Teen Gothic

The other day I thought it would be fun to put together an 80’s playlist equivalent of a cassette mix you would typically find at a mid 80’s U.K. goth house party.

That got me thinking what actually represented it in non-social media age and something more defined by the music press like NME, or listening to John Peel or what your friends thought it was. Sure, it was a definite sub-culture with its own music, look and the fashion was fairly clearly defined even then and fairly much what we have today. However from a music perspective it wasn’t so defined and so many offshoots from it that perhaps would not be considered as Goth. Perhaps, musically it was more just an alternative genre and not defined, just finding its way in a post-punk world.

For example on a cassette mix you would find the Cure, Siouxsie but they were musically lighter than the Sisters of Mercy/Bauhaus. Someone would always pretend they actually went to the Batcave to see Alien Sex Fiend , Sex Gang Children, or they had discovered Christian Death😀, but then you had Depeche Mode, Marc Almond derivates (Soft cell/ Marc and the Mambas), Joy Division/New Order. All more synth based but always on a goth mix somewhere. Add in a bit of German industrial like Einstürzende Neubauten, some weird sh*t like Psychic TV, Jim Thirwell/Foetus, bit of Psychobilly like The Cramps and that was your mix done. All very different styles that I guess you could put under the loose banner of alternative, but maybe not goth today.

Out of interest, how did you see it?