Where did the term gothic come from?
It was used three significant times by people in the music industry to refer to music. The term ‘Goth’ was used by Ian Astbury who described Andi Sex Gang as a ‘gothic pixie’. Siouxsie Sioux (of the Banshees) used ‘Gothic’ to describe the new direction for her band. Probably the earliest usage, as applied to music though was by Anthony H. Wilson (Joy Division manager) who was overcome by a rare moment of lucidity on a 1979 BBC TV program when he described Joy Division as Gothic compared with the pop mainstream. How ‘Goth’ and ‘Gothic’ came to be used to describe the movement though is a little less clear. What is certain is that NME and Sounds used it, and there seem to be two suggestions as to where they got it from. The first is that they took it directly from Siousxie Sioux and they themselves then used it to describe what we know as goths today. The second (and more probable) is that they took it from Abbo, singer of UK Decay, who said to a journalist: “We’re into the whole Gothic
