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Dark Gothic Music

 
Gothic Music Introduction
I've always tended to believe that gothic music stemmed from something spooky and mysterious, enchanting, perhaps reminding one of a silent vampire film, a spooky house that's supposedly haunted, or graveyard. The " gothic" tag was attributed to certain post-punk bands who began to have a gloomier or spookier edge to their nihilism. unfortunately the tag has not only stuck but has been stuck onto everything that contains certain elements in the music or appearance of a band, no matter how shallow.


this is not to say that certain music doesn't have "gothic" elements to it. the error most people make is that these elements transform the whole experience into something " gothic". deep vocals, horror film sounds and lyrics concerning romantic sadness. These can all be interesting, depending how well done they are. but often bands that use these elements are truly rooted in punk or metal.


Due to the fact that the gothic subculture is so varied in itself, there is no one style of music that all goths enjoy. The original gothic music (e.g. Bauhaus, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, etc) is popular among goths, as is its various incarnations such as darkwave, deathrock and modern gothic music and gothic rock (e.g. Lacuna Coil, Entwine and Type O Negative). Many goths also enjoy metal, death metal and black metal, and bands with a gothic look such as Cradle of Filth are popular. A lot of goths enjoy 80s music in general, and the goth club scene features a lot of dark electro music. But, every individual goth has their own different and diverse taste, which of course can include any genre of music.


But we also have to remember that gothic music comes in all shapes and sizes and since it has been around for so long there's a ton of subcultures within the umbrella that is Goth.


Metal Goth - The term "gothic" was first used to describe the sound of Joy Division and afterwards it was applied to a loose group of bands catering to the same audience. Nowadays bands with a metal background aim at that " gothic" scene as well, and label themselves "gothic metal". The term "gothic" is subject to as much manipulation and controversy as the term "metal". Metal gothic refers exclusively to slow, atmospheric music with a generally sad or trancelike atmosphere. Like traditional heavy metal and everything progressive, gothic music is performance music and not utilitarian folk and dance music.


EBM - stands for Electronic Body Music. what is the most important in EBM music I think are Lyrics. The music is mostly heavy programmed synths + " ebm beat". You have to look back to the days when electronic music first became popular with such bands as kraftwerk, tangerine dream, klaus schultze etc in the 70s. They've introduced the public to the sounds of synthesizers. In the beginning of the 80s there was this big movement called punk! EBM was a kind of electronic punk in the attitude of both genres are the same, only the tools differ. EBM is hard moving, aggresive electronic music. most beats are very fast and the lyrics are more shouting than singing.


Gothic music can be varying in style and hard to pinpoint but here are some examples of music that is either straight out goth or associated with the scene:

'Siouxsie and the Banshees'- One of the first and the best, a very unique style that shaped bulk of the goth movement.
'Sisters of Mercy'- A major influence on most bands coming through presently
'The Cure'- Known especially for their albums 17 seconds, a lesser extent, Disintegration and Bloodflowers.
'Christian death' 'Only Theatre of Pain'- the first death rock album
'Front line assembly'- Is industrial music but is listened to by many goths
'VNV nation'- EBM but same deal as Front Line Assembly
'Frank the Baptist'- Folkish-goth: a great band just making a name for themselves
'Bauhaus'- 'Bella Legosis Dead' by Bauhaus was touted as being the first ever goth song
'The Doors'- A big influence on some early goth music
'Type O Negative'- First goth/doom metal band
'Cinema Strange'- Circus styled deathrock
'45 Grave'- Early deathrock
'The Birthday Party'- Nick Cave's second band, big contributor to the scene
'Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds'- Nick's third band, still loosely associated with the scene and enjoyed by many in the scene
'The March Violets'- Highly under rated
'Cocteau Twins'- Dreamy but brilliant
'Fields of Nephilim'- Another of the originals
'Joy Division'- Not strictly goth but not far off, adopted by goth fans as goth music
'Killing Miranda'- Industrial goth, short lived, but a good example of the scenes ability to poke fun at itself (very tongue-in-cheek music)
Gothic Metal
The sounds of gothic metal were first introduced to the world in the 90s. Its origins can be traced up to the morbid doom metal and the somber death metal, But with a little twist, As some reffer the goth metal music to metal bands with soft and sometimes very high female vocals. Gothic metal is where two different music elements become attached. The heavy tunes of the doom metal and growls perfectly combined with operatic female voices. Beyond the combination of polar voices, the rough heavy tempo of the metal is being mix with slow and romantic melodies.


The lyrics of goth metal is about fantasy and romance that connected to the dark side of life. And also each song doest stands on its own, all the songs from selected album, have meaning only together, when they are being played one by one and not separately. The first gothic metal bands in history are: Tiamat, My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost. The first gothic metal song named "gothic" and preformed in the 90s by the band Paradise Lost.


Other famous bands like Tristania, Sirenia and Theatre of Tragedy, continued with the macabre style but they also added more musical elements inspaired by classic music and medieval orchestras. This elements opened a new sub-genre of gothic metal, named symphonic metal, which had a lighter tunes and assosiated with opera voices and music instruments.


When the goth metal genre was on its highest peak in terms of success, Non gothic metal bands started to adoped the gothic images. Which caused more confusion about the pure definition of the term "gothic metal", and ofcourse made a real debate about who is a real gothic band and who is a gothic wanna be or fake gothic. But on the other hand, it shows how wide is the gothic phenomena in every aspect of life.


A lot of the girls that were metal heads, all of a sudden started dying their hair black, wearing the long black dresses, corsets, fishnets and other gothic accessories. There was a weird combination going on between the metal and the gothic scenes. But aside from that, lot of goths who grew up listening to metal, got into goth metal music. They are also gothic people that never listened to metal, who came from rock, punk and even pop, to the great music genre of the gothic metal.
Gothabilly Music
Gothabilly is a music genre that came up from mixing the gothic subculture with Rockabilly music. Rockabilly was much influenced by blues, country music and punk but with additional dark tunes. By the time, it become more associated with fashion and music performance. This kind of music shows combined the country guitars and the cowboy`s T-shirts, jeans, hats and boots, with the metal gothic guitars and gothic black fashion. Its was like all the people who lived in the farms came out of hell and become gothic, or like the old american movies from the 50s have been hit by darkwave.


There are lots of different darkness in the gothabilly music: horror, monsters, ghosts, paranormal and vampires themes. And they are also themes of sadness and aggressive behaviours. The music itself has slow tempo and of course light influences from the gothic musical instruments such as pipe organ, electric guitars and other acoustic tunes.


Gothabilly music started at the 70s with the leading band called The Cramps, Back then it called rockabilly because the influences of rock and roll. In the 90s the genre Gothabilly became more popular as the gothic subculture become more well known to the public. Today the gothabilly genre is keep being unique but they are not a lots of bands and songs in that gothic music sub-genre.
Gothic Music Lyrics
The gothic music began at the 80s punk scene in the UK. This kind of music was the mental property of the middle class movement, which had a great value for the power of the words, like gothic literature, gothic poems and dark lyrics. These gothic lyrics are dealing with themes such as death, destruction, pain and love.


Nick Cave, one of the best gothic artist from australia, made great gothic songs about death and murders. In his best seller album: " Murder Ballads", he is using very deep lyrics in order to tell us morbid stories like a man who murdered his beloved wife and threw her body in the macabre forest.


She'd been stabbed repeatedly

And stuffed into a sleeping bag

In their very cots my girls were robbed of their lives

Method of murder much the same as my wife's

Method of murder much the same as my wife's

Those gothic lyrics can be understand as crime and punishment: Even though it was a perfect murder with no evidences nor eye evidence, the killer has deep agonized emotions that maybe someone saw his act. He cant sleeps at night, scared that someone will inform the police about his criminal deeds. But its not only the fear of getting punished, its also involved guilty feelings. The rain fall on his house is like the sorrowed tears.


Another example of gothic theme lyrics is the successful gothic instrumental band named The Cure. Their early sounds can be associated with the Post Punk tunes, long before they became heavily associated with Goth and other prominent Post Punk/Goth bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees.


Their dark gothic lyrics also revolved the big dilemma of death: a man stands in the beach, and he has the opportunity to shoot another person or to let him live.


If the listener is not familiar with the gothic subculture, he will consider those artistic lyrics as evil entity that is preaching only for murder, And not as a way to express deep torments feelings. This is also why the gothic music in general, and the gothic subculture in particular is often misunderstood. Therefore wrong interpretation of the gothic lyrics can lead to misconception of the entire gothic subculture.


Another lesson we can learn is that the gothic movment, as a unique musical genre, hasnt been infulenced only by the punk movment, but also by its own listeners who interpretate those lyrical messages. Whether they came form the inside of the gothic subculture or out side the dark subculture, and whether their interpretation was right or wrong, they still shaped the gothic music as a genre.