Gothic Rock

Some of the gothic rock bands that are notable consist of The Cure, Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees as well as The Mission. The gothic rock music genre is also recognized for giving a rise to the much broader subculture of Goth which includes Goth fashions, Goth clubs, as well as magazines that are Goth oriented.

The First Generation of Gothic Rock:
Gothic rock’s first generation was associated with different styles like post-punk, punk rock along side of new wave. There are some of the late seventies and eighties gothic rock bands were able to create their very own record label or they decided to release all of their material through independent record labels. Just like punk rock, however this wasn’t considered to be a general rule because there were some bands involved in this movement that also made an appearance on some major labels.

Even though there were some bands that came from other countries, most of the early groups that performed gothic rock originated from England. Los Angeles was the home of Christian Death, Ireland was the home of The Virgin Prunes and Germany was the home for Xmal Deutschland.

Musical Styles of Gothic Rock:
Based on the mere fact that the gothic rock genre consists of subgenres in which boundaries overlap, it is extremely difficult to be able to identify musical characteristics which are very common to every single piece of gothic rock. However, there are some musical styles that originated from the early forms of English gothic rock that have been able to remain common, like the guitar tone. Usually in gothic rock, the tone of the guitar is processed with some electronic effects. A warmly or clean guitar sound that is overdriven can be processed through flanging, chorusing, dense reverb, and analog delay which results in a timbre that actually resembles those that are used by The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees.

The gothic rock music genre also has a guitar playing style that is a characteristic of the genre. Guitar playing in gothic rock takes it down a notch from punk’s playing style and it puts an emphasis on the angular melodic lines instead of the thick chords. Minor mode melodies and minor keys are prevalent; however the major keys are also being used. The gothic rock music genre also possesses a repetitive snap of the snare drum n order to propel the beat.