Gothic music, also known as goth rock or simply goth, is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. It is characterized by its darker sound, with the use of primarily minor or bass chords, reverb, dark arrangements, or dramatic and melancholic melodies, having inspirations in gothic literature allied with themes such as sadness, nihilism, dark romanticism, tragedy, melancholy, and morbidity. Gothic rock is an offshoot of post-punk and, according to AllMusic, "took the cold synthesizers and processed guitars of post-punk and used them to construct foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes".
Goth music is derived from punk and post-punk and features dominant bass lines, effects-heavy guitars, baritone or frenetic singing, sometimes with the use of drum machines. The genre itself was defined as a separate movement from post-punk and stood out due to its darker sound. Early gothic rock had introspective or personal lyrics.
According to WhatIsGoth.com, goth music is full of passion, majesty, beauty, mysticism and mystery, terror, violence, pain, love, imagination, eroticism, horror, euphoria, truth, evil, life, madness, and the irrational. It is a mood that is somber, earnest, and haunting, much like the mood evoked by its earliest inspirations - old horror movies and gothic literature.
In summary, gothic music is a subgenre of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the late 1970s. It is characterized by its darker sound, with the use of primarily minor or bass chords, reverb, dark arrangements, or dramatic and melancholic melodies. Gothic music is derived from punk and post-punk and features dominant bass lines, effects-heavy guitars, baritone or frenetic singing, sometimes with the use of drum machines.
