What the history of the goth movement?
NME and Sounds reputedly took the term Gothic from Siouxsie Sioux (of the Banshees) who used it to describe the new direction for her band. However the earliest significant usage of the term (as applied to music) was by Anthony H. Wilson who was overcome by a rare moment of lucidity on a 1978 BBC TV program when he described Joy Division as Gothic compared with the pop mainstream. Perhaps Joy Division (who he was managing) are not what we now think of as Goth but it is possible that they are at the source of the term. Bauhaus were labelled as Gothic as early as 1979 when they released Bela Lugosi’s Dead.The pop journalists were quick to latch onto the term and they applied it in a nasty sort of pigeonholing way to a number of bands that were around in the early 80s – most of which did not sound much like the Banshees (or anyone else for that matter), the journalists were more concerned with looks.
NME and Sounds reputedly took the term Gothic from Siouxsie Sioux (of the Banshees) who used it to describe the new direction for her band. However the earliest significant usage of the term (as applied to music) was by Anthony H. Wilson who was overcome by a rare moment of lucidity on a 1978 BBC TV program when he described Joy Division as Gothic compared with the pop mainstream. Perhaps Joy Division (who he was managing) are not what we now think of as Goth but it is possible that they are at the source of the term. Bauhaus were labelled as Gothic as early as 1979 when they released Bela Lugosi’s Dead. The pop journalists were quick to latch onto the term and they applied it in a nasty sort of pigeonholing way to a number of bands that were around in the early 80s – most of which did not sound much like the Banshees (or anyone else for that matter), the journalists were more concerned with looks. The (Southern Death) Cult was foremost amongst these bands, like the Banshees they wore
