goth rock
- Aether Sanctum - News, music and event reviews, event guide, fiction, poetry, artwork, interviews with bands worldwide, and resources, with a focus on the Gothic subculture in Australia.
- Belgian Dark Alternative Music Database - Offering news, links and information on Belgian acts, labels, radio shows, parties and events and related details in the range of wave, gothic, electro, industrial, noise, and synthpop music.
- Dark & Deadly - Biography, discography, photos, wallpapers of bands like Diamanda Galas, Hate Dept, Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and Swans.
- Dark Grave - Providing information on new and old gothic music that unusual and hard to find. Also includes information the culture, new sites, online radio stations and literature.
- Funeral Procession - All about gothic/industrial/neofolk music and subculture. With photos, news, reviews, history of gothic, art and links.
- The Gothic Music Handbook - Extensive list of gothic bands including descriptions, status and discography.
- Gothic Tabs - Tablatures to gothic music for guitar and bass.
- Gothic World - Reviews of many gothic, death, black, and doom metal bands.
- Lucifer Rising UK - Provides information on gothic club events, upcoming shows, and offers audio downloads and a member forum.
- Music from the End of the World - A brief description of gothic music with MP3 samples of various subgenres.
- SadBoyInBlack's Goth Pages - Writings on the Goth lifestyle and the essential characteristics of Goth music, with a list of classic goth songs and related music.
- Underground Press - Supports South African gothic music through reviews, biographies, events, and audio downloads.
- Deathrock.net - Webzine devoted to deathrock and gothic music with news and a band database.
- Enochian Apocalypse - United Kingdom e-zine featuring album reviews, interviews, and links tonfeatured bands and record labels.
- Gothic.gr - Dark-EBM-Industrial - Magazine covering the gothic and electro scene. Information, articles and downloads.
- Grave Concerns E-zine - Grave Concerns E-zine is full of gothic, industrial and electro reviews, interviews and news. It is run by Julue Johnson of Gothic Beauty Magazine & Sideline.
- Legends Magazine - Comprehensive listing of interviews, with detailed CD reviews, links, and features like The Band of the Week and a discussion forum.
- LoopZine.TV - Monthly gothic/darkwave/metal/electro/industrial music zine with images and music of featured artists in RealPlayer format, and industry news. Available on PointCast, e-mail delivery, or online.
- pretty bruises - This dark music zine features Interviews with bands like Dead Leaves Rising, lovesliescrushing, Tara Vanflower of Lycia and Mara's Torment.
- Sordid Magazine - Interviews, reviews and features covering gothic, industrial, EBM, electro, atmospheric and related genres.
- StarVox - E-zine updated monthly featuring album and concert reviews, interviews, articles, and stremaing radio in the gothic, industrial, EBM, noise and doom metal genres.
- SUM Magaizine - An online magazine based in PEI, Canada, reporting on the gothic and metal culture and other relevant topics in eastern Canada.
- This is My Hole - Underground e-zine featuring poetry, stories, reviews, interviews, pictures and news from the underground gothic scene.
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) evolved out of post-punk during the late 1970s. Originally considered just a label for a small handful of punk rock/post-punk bands, goth only began to be defined as a separate movement in 1981. While most punk bands focused on aggressive, outward rock, the early gothic bands were more introverted and personal, with elements that can be traced to much older literary movements such as gothic horror, Romanticism, existential philosophy, and the philosophical construct of nihilism. The earliest gothic bands were Bauhaus, Gloria Mundi (credited as the first goth band by Mick Mercer), and UK Decay.
Associating the goth subculture with the first generation of gothic bands can be a bit controversial. This is because "gothic" started out as a label and these groups labeled as such were part of the greater punk, post punk, and new wave scene. The result is that not all of the punks and new wavers who liked these groups were necessarily a part of the goth scene. Associating these early bands with goth may spark angry protests from fans who are not goths and don't want their favorite band associated with goth. Several bands, including The Sisters of Mercy, do not consider themselves part of the goth movement even though most of their fans may be goths. This even happens with some of the bands that came around after goth started turning into a distinct subculture and the band in question were very much involved in it (for example Alien Sex Fiend), despite being actively a part of the scene will get denied gothic rock status. However, regardless of the controversy surrounding this use of labels, these early groups are where gothic rock had its origins.
Each of the early bands had much in common with the punk movement, though any similarity with punk was owed to the fact that that was the scene from which they were emerging, and were attempting (whether consciously or unconsciously) to leave behind. What is most notable about the core early 1980s post punk bands is that, typical to their punk roots, they had a general distaste for labels, presumably seeing such things as anathema to creative expression [1]. Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records (1976) exemplified this attitude amongst the post-punk groups. Throbbing Gristle made the way for Industrial music, which is often catagoroized in with Goth because each cross lines and are small to merge in the club scenes. In recent years, the tendency has swung almost entirely the other way, with many bands being quick to label themselves as goth and borrow the imagery.
With some exceptions, such as Christian Death from Los Angeles, the Virgin Prunes from Ireland, and Xmal Deutschland from Germany, most of these first gothic rock groups were British.
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