The starting point will always be disputed. Wise music critics were describing The Doors as gothic in the late sixties, Melody Maker called
Joy Division “masters of Gothic gloom” in 1980. Somewhere in-between
came the proto-goth masterpiece, The Velvet Underground’s “All
Tomorrow’s Parties”. Blogs about the origins of goth reckon Bauhaus’
“Bela Legosi’s Dead” was what started it. But really, this subculture
was borne of a collective rejection of the mainstream. When the dope
smoke of the 70s cleared, all that was left was Margaret Thatcher’s
government, the steady demolition of British manufacturing industry and a
whole load of drizzle. Ecstasy was ten years away and goth appropriated
the gloom.
The Cure released their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys,
in 1979 but they hated it and the cover art was pink. Graffiti
demanding that someone sign Siouxsie and the Banshees had been appearing
in London for a year before they released The Scream in 1978, but the album was post-punk, without the shoegazy melancholia of real goth.
Soho’s The
Batcave opened in 1982, and a growing movement found an epicentre.
“Bela Legosi’s Dead” was indeed on the stereo, the term “Batcaver” was
born and the movement made a definitive step away from post punk.
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