goth music timeline
 

I started working on a Goth music timeline. What additions/revisions do you think should be made?

Pre-Goth: David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Alice Cooper, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Iggy Pop

Proto-Goth Post-Punk: Siouxsie & The Banshees, Adam & The Ants, The Damned, The Cramps, Joy Division, The Chameleons, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Soft Cell, Gary Numan, Cocteau Twins

1st Wave: Bauhaus, Modern English, UK Decay

2nd Wave: Sisters of Mercy, Fields of Nephilim, Southern Death Cult, Love & Rockets, Lords of the New Church

Batcave: Sexgang Children, Alien Sex Fiend, Specimen

Deathrock: Christian Death, .45 Grave, The Gun Club, The Birthday Party

Darkwave: Dead Can Dance, Black Tape for a Blue Girl

Gothabilly: Nekromantix

Goth Metal: Tristania, Type O Negative, Moonspell, Nosferatu

Dark Cabaret: Antony & The Johnsons, Voltaire, Soap&Skin

Lo-Fi Goth: Zola Jesus, The Grave Babies, Blessure Grave, Chelsea Wolfe

Dark Pop: The Birthday Massacre, MS MR

Witchhouse: Salem

You should add The Cruxshadows and The Last Dance to Darkwave. I also recommend adding Synthpop with Depeche Mode, De/Vision and New Order in there as well, since various acts have mentioned them as influences over the years. The argument could be made for Industrial to be added, but I'm impartial if it's there or not.

I'm not sure The Doors could be named Pre-Goth... It's more of psychedelic rock and hippie ...

I think that the Virgin Prunes, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and 13th Chime should be added. Virgin Prunes and the Lorries would most likely fit under the 2nd wave, but I'm not so sure about 13th Chime.

None of those first bands are Goth, though... They were just influential precursors, and The Doors definitely fit the bill in that regard. Psychedelic music/60's culture in general was pretty influential on a lot of 80's music.

13th Floor Elevators, too, I'd say.
and maybe some bands like Coven or Black Widow, too.
I would go as far as to suggest maybe Blue Oyster Cult, even.

Probably a good deal of Krautrock stuff, too.

I wouldn't call Siouxsie, The Cure, etc. "Pre-Goth"... I see them as being retroactively labelled Goth for simply being popular examples of a lot of bands experimenting with the inherently stark, moody "Post-Punk/New Wave" template more than anything.

I don't even think they really considered the music "Goth" themselves. and I think they also developed their more Gothic tendencies at the same time as a lot of musicians in the Alternative/Post-Punk/New Wave era of the late 70's/early 80's. A lot of the bands in the "Proto-Goth" category are really "just" Post-Punk/Alt./New Wave bands experimenting with the new templates set forth by bands Joy Division, New Wave, and early Industrial.

I don't really think Modern English could rightfully be considered a "first wave Goth band" in any sense. Really, they were just a New Wave band, and I think the whole minimal/synth/wave movement was much more broad than what the "Goth" (or even "Darkwave/Coldwave") tag could ever realistically accommodate.

In the end, I think you basically have two "major" categories of music that 80's Goth bands usually fall into: New Wave and Post-Punk. Goth can fall into either, but it's not really a general enough term to apply as liberally as those two terms.

And, for the sake of accuracy, I think it'd make more sense to ditch terms like "1st Wave" unless you make a 1st Wave category for each subtype (Batcave, Deathrock, etc.), because a lot of those bands in these categories are in fact "first wave" acts.

Also, I personally would refer to SOM as "Leeds Goth", which is distinctive for its sound. Sisters of Mercy, The March Violets and Merciful Release (SoM's label) were pretty much their own unique scene the same way ASF/Specimen were with Batcave and CD/45G were with Deathrock.

All that shit aside...

My Bloody Valentine recorded some Goth-influenced stuff in the 80's. They started out as a really bland, 3rd-rate Post-Punk band with overt Gothic influences, and later went on to record some "subversive" and morbid Noise Pop EP's which could probably be called "goth-influenced".