A Young Person's Guide to Rock Styles

[Zzzptm]

GOTH: Perhaps, an illustration of Goth is best...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hpEEKqdCDU

Instrumentation is stripped back, as in punk, but the band is serious about what they're doing, so they build something... on the order of musical landscapes. Guitars often have a shrill or bass drone peppered with minimal notation, drums and bass can alternate between moderate and racing speeds, vocals tend to have an affected delivery to enhance the mood of the piece, with lyrics typically composed around disconcerting or sweeping topics. The intent is not to disrupt, but to... disturb.

As for the makeup thing, blame The Damned's singer... he was obsessed with looking like a dapper Edwardian vampire... and although Captain Sensible starts off saying they're a punk band, that's pretty much more proof that they're a goth band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaYayknwQ0A

Just about every goth band denies being a goth band. Just like Mr. Eldritch does, even though The Sisters of Mercy were considered to be a definitive goth band...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RVJyNpfDk

FUN FACT: The bass player for TSOM, the quite striking lady with very teased-out black hair, later became the bassist for The Damned, then the wife of The Damned's singer. Told you he was into that kind of "look".

But, yes, goth... I really have a soft spot for this style. Not so much emotion or tension that it's emo or worse, but neither does it suffer from the excesses of prog rock, owing to the tight instrumentation that typically goes with the tracks.