POPSCENE!
GOtH
YOUR AT-A-GLANCE GUIDE TO SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE SUB-GENRES
DELVING INTO THE DARKNESS, IT’S TIME TO EMBRACE A LITTLE NIHILISM
S TEVEO' BRIEN
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WHAT is it?
Few musical genres are as fuzzily defined as goth. If you’re a modern day self-declared goth, into the savage industrial rhythms of Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson, then you’ll probably find little to embrace in the dark, romantic stylings of All About Eve or Dead Can’t Dance. Are there many Cure fans in love with deathrock, that more extreme form of goth that includes Christian Death and The Phantom Limbs? And surely there aren’t many Siouxsie And The Banshees aficionados who’d dive into the mosh-pit at an Evanescence gig.
So, for this Popscene, we’re sticking to British artists and the 80s. Even within those parameters it’s a very broad church, ranging from the claustrophobic doom-rock of Joy Division to the pomp and ceremony of The Cult. But what unifies all these bands? Sonically, goth can be identified by minor chords and dramatic and/or melancholic melodies and lyrically, well, let’s just say there aren’t many bangers about beach parties or happy-ever-after love affairs.