by Heather Mccallum

Created on: December 18, 2011

Punk Rock is known for putting out bands like The Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys and The Dead Milkmen. The songs are usually short, the lyrics crass and sometimes comical.

The Sex Pistols lyrics, for the most part, were anti-monarchical and anti-government. Their goal was to bring to light the ridiculousness of the pomp and circumstance and waste that went on in the British Government as heard in “

God Save the Queen”. Most of the Lyrics by The Dead Milkmen were short and poked fun at the average Joe as can be seen in “Bitchin' Camaro”.

A band that is highly overlooked in the Punk scene is The Cure. That’s right, The Cure. They started out as a punk band and successfully evolved into the Goth scene while other punk bands faded away. Another Punk band that was able to evolve was The Damned. While the loss of Sid Vicious was great Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) formed a band PiL and they have continued on. All are well known for their work in the Goth music scene as well as Punk.

Goth has had the unfortunate stigma of having white faced kids, dressed in all black and walking around with suicidal thoughts as the majority following. While it is true that a lot of the dress is mostly lace and velvet, both for the bands as well as the fans; it is not the case for the other half. There is an off shoot of people called “Social Goth”. It is a term used by those who can walk into any supermarket and still have little old ladies smile at them. In other words, they are Socially Acceptable in public.

Goth is an umbrella term for many different complex sounds. Punk is punk, which is not the case with Goth. Gothic Music can be very old school with heavy guitars and very little synthesizer like Bauhaus or Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry; or it can be heavy with Synthesizers and danceable like Delerium, Ikon or Spahn Ranch. The dance clubs love to spin groups like Rosetta Stone, Suspiria and Ministry because of their dance heavy beats.

Goth is still evolving into what is called EBM. Groups like Namnambulu, Colony 5 or De/Vision. The lyrics are dark, usually about love lost or betrayal. There are some bright spots on the EBM trail; Seabound, Pride and Fall, Michigan and VNV Nation are just a small sampling.

Industrial is a branch off of Goth and often overlooked or put into a Rock Genre. In my humble opinion, Industrial music is a wonderful mixture of Goth and Punk with a nice pinch of Rock. Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM are well known bands; however groups like Einsterzende Neubauten and Skinny Puppy started the genre and ran with it.

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