatrical attitudes and bad makeup)

Rant Interlude

Definition Of Gothic Music

Gothic Rock

Goth Rock also known earlier as Death Rock and Death Punk is what Gothic music started as, a darker form of punk rock with a leaning towards the macabre,mystery and desolation. Death rock/Punk became called Goth Rock in the mid 80s. The best examples of this type of music are early Christian Death, The Sisters Of Mercy and of course Bauhaus (who are deemed one of the founders of this music style).

A question that you might now be thinking about is "well why arent Radiohead Gothic, their rock music is dark ?" , well this is true, but you have to remmember that times change as do definitions, this definition only applies to the 80s as this is when Goth rock was most common, however there are contemporary Traditional Goth Rock bands (such as London Aftter Midnight), but these bands are defined seperately as they are considered Second generation (ie they took their influences from first generation Gothic bands)

So within Gothic Rock there is a subgenre of Traditional Goth, this is defined by the same dark rock sound, (which may also include voice distorters and other modern devices) and the band refering to themselves and/or their music as Gothic and also in most cases having a Gothic appearance.

Folk/ Occult Gothic

This subgenre often focuses more on occult and religious themes (which is also apparent in many of their appearances). It often sounds much like tribal and church music, using more traditional instruments such as flutes, pianos, cellos etc, the most representive bands of this style are Dead Can Dance, Current 93, Ghostland and Sol Invictus.

Industrial Gothic

Gothic Industrial continues to maintain the same dark mysterious sounds, yet instead of the guitar oriented music it uses electronics, distortion, sythesizers and loops along with the throbbing beats (gabba beats i think theyre called but im not sure), this style of Goth is often more dance orientated, and is best represented by bands such as Die Form and Godhead, The creators and followers of this subgenre have their own distinguishable appearance.

Darkwave

A fairly new term which is used to refer to a branch of Gothic music which is more moody, emotional and artistic, this style encompasses both Ethereal and Darkambient music and is used to refer to bands featured in the Darkwave Catalogue.