Goth Rock in the 1980s

Goth rock particularly in the 1980s got a lot of negative press labelling the music slow, introspective, gloomy and doom ridden. Many critics often found the music pretentious and overblown, the dress code was also a conventional black clothes, black hair with faces made to look a deathly white.

The roots of goth rock can be heard from the late 1970s band Joy Division who provided the link between punk and goth rock. In true punk style, Joy division formed after Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook watched punk band Sex Pistols in Manchester. Without any musical experience Joy Division replaced the energy of punk with a more atmospheric and introspectic sound helped by the production skills of Martin Hannett. The sound was very distinct on both of there albums Unknown pleasures and Closer. The untimely death of lead singer Ian Curtis made the band a perfect role model for the fledgling goth movement.

The goth rock flag was handed over to a band from Northampton called Bauhaus whose single 'Bela Lugosi's dead' marked the beginning of the full goth movement, the single was about the actor who played Dracula in the 1930s and covered the goths two favourite subjects horror and death. There debut album 'In the flat field' provided the template for other goth bands to follow with self obsessed and possibly despairing lyrics over a moody and atmospheric music. As Bauhaus established themselves commercially, they released a cover of the David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' in 1982 and the album 'The sky's gone out' released also in 1982 reached the heady heights of number four in the UK album charts, ensuring that the goth movement was more a movement than a gimmick.

Other bands started to follow suit and some of the key artists that grew during this period were The Cure lead by the happy Robert Smith. Also two other bands who gained commercial success but without ditching there sound and look were The Mission and Sisters of Mercy. The sisters of mercy enlisted the help of Meatloaf producer Jim Steinman for the production of the 1987 album 'Floodland' which help gave the music more depth and scale than previously heard. In 1988 a splinter group of the Sisters of mercy, The Mission released there 1988 album 'Little Children'and the album benefitted from the production skills of Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. By the end of the 1980s goth had run its course as other influences were being spread to genres such as doom and industrial metal such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. For all its gloominess it did establish the music as a fine art and not everyones taste it did break boundaries and became more variable and commercially accessible


Recommended listening from the Goth Rock era