The History of a Musical Style
Like punk before it the Gothic subculture is heavily linked to certain genres of music, so much so that in addressing the history of the subculture one almost has to begin by tracing the history of "Gothic" music. Therefore, what follows is a brief description of Goth music's emergence from punk, its adoption of elements of other musical genres, the subculture's assimilation of other groups' style, and its eventual splintering into many sub-categories of music and style.
"The name "Goth" originally came from a Germanic tribe (ie the Goths). The Romans regarded them as barbaric and uncultured, much like the Vandals. "Gothic" was later applied to a style of medieval architecture by critics who regarded it as similarly barbaric and uncultured (something similar happened with the term "Vandal"). The term was later applied to a late 18th/early 19th century style of literature which had a fascination with death and the supernatural" (Scathe).
Oh yeah, and then it became a subculture…

…and punk begat Goth?

Music has always placed some emphasis on topics of death, madness, loss and suffering; characteristics that seem to be contained in what can be called a Gothic aesthetic. Blues songs served as a method of expressing pain as part catharsis and part testimony. The idea is for the performer to express their hardship, often in the hope of building a sympathetic society. As such musical forms (and the blues in particular) became commercialized and rock 'n' roll emerged, the meaning of the music changed. The goal was no longer to express the blues, but to get the blues. "Chances are when a black American sang the blues, she just had them. When an Englishman did it, he also wanted them" (Grunenberg, p. 116).
Punk emerged partially in opposition to rock 'n' roll and the rock stars it created. However, the angry anti-establishment tone of punk music soon became to be commercialized as well. It is from this post-punk landscape that a new style of music began to emerge as some bands switched from the pissed-off attitude of punk to the more atmospheric and emotional attitude of what would eventually be known as Goth. This all happened primarily in England and roughly between 1979 and 1983, but the emergence of Goth music cannot be restricted to any certain date since its roots are buried so deeply in punk. Even as certain former punk bands began to change their sound, they were simply labeled "Positive Punk" (although the sound was not really "positive") at first. One needs look no further to see the deep connections between Goth and punk than the relationship between Siouxsie Sioux and the Sex Pistols (one of the most famous early-British punk groups). Sioux was part of one of the premier Goth bands Siouxsie and the Banshees, but before that she was part of a clique of Sex Pistols fans. Sid Vicious of the Pistols even played drums in an early version of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Sioux became somewhat disenchanted with punk as it became commercialized, a process that perhaps culminated in a Sex Pistols appearance on the Today show. Once the punk movement had been given a name, Sioux (who was avidly anti-establishment) decided to change gears (Grunenberg, p. 113).

Many other bands had the same idea and the Goth musical style began to appear. There was more emphasis on percussion than in punk, to the point where the drumming sometimes became tribal. The guitar parts were slowed down and stretched out, creating a more atmospheric sound than punk's wall-of-noise. Perhaps the biggest change came in the lyrical content as the more emotional and often-morbid escapist lyrics of Goth provided a stark contrast to punk's political messages. As the music changed, so did the style (and vice versa). Black clothes and whiteface makeup started to become popular among early Goth bands and their fans. It was from this scenario that some of the defining Goth bands (known as Goth's first-wave) began to emerge; bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division and Sex Gang Children. But the changes that led towards the Goth style emerging did not emerge from nowhere. As we will see, throughout its history the Gothic subculture has always been influenced by and adopted aspects of a number of different sources.

The influence of New Wave and New Romantics

New Wave (or the New Romantics scene) was about as far from punk and early Goth as one could be. While punk was raw and unfocused, new wave music was stylized and polished. However, as the Goth subculture began to grow and assimilate aspects of many different groups, certain parts of the new wave movement crept in. This happened primarily because, just as dissatisfied punks found a comfortable place in Goth, so did dissatisfied New Romantics. What had started out as original quickly became mainstream and too pop orientated, causing some of the subculture's members to become disenchanted. As they entered the Goth scene, their style became a part of it. One of the most important aspects of New Wave was the use of synthesizers. While much of rock and pop music (including punk) was rejecting synths, New Wave bands like Duran Duran and the Pet Shop Boys incorporated synths into their sound. Eventually synths made their way into Goth music, primarily in what is known as Goth's second wave (which occurred in the mid-80s). One can hear the influence of synths in comparing the tribal drumming of Bauhaus to the drum machine beats of The Sisters of Mercy. A look at the current situation of underground Goth music shows bands like The Cruxshadows relying heavily on synths (and in this case doing Pet Shop Boys covers), and a style of music related to Goth, techno and new wave called EBM (electronic body music), which relies completely on synths.
The New Romantics also wore "dressy" clothing such as suits as a reaction to the increasingly harsh and masculine direction of punk. This "dressy" style also began to creep into the Gothic subculture alongside the "ratty" clothing style influenced by punk. This (and other instances of assimilated style) began to make the Goth style very kinetic and wide-ranging as it was no longer a strange sight to see two contradictory styles (like "dressy" and "ratty") contained not only in the fashion choices of one group of Goths, but in the fashion choices of one Goth individual.
The influence of Glam and Glitter Rock
Glam or glitter rock, particularly David Bowie, had a profound impact on not only Goth, but new wave and punk as well. Embracing the ideal of the rock star yet satirizing it at the same time, Bowie invented a series of camp incarnations (Ziggy Stardust, Mr. Newton, the thin white duke), creating a meta-message of escape from the real world that appealed greatly to early Goths. While glam impacted punk by reacting against it, it influenced both new wave and Goth through its emphasis on a style that included self-creation and sexual ambiguity/freedom. "Bowie was responsible for opening up questions of sexual identity which had previously been repressed, ignored or merely hinted at in rock and youth culture" (Hebdige, p. 61). This ideal of adapting images, styles and ideologies to create one's own image is essential to the Gothic subculture, as we have already seen. The style of sexual ambivalence is also at play, as the Goth is a very feminized [link to the Gothic as subculture section] subculture with a strong female contingent and certain stylistic practices that make the men look more feminine (make-up, long hair, etc.). Furthermore, the notion of sexual freedom is important to creating a self-image and probably a large reason why the Gothic subculture has strong ties to the S&M/bondage subculture.

A dialogue with Industrial

Industrial music and its related subculture the "Rivetheads" emerged roughly at the same time Goth did. Exactly how the two styles and subcultures are related is up for debate. Some claim that Goth is "a long sub-movement in the history of industrial music" (Grunenberg, p. 89) while others claim the opposite. Regardless of what exactly spawned what, the two styles are distinct in many ways though they have shared a certain kind of dialogue with each other for two decades with industrial affecting Goth and vice versa. Industrial music's first wave began in the early 1980's in Europe with bands like Einsturzende Neubauten and Throbbing Gristle. They rejected repetitive modes of technology, often playing on power tools and sheet metal and incorporated electronic musical devices in such a way as to break all the rules of their usage. They were concerned with "the laboring body juxtaposed with the haunted ruins of industry" (Grunenberg, p. 86). It was "the search for a sound on the far side of music, and music on the far side of sound…the sound of collapse, the music of social shock" (http://neubauten.freibank.com/)
The second wave of industrial occurred primarily in the United States in the late 1980s through bands like Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, and Skinny Puppy. Unlike the first wave, these bands embraced more fully the use of electronic media, moving past the body to declare information war. They used samples from movies or political speeches and distorted vocals, rejecting rules set up by new wave. Their message started off as more political and angry than Goth music, not that far off from punk's origins. The Rivethead style was simple, usually black jeans, black shirt, and black boots.

Despite their differences, Goth and industrial styles shared in common a fascination with the collapse of boundaries, particularly those between the "normal" and the "other." The infusion of Goth ideals into industrial style diffused the purpose somewhat, leading to new musical genres like EBM. Furthermore, many groups now straddle the increasingly fading line between Goth and industrial, defying any label although such groups (like Die Form and Attrition) are sometimes called electro-goth.

Shock Rock from Screamin' Jay to Marilyn Manson

Shock rock is a term often used to describe a style of music that emphasizes style over substance, but unlike glam rock, shock rock utilizes that style in a high degree of showmanship in order to shock the spectator. Perhaps the first shock rocker was Screamin' Jay Hawkins whose "I Put A Spell On You" was banned from radio stations due to his "cannibalistic" howling. Deciding to milk the controversy, Hawkins "[made] his stage entrances from out of coffins…[and] dressed in high vampire style, with a black cape and a walking staff adorned with a skull" (Grunenberg, p. 116). Taking his cue from Hawkins was perhaps the most famous shock rocker ever - Alice Cooper. Cooper (real name Vincent Furnier) would spice up his live shows with fake blood, mock chicken slaughterings, simulated autoerotic erections and fake beheadings. Cooper (Furneir's creation) symbolized music industry excess and satirized the cult of the rock star, in the process making one of rock's biggest triumphs of style over substance.
Shock rock's newest star has got to be Marilyn Manson. Manson (whose name unites the sex goddess and the mass murder in an act of social commentary) is important to the Gothic subculture if only because he is often identified as the face of the Gothic subculture to those outside of the subculture. While many Goth's are Mason fans, personal experience has show me that associating him strongly to the subculture is taboo within the subculture (the same can be said for Nine Inch Nails within the Rivethead subculture). What exactly Manson's role is within the Gothic subculture is up for debate, but I put him in the shock rock section here simply because musically and stylistically he has more in common with Alice Cooper than the Gothic underground. Manson does, however, exposes the main dividing line between Goth and shock rock. While both stylistically place emphasis on style and attempt to break down boundaries through referring to the morbid and grotesque, Goth's (ideally, not always actually) do this to create a self-image and do not care who it shocks. In other words, being truly Goth (like being truly punk or Rastafarian) is a way of being not a way of merely shocking others, even though some might find such a way of being shocking.

The Batcave

"MICHAEL JOHNSON: In any history of goth fashion, the Batcave will loom large. In any history of goth *music*, it'll rate less of a mention, the 'Batcave bands' such as ASF notwithstanding. The Batcave was (arguably; everything is 'arguably'!) the place where the 'look' first developed to any elaborate extent, but most of the goth-scene's *music* came from elsewhere....
PETE SCATHE: I think what actually happened is that they came together on a collision course. The Batcave wasn't planned as a "goth" club, but the emergent goth scene kinda took it over and adopted a lot of the imagery...
MERLINA: Batcave itself saw people from various 'traditions' coming together too- the more 'dressy' end of punk; the art-school gang from Blitz, a few from the newly out of the closet fetish scene & a bunch of gay guys who'd heard this was a 'safe' place to be" (Scathe).
The Batcave, the original Goth club, opened in London in 1982, and was probably the most important factor in creating the Goth subculture as it exists today. It gave people with common ideas and styles a place to gather and thereby socially construct what was "in style" at the time. Not only was it a major rallying-point for the London scene, but it also attracted a lot of media attention, which in turn spread the idea of a new subculture around the country and the world. Ever since the opening of the Batcave, the idea of the Goth club has become widespread to the point where the club is one of the major social arenas for the subculture. This is not surprising considering Goth's reliance on music. Currently there exists 427 listed Goth club nights (listings taken from http://www.vamp.org/Gothic/clublist.html) in 30 countries.

The Genre Splinters

If the Gothic was ever homogenous, it certainly is not anymore. The term Gothic now covers a wide range of very different styles, attitudes, and musical genres and sub-genres all perhaps loosely connected by the "Gothic aesthetic" (a term we will focus on later). At any Goth club it is not strange to see clothes ranging from black jeans and t-shirts, to elaborate 18th century clothing, to S&M and bondage gear. Goth also has strong ties to many other similar yet distinct subcultures such as Pagan, S&M/bondage, Vampire, and Renaissance Faire subcultures. Gothic music has also splintered into genres like industrial, Goth rock, Goth metal, EBM, synth-pop, ethereal/darkwave and dark ambient (for more on these genres visit http://www.gothics.org/subculture/). At roughly 23 years old, the Gothic subculture has had amazing staying power in today's modern world, due partly no doubt to its ever changing nature and it's emphasis on creating a self-image.