Quote:
Originally Posted by Cothurnatus
I'm not sure The Doors could be named Pre-Goth... It's more of psychedelic rock and hippie ...
|
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".