The Music of the Goth Subculture: Postmodernism and Aesthetics

246 Pages·2015·0.71 MB·English

by  Charles Allen Mueller

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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2008
The Music of the Goth Subculture:
Postmodernism and Aesthetics
Charles Allen Mueller
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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF MUSIC
THE MUSIC OF THE GOTH SUBCULTURE:
POSTMODERNISM AND AESTHETICS
By
CHARLES ALLEN MUELLER
A Dissertation submitted to the
College of Music
In partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Awarded:
Summer Semester, 2008
Copyright 2008
Charles Mueller
All Rights Reserved
The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Charles Allen Mueller
defended on June 12, 2008.
__________________________
Charles E. Brewer
Professor Directing Dissertation
__________________________
Barry Faulk
Outside Committee Member
__________________________
Denise Von Glahn
Committee Member
__________________________
Douglass Seaton
Committee Member
The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee
members.
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ACKNOLEDGEMENTS
I would like to extend my most sincere gratitude to the Presser Foundation who funded
my research in Great Britain. I would also like to thank journalist Mick Mercer and the
staff at Rough Trade in London who provided me with important insights into the
development of goth music. All of the past and present goth participants and musicians
who took the time to share with me their passion for music and life experiences also
played a major role in making this dissertation possible, and I cannot thank them enough.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Musicology and Subculture Social Theory 22
Chapter 2 Goth and English Society During the 1980s 69
Chapter 3 Goth and Appropriations of 1970s Glam and Punk 98
Chapter 4 Examining the Gothic Elements of Goth Music: Style and Analysis 111
Chapter 5 Siouxsie and the Banshees and Postmodern Gender Theory 158
Chapter 6 Goth and Postmodernism 218
Concluding Remarks 229
Bibliography 231
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MUSICAL EXAMPLES
2.1 The Cure: “100 Years 77
2.2 Siouxsie and the Banshees: “Candyman 84
a. missing thirds
b. music box melody
c. bridge bass line and accompaniment
4.1 Christian Death: “As Evening Falls”
a. guitar melody 109
b. frantically repeated pitches in narrow range
c. modulation to f major 110
4.2 Bauhaus: “Dark Entries” 124
a. opening riff
b. main riff during verses
c. bridge
4.3 Bauhaus: “Hollow Hills” 126
4.4 “Hollow Hills” vocal melody 127
4.5 The Sisters of Mercy: “Marian”
a. introduction
b. bass line
c. chorus 129
d. vocal melody 130
4.6 Alien Sex Fiend: “Hurricane Fighter Plane” guitar riff 133
5.1 Siouxsie and the Banshees: “Melt”
a. opening guitar theme with rapid tremolo 185
b. melody of the chorus 186
5.2 Siouxise and the Banshees: “Something Blue”
a. sampled marimba ostinato 193
b. melody of the chorus 194
5.3 Christian Death: “Spiritual Cramp 214
5.4 The Sisters of Mercy: “Vision Thing” 215
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6.1 Play Dead: “The Tenant”
a. introduction
b. power chords enter on top of arpeggios
c. main riff for each verse 226
d. interlude 227

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ABSTRACT
Goth was a subculture derived from England’s punk movement, and it served as a
pessimistic cultural and artistic response to The Cold War, and to the social and
economic upheavals in Britain during the 1980s, and as an alternative form of English
nationalism. Musical groups that came to be associated with goth developed a musical
and visual style that was a postmodern pastiche of punk rock, glam rock, and Berlin
cabaret styles. Gothic literature, classic horror movies, and early expressionist films were
also influences on the music.
This dissertation uses the methodology of Dick Hebdige’s theory of subcultures to
demonstrate how bands used gothic signifiers and aesthetics as a way to sharpen and
continue the social commentary of the punk movement. In addition, the artists recognized
the masculine logic of power and control as the root cause of many social problems, and
they embraced seduction and feminine signifiers as subversive devices. Goth bands
purged their music and image of characteristics associated with masculinity, and they
composed songs dealing with gyno-centered traumas, domestic abuse, and everyday
cruelty. The songs typically treated sex as a source of danger rather than pleasure.
Goth was not simply a fanciful label; the music exhibited many characteristics
associated with Gothicism. A preoccupation with mood and ambience, nostalgia, camp
humor, and the mocking of power, were all hallmarks of the genre. In addition, the way
in which goth bands were highly influenced by the aesthetics of film and their
appropriation of a wide variety of signifiers reflect the postmodern social milieu as
described by Jean Baudrillard. Musical artists featured in this study include Bauhaus, The
Cure, Christian Death, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy, and others.
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INTRODUCTION
I did not discover the music of England’s goth subculture until I was twenty years
old, when a friend introduced me to recordings by The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees,
and Gene Loves Jezebel. At the time, I did not realize that these artists were associated
with a distinct British youth movement and were considered part of a genre called “goth”
on that side of the Atlantic. As a musician, I was impressed with how these bands were
able to create strong melancholic moods with a few simple musical gestures. The guitar
parts were not elaborate, but players had striking tone, and I came to admire their use of
texture and color. The song lyrics seemed more sophisticated than what I was accustomed
to in rock music. I still consider Pornography by The Cure to be one of the most moving
albums of popular music produced during the 1980s.
Although I cannot claim to be an insider to the goth subculture, I was active in
Oregon’s heavy metal community from the mid-1980s until 1992. Prior to my discovery
of goth music, I served as a guitarist in three bands who performed and recorded.
Therefore, I have personal experience with subcultures and the production of popular
music. The songs composed by my bandmates and myself were firmly rooted in the mid-
late 1980s, revolving around anti-war sentiments, nuclear annihilation, class inequality,
mass murders, fear of death, and the hypocrisies of the political system. We possessed all
the fears and anxieties that most young people shared during the era—fear that President
Reagan would provoke a war with the Soviets, fear of an uncertain economic future, and
an underlying terror of not being in control of one’s life. Many of these themes can also
be found in the songs of English goth bands, so I was able to appreciate their perspective,
even though their music was much different from the heavy metal songs that I had
written. In fact, one of the best ways that one could come to understand goth would be to
read Robert Walser’s book on heavy metal and then imagine a style of music that was its
antithesis in nearly every respect.1 On the surface it might seem as though goth and heavy
metal would have much in common—they both originated among the white, working
classes in Great Britain, both kinds of bands used gothic symbols in their image (black
attire, occult signs, ghoulish make-up), and the songs of both genres dealt with topics that

1 Robert Walser, Running with the Devil: Power Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (Hanover:
Wesleyan University Press, 1993).
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make most people uneasy, dwelling on difficult emotions and grim aspects of life. When
goth artists were at the start of their careers, unperceptive journalists often compared
them to heavy metal groups. For example, Andy Gill, writing in New Musical Express,
described fans of the iconic goth group Bauhaus as “more closely related to the heavy
metal hordes than they’d like to believe,”2 and stated that Bauhaus were simply a more
hip version of heavy metal progenitors, Black Sabbath. The statement is untrue, and I
will make frequent contrasts between heavy metal and goth throughout this dissertation.
There are many reasons why I, and probably many others in the U.S., did not
come to appreciate the goth genre sooner: The artists received virtually no radio airplay,
their videos were rarely shown on MTV, and Rolling Stone and other American music
publications rarely mentioned them. Musicians’ magazines such as Guitar Player and
Guitar World gave goth artists no coverage whatsoever, possibly because the players did
not value the ability to improvise elaborate solos, which were in vogue in popular music
throughout the 1980s.
I had an unfortunate prejudice against bands who recorded for small independent
record labels, because I was misguided enough to believe that big record companies
would not overlook talented bands. Therefore, I reasoned that the groups who were
worth listening to recorded for major labels and artists on independent labels were
inferior and not worth considering. But British goth bands were not understood by
American distributors who misrepresented the artists’ works in the way in which they
marketed them. For example, when the album Dawnrazor by Fields of the Nephilim, one
of the most admired goth recordings by fans in England, was released in the US, the
album cover and promotional materials featured images of a disposable shaving razor.3
Not many young people in America would have investigated a recording packaged in
such a ridiculous way. The few goth music videos that did manage to receive some
limited airplay on MTV during the late 1980s, such as “Peek-a-boo” by Siouxsie and the
Banshees or “Lullaby” by The Cure, were derived from the artist’s most lighthearted
songs, which were not representative of most of their output. Therefore, goth artists did

2 Andy Gill, “Review of Bauhaus in the Flat Field,” New Music Express, 8 November 1980, 32. Reprinted
in NME Originals: Goth,1/17 (2004), 31.
3 Tony Pettitt, personal interview, 26 October 2006.
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