By: Chris Stead

Asherra needed a little time off so this month I am filling her spot in the columns.

Being that I am from a slightly older Goth camp than Asherra, then I thought that it might be nice to reminisce on what Goth was in earlier years. This thought was majorly inspired by the fact that I got a copy of “A Life Less Lived: The Goth Box” for Christmas. This is a collection of songs that have helped shape the face of Goth as it is today.

A thought from a relatively young Goth on a bulletin board has been bothering me for about a month now and I thought that it was time I aired my grievances. The sentiment was something like this:

“Why does everyone keep saying things about punk? Goth is Goth and punk is punk. Who made the decision that Goth is rooted in punk?”

Now there may be many of you reading along, and at this point you may find yourself asking much the same question. Who DID decide that Goth is rooted in punk, anyway? I mean most of the music that is popular with young Goths today seems very unlike the punk sound that was so prevalent in the underground in the late seventies and early eighties.

Aha! Here’s the real problem. People start talking about Goth and it is pretty clear that the Goth movement of today is fairly different than the punk movement of yesteryear. Is this so? Let’s review what the roots of the popular Goth movement really are. Most people would agree that Goth is, first and foremost, dark and spooky. (Not creepy, like that weird old guy that looks longingly at you while you walk from your house to your car on the way to the club.)

Goth is dark and spooky, kind of like film noir or horror movies from the thirties. What is the one thing that really helps to set the mood? Music! Music has always helped define any movement. So, lets take a look at the music that started it all. Most people that hail from the Goth culture are familiar with Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy and probably even Joy Division, Killing Joke and even Depeche Mode. There were others as well, many others aside from this handful. Let’s talk about some of the better and lesser known artists that helped to shape our bleak landscape.

First off Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Cure and Joy Division are all out of the late seventies when there was the mainstream and then there was punk. Please note that Goth was not even heard of at this point. Much like the emo bands that are so ubiquitous today, the three bands previously mentioned were all looking for an outlet for their dark, broody and introspective brand of music. Since they weren’t part of the mainstream then they had to look elsewhere. Thus we can see that there option was the punk scene. Beyond this restriction, the punk scene heavily influenced their music, just listen to early recordings with the jangly guitars not-always-quite-sung vocals and the overall rock feel that their music had. Yes, folks, these people were punks. They were just dark punks that had a lot of deep emotional issues to work through.

Joy Division was probably the most notable of these groups for being punk. Their entire career happened over the course of just a few albums, all of which were released before the Goth label began to stick. Other groups that people often associate with Goth are Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Xymox, The Pink Dots and later Fields of the Nephilim, The Cult (AKA Death Cult and Southern Death Cult before that) and even Ikon and Switchblade Symphony, which were both in the nineties. All of these groups continued to demonstrate punk influences in their work. The list is so expansive and the likelihood that one person or another may or may not consider some group Goth makes it very difficult to pin down every influence. The synthesizer driven music that a lot of people listen to today can be most easily attributed to The Cure and Depeche Mode, but when it comes right down to it, Goths are the evolution of punks, and somewhere in the early eighties, if we look hard enough, we just might find the Goth “Lucy.” Not quite goth, but not quite punk either. Simply stated, she would be the Goth missing link.