Precisely what you should Know Regarding Industrial Songs
 
"Goth" is a subculture often misunderstood by the public. From its modest beginnings on the heels of post punk through the present, it has adopted several genres of music along the way, for example darkwave, industrial and gothic metal, but those have their very own dedicated scenes as well. Gothic rock, in the other hand, almost created the gothic subculture singlehandedly and in turn, goths continue to reshape and evolve the music.
 
This list covers gothic rock from its modest beginnings to present day and functions as a starting point for anyone interested in this Industrial radio, ardent music that has lasted around four decades. From the groups that defined the genre to all those redefining it today, Goth: The History, The Heresy is your one-way ticket to the dark side.
 
Note: "Goth" won't contain groups whose major music genres are deathrock, coldwave, darkwave or post-punk (with few exceptions) because these aren't gothic rock, even though their genres may be associated.
 
1978, England. The original punk movement had become a stagnant parody of itself, was declared dead and postpunk quickly took its place: an artistic, forward-thinking contrast to the former's crass and frequently damaging attitude, fueled by punk, funk, disco, krautrock, dub and reggae. But something else was taking shape under England's gloomy heavens. A fresh breed of menacing, mysterious and often morose music started to emerge, fueled by romanticism, theatricality plus a fascination with all things taboo, cryptic and morose.
 
Initially, it was referred to as "favorable punk", but when music journalists began throwing around the "gothic" label, it merely stayed for some reason. Perhaps it was the dark lyrical content, or the spooky vision, but it fit like a glove. When it comes to origin of the word "gothic" as a style of music, it was used by David Bowie to describe his 1974 album "Diamond Dogs" and in 1979, Joy Division was referred to by an interviewer as "gothic in comparison to the pop mainstream". Their manager Martin Hannett later used "dancing music with gothic overtones" to advertise their postmortem album, Closer. Their are numerous other rumors of its origin, but as with most music genres, music journalists simply found it suitable to pigeonhole several acts with similar overtones.
 
The music itself took heavy inspiration from post-punk and glam rock. The former's love of dub contributed to goth's powerful bass guitar existence, post-punk had been experimenting with tribal musicality for years (inspiring the typical rhythm section), and glam rock contributed to the theatricality and persona. When reading interviews with a number of the original goth bands, several names keep popping up as sways: The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Roxy Music, T. Rex, Lou Reed and Brian Eno. The Velvet Underground introduced drugs, bondage and leather to the late 60s, so the inspiration pretty much speaks for itself there. Lou Reed (himself a Velvet alumnus) was already performing live wearing bondage equipment and black eyeliner; Iggy Pop of The Stooges as well, shirtless on stage, looking to be an emaciated vampire. The visual aspect was inspired by the leather and buckles of BDSM, along with German expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu, wh o used black lips and eyeliner to emphasize facial features obscured by film quality of the time.
 
It's important to note that during this age, the genre's feet were still securely put in post punk, very much a product of its influences, just a darker, more cryptic and theatrical spin. The sound is easy to pin down: thin instrumentation, tribal drums, notable basslines at the front of the mixture (bass often functioned as the lead melody, averting the lower strings) and spooky, spidery guitar drenched in chorus and reverb, defined not by crunchy power chords, but angular lines and arpeggio chords, consistently pushed into the background rather than being the lead as with most rock music. Vocals were melodramatic and otherworldly and male and female vocalists were equally common.
 
Anyway, these OG's (first goths) had a "big four", four groups in particular which found success and had the biggest impact on the scene: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Bauhaus and The Cure. That does not mean there were not others who helped establish the genre; there were numerous, some of which I'll also cover.