Goth: A Little Essay

A Dive into the Past

Goth, at its heart, is a cultural movement born from music. Emerging in the late 1970s and early 1980s, goth grew out of post-punk, carrying the raw intensity of punk but channeling it into something more atmospheric, poetic, and often melancholic.

Musically, goth is defined less by rigid rules and more by a shared mood: brooding basslines, shimmering or jagged guitars, dramatic vocals, and lyrics that explore themes of love, death, beauty, alienation, and the shadows in between.

Some historians and music journalists have claimed that as early as October 1967, a critic named John Stickney used the phrase “Gothic Rock” in The Williams Record to describe The Doors, saying that the venue was “the perfect room to honor the Gothic rock of the Doors.” While this citation is widely repeated in later works, no verified copy of the original review has been found to clearly confirm this quote. Still, the idea is important: it shows that even in the 1960s there was already awareness of a darker, more theatrical mood in rock music, which later became central to gothic rock.

Glam rock also played a subtle yet important role in shaping early gothic sensibilities. Artists like David Bowie, particularly during his Ziggy Stardust era, along with Roxy Music and T. Rex, introduced theatricality, dramatic flair, and a fascination with darker, stylized imagery. These elements influenced how post-punk bands approached both their music and visual presentation, blending sound and spectacle into the emerging gothic aesthetic.

Bauhaus is widely regarded as one of the earliest bands of gothic rock. Their 1979 single Bela Lugosi’s Dead is often cited as a key moment in goth’s formation, and their 1980 debut album In the Flat Field is frequently pointed to as one of the first fully gothic rock albums. Though some critics see other bands also as proto-goth, Bauhaus’s early work often stands at the center of these origin stories.

But Bauhaus were not alone in shaping these beginnings. Siouxsie and the Banshees had already carved out a darker sound in post-punk, especially with albums like Join Hands and Juju, which became touchstones for many who would later be called goth. Joy Division, while usually placed firmly in post-punk, also cast a long shadow: their stark atmospheres and the tragic death of Ian Curtis echoed strongly through the emerging scene. Across the Atlantic, Christian Death pioneered what became known as deathrock, showing that the movement was never confined to the UK alone.

In 1982, the club night The Batcave opened in Soho, London, quickly becoming the epicenter of the emerging goth scene. Founded by Ollie Wisdom (Specimen) and Jon Klein, it wasn’t just a club — it was a cultural hub where fans and musicians mingled, including Robert Smith, Siouxsie Sioux, and members of Bauhaus. With its theatrical decor, live performances, and house band Specimen, The Batcave helped shape the style, music, and community that defined early goth.

And in 1983, the British press even tried the label “Positive Punk” to describe this growing wave of bands like Sex Gang Children and Southern Death Cult — a sign that even then, critics were still searching for the right words to capture the new sound and vision. The term referred to a darker, more theatrical branch within post-punk, but it was never the same as post-punk itself.

By the mid-80s, “goth” had become both a musical term and a subculture, one where fans expressed themselves through art, literature, and nightlife. The look – black clothing, lace, leather, velvet, elaborate makeup – was never just about style, but a way of creating an atmosphere, a shared language of the night.

Looking Deeper

First let me say I’m no specialist — far from it — if there is one thing I’ve learned about music over all the years, it’s that I know nothing. There is so much music, in so many genres; it’s simply an inexhaustible source. But I do have a huge passion for music. From a young age, I loved learning more about it: reading booklets from CDs, exploring biographies, and listening to the stories of bands and artists in interviews on TV or the radio. Looking deeper, both from reading informative books over the years and from speaking with multiple goth bands who lived through the early days in interviews for Peek-A-Boo Magazine, the fact is that there’s much more to goth, much, much more. There is not one truth. Goth has a rich, layered history, shaped by countless perspectives on how the music and scene evolved.

Books like Mick Mercer’s Gothic Rock Black Book, Gothic Rock: All You Ever Wanted to Know, Hex Files, 21st Century Goth, and Music to Die For, alongside John Robb’s The Art of Darkness, Lol Tolhurst’s Goth: A History, Liisa Ladouceur’s Hex Files, and Mikey Bean’s Phantoms: The Rise of Deathrock from the LA Punk Scene — just a few of the many I’ve read — combined with the personal stories shared by the bands themselves, show that goth is never one simple story; it’s a web of experiences, interpretations, and creative expressions.

For example, while early icons like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and Christian Death are often highlighted as key moments, the reality is far more complex. Goth didn’t spring from a single event or place — it emerged from a network of post-punk bands, underground clubs, and artistic experiments across the late 70s and early 80s. The Batcave was hugely influential, but it was far from the only club shaping the scene. Other venues, smaller parties, and local scenes across multiple countries contributed to the movement’s growth. Likewise, many bands we now label as “goth” never called themselves that at the time. Labels can feel limiting, and some musicians resisted being put in a box, preferring their music to stand on its own rather than belong to a defined genre.

My Own Journey

My first encounter with goth music was in the late 80s and early 90s, and at the time I was still too young to fully grasp it. I simply loved the music — music I discovered through older acquaintances and family friends, some of whom owned small New Wave and Punk clubs, where the sounds and atmosphere first sparked my fascination.

Later, my journey into goth deepened through the small record and CD stores I visited almost weekly. Sometimes it was a CD cover that caught my eye, other times the shop owners would recommend something with a simple: “I think this might be for you.” And to be honest, while today it’s easy to discover endless music online, I do miss those times.

I remember, though, that at the time, goth music was only lightly recognized as a separate genre — most of it was simply called New Wave. Bauhaus was considered New Wave, The Cure was considered New Wave, and several other bands we now label as goth, such as Play Dead, The Danse Society, Fields of the Nephilim, Christian Death, and Alien Sex Fiend, were also lumped under that term. New Wave was essentially just an umbrella term the music press used to describe the wide range of new styles that emerged in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, showing how much the scene was still finding its own voice. For many of the people who first introduced me to this music, it remains very much considered New Wave even today.

My first real awareness that goth existed as its own genre began to grow when I visited those small record and CD stores almost weekly, where I discovered and bought compilation CDs like Cleopatra Records’ Gothik: Music From The Dark Side and In Goth Daze, as well as Mick Mercer’s Gothic Rock Volumes 1, 2, and 3. These, along with many other collections, introduced me to a wider range of bands and were instrumental in shaping my early understanding of goth.

Needless to say, I was hooked, and goth has remained an essential part of my life, especially when it comes to music. I still love goth today as much as I did in my younger days — perhaps even more.

The Bats Never Left the Belltower

Over the years, goth music has evolved, and the goth scene is still as 'un-dead' as ever. Today, we not only have countless live performances by excellent bands in the dark underground clubs, but also various festivals where not only goth, but also related and other dark genres are celebrated together under the umbrella term 'dark culture'. Many bands continue to play in the classic gothic style, while there are also acts who bring their own twists, often blending elements from various genres to create something fresh yet still rooted in the dark, atmospheric spirit of goth.

Nowadays, there are many discussions online about what is Goth and what isn’t, and videos presenting opinions on which bands are considered Goth and which are not. The truth is, there is much more to goth than can ever be captured in a single list or video. As mentioned before, goth has a rich, layered history, shaped by countless perspectives on how the music and scene evolved — and that complexity is part of what makes it so endlessly fascinating. But let’s put that aside for a moment. Honor and recognition are certainly due to the pioneers who stood at the cradle of our wonderfully dark subculture, yet it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been listening to the music for years or are just discovering it. What truly matters is the music itself — keeping alive one of the longest-surviving underground subcultures.

Bands Worth Exploring

Before you dive in, here’s a list of bands and artists I personally recommend — bands and artists who directly or indirectly contributed to the evolution of Goth. Most of these emerged in the late 70s and 80s, with a few from the 90s. Some are goth rock, some deathrock, some post-punk, some fall somewhere in between, and some lean toward something else entirely. Yet each carries a unique sound of its own, adding its own shade to the spectrum. Not sorted by genre — let the music be the essence.

Also read: Dark Culture (A Follow-Up to Goth: A Little Essay) 🦇