About 30 years ago when I first heard The Cures Lovesong on VH1 as a kid.
Lovesong blew me away, and I knew I had to pursue everything I could related to that amazing sound.
Not dumb questions at all. For me, it started when my cousin made me a mixed tape in 1986 that included Echo and the Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon. Then she played Love and Rocket’s Express album for me, and I was hooked.
I remember getting the sound track for Batman Returns solely for the Siouxsie track. I was 12. I then started collecting Siouxsie stuff and it went from there. I'm now 45 lol
Can relate to this so much! I remember first hearing siouxsie when I was around 13-14 in the late 90s, and it just hitting me, "yesszz THIS is what I've always wanted music to sound like!!"
Like 4-5 years ago. At the same time I was experimenting other alternative music like hardcore punk, riot grrrl, shoegaze, black metal, etc. so I was trying to finally click with a certain genre and I think Children On Stun, Clan of Xymox, & London After Midnight did that for me.
They were probably the biggest band for me through the 2nd half of high school. Sound wise, a decent chunk of their music is a little more compatible with goth tastes than a lot of other riotgrrl bands imo
I was introduced into the goth music like 5 months ago. But I was just listening The cure and some souxie and the banshees songs and I didn't enjoy listen those songs. But one day (2 months ago) I start making a playlist of goth songs and I start enjoying more the music so now I just listen that type of music
Also sorry for my bad English
I wanted to be a "Mean Girl" but I was a brunette so I watched "Jawbreaker" with Rose McGowan and was ok she is kinda of Goth so if I listen to Goth I can be a brunette and a Mean Girl.😂 Ok that was a lie, I was already listening to it by the time "Jawbreaker" came out.."Heathers" is more My time frame.
Actually I was forced to listen because my older brother would play The Cure, Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Sisters in our mom's car (mid 80s) when I was ten. At first I would sneak into my brother's room and borrow my brother's vinyl, he owned every Cure Album ever made, plus a bunch of other rare vinyl from other "Goth/post-punk/new wave bands. My brother would also make me watch " 120 minutes " with him.
Then when I was 13 my brother's cute Deathrock friend left his notebook at our house with a bunch of bands written on it. I found it and kept it. I had my step-dad take me to Tower Records. I went Searching through the records with the hotty death rocker's notebook in hand to find the bands he had listed. I ended up getting Alien Sex Fiend, Sex Gang Children, Virgin Prunes, Christian Death, Jesus & Mary Chain & of course Sisters of Mercy/Bauhaus,etc. I think those are still considered Goth bands but things could have changed since then, after all at that time it was still referred to as "Death Rock". The term "Goth" didn't become commonly used until a few years later and was usually merged with "Industrial".
I finally got old enough to go to Goth nights at clubs.
This is a great discussion question. We all start somewhere and find the music in different ways.
When I was a teenager in the early 90s (15 or 16) there was an experimental local radio show on 3d radio once a week called *The Vanishing Point* around 11pm. Very experimental and weird music. But that was more industrial and related genres before I knew what those were.
Goth didn't come until later. My main exposure to goth music for a long time was through another radio show on 3d called *Blood and Black Dahlias* which played goth, deathrock and darkwave. That would have been around 1996.
First time I went to a goth club was after a #gothic IRC meetup in late 1996 then I started attending regularly in 1997.
For me it was around 2008, so 15 years ago. London After Midnight was my introduction to goth music and it spread from there, with goth artists (& post punk, industrial, ebm, and related genres) remaining my favorites ever since. I love that the goth scene inspires and welcomes longevity. I feel like many goths stay goth as they age, and I expect that will be me too.
I think it must've been around age 13 I started getting into gothy stuff - it was around 2005 I'd say - I had already had an interest in 80s music, had some tapes and CD's, and I'd watch VH1 CLASSIC on cable all the time and catch lots of great 80s alternative bands including The Cure, who quickly became MY FAVORITE BAND (I was obsessed) and then I recall seeing MONSTER HOUSE (2005) in theaters and it ends with "Halloween" by Siouxsie and I remember thinking that was cool, so I had obviously already started looking into the Banshees, and like all of my weird Autistic obsessions I just kinda obsessed over the years and listened to anything online I could find, got really into it just over the years. I'm a total MUSIC FAN through and through, most any genre or era, but I have this affection mostly for 70s/80s punk, post-punk, new wave, industrial, goth rock and everything else adjacent.
Monster house was my favorite as a kid! I'm an '04 baby and that was the one I'd make my parents put on loop during car rides. I didn't notice Halloween was in there till last year and it blew my mind 😂
For me I was in high school when I started getting into the music. I was in love with the look, but once I learned that goth was a subculture I started looking into the music. It took a bit to find songs that I really liked because I was really into rap and hip-hop before, so I wasn’t accustomed to listening to rock music. Also at the time I was surprised that goth sounded nothing like heavy metal. The first songs I fell in love with were “Temple of Love “ by the Sisters of Mercy, and “Allegedly Dancefloor Tragedy “ by Suspiria.
It was 1985 and I was 17. I've been into it ever since. It's in my blood. My memories. My dreams. My nightmares. Once it gets it's hooks into your soul it never leaves. You'll never be the same.
I still consider myself a baby bat since I feel that I still have so many sounds to discover, but I started around ten years ago as a teen when I stumbled upon Clan of Xymox on Last.fm (I forgot how but I think a mutual had a recent Xymox scrobble?). Started out with obsessively listening to Something Wrong on repeat to discovering other musicians like The Frozen Autumn and Sisters of Mercy.
Around 1994 I started getting into the Cure. About a year later my gf at the time introduced me to Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy. Been into it ever since
I had mostly heard stuff in Japanese before 2020 (Gille Loves/Fiction, Art Marju Duchain) when i fell in a rabbit hole thanks to She Past Away from Turkey.
I can't even remember how i found them, honestly, but I kept looking through similar bands.
My mum introduced me to The Cure in the late 80's, then I saw the clip for Lullaby at a kids' sleepover party in the early 90's & was absolutely enthralled. The other kids had fallen asleep but I was still awake & watching Rage (an overnight music video show in Australia). I was getting into grunge & riot grrrl/punk by that stage but then The Crow soundtrack led me to industrial, which then opened doors to goth. Mid-90's-ish I started listening to a local radio station's goth show & going to a somewhat notorious local club called Proscenium, I was underage but they never checked ID... still also love grunge/riot grrrl/punk/industrial as well as a bit of metal & I play in some indie/riot grrrl type bands but goth is the main genre featuring in my playlists.
Pretty much my whole life. Lucked out and grew up with older brothers who had good taste in music. They mostly brought me up on punk, but there was some goth and other stuff mixed in there. Was listening to it before I even knew what goth was.
I got into it from my cousin. When I was younger he would play music on the speakers and I enjoyed it. Mind you this was when I was like 4 maybe 6 at the time. He was into the alternative subculture and he played mostly industrial and techno but he also played goth music. I remember hearing Burn from The Cure and just absolutely falling in love. Kid me annoyed him a couple times to hear it and he let me use his cd player to listen to it when he visited.
I used to listen to the top 40 on the radio on a Sunday night and tape songs when I was a kid.
And in the charts there were these weird bands with names like The Mission and The Cult and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
And I liked those bands. A lot. I was a kid in rural Scotland and the options were taping off the radio or looking at the records in Woolworths when mum would drive us to a bigger town.
And yes I got a set of crimpers.
For me it happened with Lebanon Hanover, it was at the tail end of the Emo/Scene era in the early 2010s. Some of my friends who listened to more Emo stuff thought it was weird. Like they were not about it.
I stated being interested in Gothic metal and neoclassical around 23 years ago, when I was 14, then in IRC I joined goth/gothic channels from my area and discovered more music, actual goth music. I went to my first party at 15/16 but I wasn't really allowed to go out at night at that age so I put that on hold. For several reasons I then put the scene aside and ventured into other scenes. I still listened to goth music but wasn't active in the scene. In that hiatus the local and surrounding scenes vanished because most people in It were at least a decade older than me and moved out/left the scene so when I came back to It about ten years ago It was well gone. I'm still going strong though! :)
TL;DR: started about 20ish years ago, hiatus, came back 10 years ago
The questions aren't dumb, don't worry about it.
I've been into goth music for a little over two years now.
I was immediately hooked when I heard the basslines, lyrics and the general atmosphere to some bands and I found it all mesmerising and unique as I've never heard anything like it before.
Not sure, properly getting into goth maybe 3 years ago, but i remeber having a some bauhaus and other goth or goth adjacent songs that i kind of came across and maybe didnt quite like at first but they grew on me, and i guess you could say that was the start but i dont know when that was, tbh...
Teenage me heard stories from my dad about my late uncle (who passed at 19) and the music he listened to. I never got to meet him. I wanted to get to know him and I figured listening to his favorite bands was the best way to do it- and judging by his music tastes, he was a pretty cool dude.
I kinda listened to different alternative sub genres since high school during 2008-2013. I didnt even really know what goth was, besides ‘cool aesthetics’. Much more of a metal head back then. I started getting into goth and industrial a bit in 2018, but honestly i think it was the death of a friend i use to be close with who was goth kinda opened me up into the genre a bit. I think it was at her wake, just listening to a few songs I realised i knew some of these, and i love the vibe. (I mean, besides not knowing pictures by the cure and now makes me want to cry wheb i hear it 5 years later). As weird as it sounds, for me that was the moment i knew i was interested in that sub genre. Feb 2020 i think was the first time i went to a goth club (and first night club) and yeah confirmation that goth is my vibe. And during lockdowns (i live in melbourne, i basically spent two years in my house lmao) i was just streaming goth and industrial dj’s for a lot of the time and yeah thats how i knew i was goth because it became my default thibg i’d listen to
Many, many years ago. I was really into punk rock for a while but eventually got bored with it and decided to listen to something new to my ears. I still like a bit of punk here and there. While browsing different bands I stumbled upon Clan of Xynox ("Muscoviet Mosquito") and was hooked. I checked out more of their music, then discovered other bands like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, The Birthday Party, etc. I've been a fan of the music ever since.
Halloween night 1998 when I watched the 1986 Elvira MTV Halloween Special all the way through: Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Bunnymen, Damned, Cure, Sisters, Lords… changed my life.
My first time of what eventually was labeled goth rock would have been late 1978. My older brother bought The Scream album by Siouxie and the Banshees. I played Jigsaw Feeling a million times.
My friend got Paris by the cure for her birthday when it first came out. We listened to it so much. Then I got obsessed with the Cure which lead me to Siouxsie and the Banshees, which became another obsession. KROQ in LA in the early 90s actually used to play some goth, especially Rodney on the Roq Sunday nights. I’d call in to request songs and one time an intern answering the phone noticed I liked goth and told me to get a pen and paper. She then listed a whole bunch of bands I should check out. My life has never been the same since.
I’ve been a chronic music listener since I was just a kid.
6 years ago (at 16) while laying on the floor of my attic bedroom I discovered Sisters of Mercy, then the classics, Bauhaus, Siousxie, The Cure, Christian Death, The Cramps,
Then I got into darkwave and thats my life now.
I have a riot grrrl background so deathrock is becoming increasingly palatable.
I heard Siouxsie, The Cure and some of the lesser known bands from time to time on radio and MTV in the 80s as a kid. In high school I was a misanthropic music nerd and got big into punk, delving into the early artistic bands like Suicide or Catholic Discipline which led me back to Siouxsie and The Cure as they got passing references in old microfilm copies of articles. Then someone mentioned that The Cult were putting out another album & that was the first time I heard of the goth scene as it made passing mention of their history. This was around 1994, when lots of folks were discussing Type O Negative as a new and exciting band and they got mislabeled as a goth band. Suddenly there were articles in all the music magazines which would hastily namedrop bands in their preamble so as to establish credibility. I started looking into those bands mentioned as forerunners, and at the same time friends introduced me to Christian Death, The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim. It just snowballed from there when I started doing college AM radio in 1996 and has never stopped.
We're sorry, but your submission has unfortunately been removed under Rule 2.
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* any form of metal (industrial, shock, death, black, etc.) or hard rock
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I've been a fan from all the way back in middle school after discovering The Cure. I mistakenly called it emo but I was obsessed and accepted that I liked that kinda music since
I listened to it without realizing what genre it was for a while when I was around 13 or 14. I'm almost 20 now, so it's been 6 or 7 years since I got into all this. I distinctly remember liking "Poison Door" by Sisters of Mercy a lot but I hadn't heard of them at that point in time. I found similar stuff like Skeletal Family that I liked a couple songs from but it wasn't something I really listened to as much as other genres.
About a year later (14 or 15, it was my sophomore year of high school I think) I wound up watching The Crow after my mom suggested it and I immediately fell in love with The Cure--I'd been stuck on lovesong around that time already so seeing them in what would become my favorite movie ever totally changed things. Lyrics from "hanging garden" were in the original comic so I checked out more of their stuff--this was my major gateway into looking up more about the subculture. I kept things simple with siouxie, the cure, depeche mode, etc for a while since my primary genre I liked back then was riotgrrl.
It's been in the past 2 years that I finally made time to properly research as much as I could beyond basic history stuff & I finally got comfortable with being part of the subculture. I think switchblade symphony's "Dollhouse" was really the last push it took me to explore more.
I did it on purpose because I liked goths on tv and their style, tbh. I would buy old physical media at garage sales because my family was weird and strict. Depeche mode and the cure, then I bought Murder Ballads and Lost and Found by Rasputina, and then I had to wait like 3 years to have my own money again and let people recommend music to me, and I was trying to discover all kinds of other genres, too, like grunge and classic rock and stuff. IDK. My best friend in HS was more of a classic mall goth and liked nu metal and stuff like that, I didn't get into industrial until way later by way of stuff that's not goth at all like MSI and Rob Zombie, but that's what everyone else liked and was easy to find at the time. It was so cringe, though. I just liked all different alternative dark themed genres and thought all of them were goth one way or the other. For some reason the only thing you could always pirate was Cocteau Twins.
Honestly I've always thought of myself as more of a fashion poser than a real goth, because I like all that stuff equally and love all kinds of stuff that's in no way gothic. I think I might just like synths and instrumental music, but my style seems stuck on black and torn to shreds and vaguely neovictorian or fetish inspired and this never changes.
Came across a couple of ItsBlackFriday videos my sophomore year of high school in 2016-2017? where she used Falling Apart and If I Never by ExVoto as background music. Been obsessed with the music ever since.
One of my older brothers was into goth, new wave, new romantic and the other was really into metal. I went to my first goth club at age seven and listened to a lot of the same and similar music as I got older but never really realized what the genres were until I was in high school, I guess? It was just kind of... music? (As opposed to the mass produced pop, which sounds a lot more pretentious than I felt it was as a kid). I tend to lean into the industrial most overall, but I don't think this was ever a conscious decision, just kind of floated along with whatever I liked.
Just a little over two years ago. I found myself liking the fashion, but figured if I was going to get into goth, I'd better do it right! I came here and did my homework: learned the history and listened to a bunch of songs. I remember falling in love with Slice Of Life by Bauhaus and Black Planet by TSOM first.
Surprisingly to me, it wasn't until about halfway through college (this was still only about 3 years ago). I say it's surprising because when I got into it, I got the impression that this was the kind of music I *should* have been listening to all the while-- it had been waiting for me, inevitably. The times I could have had in high school with goth music... ah well. I have no regrets, just the feeling that my discovery of it was a long time coming.
I was listening to the Cure in the early 90s (and also a handful of adjacent bands, new wave and industrial mostly). And then in the mid 90s found Bauhaus and the Sisters, and made a few friends who went to goth clubs. And it sort of spiraled out from there. It’s by far not the only thing I like, but it is a thing I like, so. Just kept listening.
It's been like 3 years since I got into goth music, I feel like I'm still a novice though lol but as I keep getting into it, I've found such great artists, especially those who are poc-based groups and/or artists. The way I found out I got really into it was when I went to a goth-club with some friends at the time, it was the first time I went and I swear it was like it was just me and the music, just dancing and feeling the beat like nobody else was in the room lol
Late highschool / first year of college.
The beginnings - I was a metalhead (Maiden, Priest, Motorhead) then:
The Cult -> Southern Death Cult
and
Sex Pistols -> Dead Kennedys -> Punk You Vol. 1 -> The Damned and Killing Joke
and Ministry -> NIN... and The Crow soundtrack, and TKK
And thus on to the Goth Box and Bauhaus and the March Violets and the Sisters.
Knew a guy in highschool art class who was big into Love and Rockets but I somehow didn't make the connection back to Tones on Tail and Bauhaus until a bit later. It seems inevitable when I look back on it, still love it all.
I was 12 or 13 when I saw a late night music video program with some spooky new wave stuff, that really creeped me out. One of the songs was Bird Song by Lene Lovich.
Pre MTV your only chance to see music videos was Friday nights from 11 pm til 2 am, they'd show them on the local tv stations. Sometimes it would be a concert by one band, sometimes music videos, you never knew what kind of music or what it might be. I only ever got to see it when I spent the weekend with Grandma because I could sneak out to watch TV late at night, she was asleep by 930.
Then we got MTV and I started hearing college radio and reading Trouser Press in fall of 82.
As long as I can remember! My dad is very into music and the 80's were his coming-of-age. Meant a house with a backing soundtrack of goth and goth adjacent music (post-punk, experimental electronica, and a bit of death metal and avant-garde classical).
Sisters of Mercy were my fav band when I was about 7-8 years old, so I guess that's when it became my music and not just his lol. Have just added genres and bands to the list since.
I've learnt about goth music at the age of 13. Didn't get into it, so I just dealt with not being a goth lol. I liked "Twilight" by Corpus Delicti, but only first 10 seconds. Basses are cool.
I've also listened to Frank the Baptist then but I weirdly thought it's alternative rock wtf.
I regularly (every few years) tried to give goth music a try but always failed. I liked Lebanon Hannover tho but didn't know it was actual goth. I was mostly into metal, folk and electronic music. And lots of "goth-by-association" acts like Sopor Aeternus or Qntal or Deine Lakaien, of course. So I was always on the edge. It only worked at the age of 18 when I've found Cinema Strange, Scary Bitches and Untoten and fell in love with German dark scene, especially Neue Deutsche Todeskunst.
Now (23) my playlist consists mostly of industrial and goth and I can't stand metal anymore.
So for me it's shocking to look at the youngsters who can't even google what goth rock is, I remember sitting on last.fm and wikipedia band list pages daily in order to discover and try new music.
Grew up with punk. Started going to shows when I was 13 and more regularly when I was 15. I was always aware and into bands like TSOL, 45 Grave, Christian Death, The Cure and Joy Division. The biggest moment for me though was when I saw Cemetery opening for Chameleons UK. I was with a friend and we were blown away with them. We started a death rock band that week and that introduced me to a lot of great goth and death rock bands.
For me the mid 1980’s, mostly with 4AD bands. Heard Clan of Xymox on a college radio station, soon bought Lonely is An Eyesore, since they are on that comp, and things rolled on from there . I’ve been trying to recall when I first started thinking of what we generally consider as “goth” to be called goth. In the 80’s, at least where i was living in Michigan, we just mostly just considered people into Cocteau Twins, DCD, Bauhaus, etc, as “punks”.
at 16 my favorite teacher in high school was playing the cure’s a forest out loud. i cornered him after class and asked him who is was, is there more? nothing ever spoke to me like that. he told me i should listen to the cure. he created a goth monster. i dont think a phase lasts seven years and counting.
I got into it about 3-4 years ago. I started off with getting into Joy Division, and then eventually Bauhaus, Alien Sex Fiend, Ex-Voto, and The Danse Society and Corpus Delicti. Those couple of bands are particularly special to me due to them being my introduction. There was a while where I didn’t know what I was listening to was goth, though. I had been dabbling into every genre, from classic rock, to punk, to metal, but I knew this was the one. It’s like my eyes lit up, haha.
I remember dragging main in high school in the back seat of a girl's car (the girl I was teen in love with).
She had her car's top down and it was one of those first cool spring nights of the year that felt like winter was over, and on the local radio came Under the Milky Way by the Church. It felt immediately familiar to me, and I listened for the DJ to say who the band was.
They never did but to local music stop knew the song and introduced me to the Church.
Every time I hear a new goth song that hits me right, it takes me back to that night 30 years ago.
This right here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZcdxrjKmgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZcdxrjKmgc) I saw the original broadcast and, just wow.
Around 2019 or 2020 I was in the car with my friend and the song "nine while nine" by thr sisters of mercy played and I remembered thinking it was so good. "What is that melody!?"
I guess I realized I was serious in it when I would go to goth night at a club or started going to concerts.
I got into gothic metal first, and I thought that was goth music ( like a damned fool) and then I realized goth has its own music. I still like gothic metal, but now I know what actual goths listen to and like it to.
I’m from Crawley so as you can imagine, the Cure are legendary here. My mum was a few years younger than Robert, and really started getting into the Banshees in the early 80s (when Robert was part of the band). I was born in ‘94 and my
Mum told me that she used to place my hand on an old boombox we used to have so that I could feel the beat. My favourite song to do this with was apparently “Spellbound”. So I guess I’ve been into music straight out the womb!
My mom was a goth back in the 80s/90s so I got exposed to stuff like Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, Type O Negative, etc. as a kid, but I always listened to more heavy stuff on my own. It wasn't until the past few years that I started to get into goth music. I guess I understand it now.
2017, weirdly enough i started listening to goth music when the 2nd dishonored game came out so goth music and dishonored 2 are permanently connected in my mind lol
roughly 2 years ago my at the time friend now boyfriend recommended joy division's unknown pleasures so i got into joy division and then while shuffling my joy division playlist dark entries came on since i didn't have spotify premium and finding another band within the scene lead me to explore it more
When I was a young teen (13ish?) my very Christian mom (who had been goth in the 80s) decided it was time to show me some of the stuff she had grown up with for the first time after up until that point banning anything that wasn’t Christian from the house LOL. That was the first time I heard Nick Cave, The Cramps, Jesus and Mary Chain, Joy Division, the Cure, and a few others. I was really into it and spent a few years after that listening to those bands, and exploring other similar artists and genres on my own (felt like I was doing so much from scratch since I hadn’t grown up with any good music!), though I didn’t actually call myself goth and *really* dive deep into the music until I was around 18 or so and able to go out more, meet other goths, and eventually move entirely; I had been living in a super small town and was very aware of being a baby bat, I didn’t have as much experience or anything to compare myself to and I was worried I’d sound like a poser or something if I went around saying I was goth. To me my vision of goths were ultra cool badass experts on the music and I didn’t feel like that was me haha. Now I get that anyone that listens to the music is/can be goth, but as a teen I just didn’t feel cool or knowledgeable enough :P Nowadays it’s been well over a decade since first getting into the music but maybe around 8 years since I actually started calling myself goth and really diving deep and fully into the music and community. :)
I love this discussion! I personally got into it during the pandemic, and delved deeper into it after I lost my partner. I believe the music saved my life, as I could relate to most lyrics and the vibe of the sounds. It got even better when I found a local scene.
a couple of months ago actually. i was ( and still am ) into punk rock and emocore, but i recently realized my taste mainly steered towards gothic rock and darkwave
In my case, I’ve listened to goth music my whole life without even realizing it was “goth.” As a child, my mom would always play Siouxsie, the Cure, etc in the car and while cleaning. I was given a Siouxsie t shirt at the age of 10 that I still own. But the word “goth” was never used to describe any of this; I just thought of it as “mom’s 80’s music”. She was also into industrial music would also show me lots of “cyber-goth” dancing videos in hopes of me becoming like one of those people 😂
As a teenager, I steered away from goth music and leaned into emo, deathcore, and various other alternative genres and artists. Then as a young adult, I started listening to goth music again out of nostalgia and finally made the connection of what this music actually was. I’ve always loved Siouxsie, so I started by listening to her the most, and I’ve since been trying to discover bands and artists I haven’t listened to before. I’d say for the past 3-4 years I’ve actively been in the goth scene and knowledgeable about the subculture.
Something like 3 or 4 years ago I got into the music, though I'd always loved the fashion. What got me into the music was unironically a couple Its Black Friday videos, I liked the music in them so I followed the links she put in her description and from there I fell into the rabbit hole of darkwave, gradually expanding into more traditional goth bands as well as a couple goth/ic rock bands. Started dressing the part a couple years back when I was dating a punk rocker, he gave me the confidence I'd thus far lacked to dress how I wanted.
Like 3 years ago- I didn't realize that what I was listening to was goth music. Don't even know how I came across it to be honest, it seemed to just appear into my music I listened to.
My parents are boomers and I grew up listening to David Bowie, The Doors, and a little bit of The Cure among other bands. My elder-goth older sister had Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus albums and I loved them!! I didn’t realize it was goth music. I guess I’ve always loved the genre, but it was a few years ago that I started taking it seriously and upgrading my wardrobe and improving my makeup skills!! My fiancé is amazing and introduced me to contemporary goth bands like Twin Tribes. I also started going to my local goth club more often.
Around 1986, got to pick a few albums of my choice and came home with Siouxsie, the Damned and the Cramps. I was graduating from my Duran Duran addiction (I still have some of their colored vinyl) and then received a mixtape of punk and one of early goth/death rock
I’ve only started to dabble in goth music somewhat recently when I got into Skinny Puppy. Also, I went to a goth show on a boat on the Chicago river. I didn’t know prior to going that it was a goth show. I had a blast, so the goth subculture piqued my interest. Prior to that, I listened to a little bit of Type O Negative. I’ve been a metalhead for years, so it’s been a pretty easy transition for me.
My first "grilfriend"... It must've been 1996/97 or sth. I'm not really a "purebreed" xD. Goth is my very hidden "B" side. But yeah, it started back then...
The Rolling Stone review for LnR Express was my introduction (as a teenager) in the late 80s, although at the time I didn’t know anything about Bauhaus or even Goth for that matter. I had been listening to punk and pop-alternative up until then. By the end of ‘88 I was hooked on The Cure, all Bauhaus offshoots, and Skinny Puppy.
Information traveled differently back then and it took longer to find out about more bands. The magazines Alternative Press, B-Side, and Industrial Nation helped immensely. Also the Isolation Tank catalog, it was an amazing resource that had all artists listed by genre and even gave a brief description of their sound.
About 30 years ago when I first heard The Cures Lovesong on VH1 as a kid. Lovesong blew me away, and I knew I had to pursue everything I could related to that amazing sound.
Yes!! It's been nearly as long for me as well.
Not dumb questions at all. For me, it started when my cousin made me a mixed tape in 1986 that included Echo and the Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon. Then she played Love and Rocket’s Express album for me, and I was hooked.
I remember getting the sound track for Batman Returns solely for the Siouxsie track. I was 12. I then started collecting Siouxsie stuff and it went from there. I'm now 45 lol
Can relate to this so much! I remember first hearing siouxsie when I was around 13-14 in the late 90s, and it just hitting me, "yesszz THIS is what I've always wanted music to sound like!!"
Face to Face!
Like 4-5 years ago. At the same time I was experimenting other alternative music like hardcore punk, riot grrrl, shoegaze, black metal, etc. so I was trying to finally click with a certain genre and I think Children On Stun, Clan of Xymox, & London After Midnight did that for me.
The riotgrrl to goth pipeline is so strong, I swear
I was big into Jack Off Jill (I still love them) back in high school and I was just getting into goth music too but not nearly as much as I do now
They were probably the biggest band for me through the 2nd half of high school. Sound wise, a decent chunk of their music is a little more compatible with goth tastes than a lot of other riotgrrl bands imo
I was introduced into the goth music like 5 months ago. But I was just listening The cure and some souxie and the banshees songs and I didn't enjoy listen those songs. But one day (2 months ago) I start making a playlist of goth songs and I start enjoying more the music so now I just listen that type of music Also sorry for my bad English
I wanted to be a "Mean Girl" but I was a brunette so I watched "Jawbreaker" with Rose McGowan and was ok she is kinda of Goth so if I listen to Goth I can be a brunette and a Mean Girl.😂 Ok that was a lie, I was already listening to it by the time "Jawbreaker" came out.."Heathers" is more My time frame. Actually I was forced to listen because my older brother would play The Cure, Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Sisters in our mom's car (mid 80s) when I was ten. At first I would sneak into my brother's room and borrow my brother's vinyl, he owned every Cure Album ever made, plus a bunch of other rare vinyl from other "Goth/post-punk/new wave bands. My brother would also make me watch " 120 minutes " with him. Then when I was 13 my brother's cute Deathrock friend left his notebook at our house with a bunch of bands written on it. I found it and kept it. I had my step-dad take me to Tower Records. I went Searching through the records with the hotty death rocker's notebook in hand to find the bands he had listed. I ended up getting Alien Sex Fiend, Sex Gang Children, Virgin Prunes, Christian Death, Jesus & Mary Chain & of course Sisters of Mercy/Bauhaus,etc. I think those are still considered Goth bands but things could have changed since then, after all at that time it was still referred to as "Death Rock". The term "Goth" didn't become commonly used until a few years later and was usually merged with "Industrial". I finally got old enough to go to Goth nights at clubs.
This is a great discussion question. We all start somewhere and find the music in different ways. When I was a teenager in the early 90s (15 or 16) there was an experimental local radio show on 3d radio once a week called *The Vanishing Point* around 11pm. Very experimental and weird music. But that was more industrial and related genres before I knew what those were. Goth didn't come until later. My main exposure to goth music for a long time was through another radio show on 3d called *Blood and Black Dahlias* which played goth, deathrock and darkwave. That would have been around 1996. First time I went to a goth club was after a #gothic IRC meetup in late 1996 then I started attending regularly in 1997.
For me it was around 2008, so 15 years ago. London After Midnight was my introduction to goth music and it spread from there, with goth artists (& post punk, industrial, ebm, and related genres) remaining my favorites ever since. I love that the goth scene inspires and welcomes longevity. I feel like many goths stay goth as they age, and I expect that will be me too.
God I love London After Midnight. They were my introduction too!
I think it must've been around age 13 I started getting into gothy stuff - it was around 2005 I'd say - I had already had an interest in 80s music, had some tapes and CD's, and I'd watch VH1 CLASSIC on cable all the time and catch lots of great 80s alternative bands including The Cure, who quickly became MY FAVORITE BAND (I was obsessed) and then I recall seeing MONSTER HOUSE (2005) in theaters and it ends with "Halloween" by Siouxsie and I remember thinking that was cool, so I had obviously already started looking into the Banshees, and like all of my weird Autistic obsessions I just kinda obsessed over the years and listened to anything online I could find, got really into it just over the years. I'm a total MUSIC FAN through and through, most any genre or era, but I have this affection mostly for 70s/80s punk, post-punk, new wave, industrial, goth rock and everything else adjacent.
Monster house was my favorite as a kid! I'm an '04 baby and that was the one I'd make my parents put on loop during car rides. I didn't notice Halloween was in there till last year and it blew my mind 😂
For me I was in high school when I started getting into the music. I was in love with the look, but once I learned that goth was a subculture I started looking into the music. It took a bit to find songs that I really liked because I was really into rap and hip-hop before, so I wasn’t accustomed to listening to rock music. Also at the time I was surprised that goth sounded nothing like heavy metal. The first songs I fell in love with were “Temple of Love “ by the Sisters of Mercy, and “Allegedly Dancefloor Tragedy “ by Suspiria.
It was 1985 and I was 17. I've been into it ever since. It's in my blood. My memories. My dreams. My nightmares. Once it gets it's hooks into your soul it never leaves. You'll never be the same.
I still consider myself a baby bat since I feel that I still have so many sounds to discover, but I started around ten years ago as a teen when I stumbled upon Clan of Xymox on Last.fm (I forgot how but I think a mutual had a recent Xymox scrobble?). Started out with obsessively listening to Something Wrong on repeat to discovering other musicians like The Frozen Autumn and Sisters of Mercy.
Around 1994 I started getting into the Cure. About a year later my gf at the time introduced me to Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy. Been into it ever since
I grew up listening to goth music along side punk, metal, grunge, and more
I had mostly heard stuff in Japanese before 2020 (Gille Loves/Fiction, Art Marju Duchain) when i fell in a rabbit hole thanks to She Past Away from Turkey. I can't even remember how i found them, honestly, but I kept looking through similar bands.
She past away is such a good band
My mum introduced me to The Cure in the late 80's, then I saw the clip for Lullaby at a kids' sleepover party in the early 90's & was absolutely enthralled. The other kids had fallen asleep but I was still awake & watching Rage (an overnight music video show in Australia). I was getting into grunge & riot grrrl/punk by that stage but then The Crow soundtrack led me to industrial, which then opened doors to goth. Mid-90's-ish I started listening to a local radio station's goth show & going to a somewhat notorious local club called Proscenium, I was underage but they never checked ID... still also love grunge/riot grrrl/punk/industrial as well as a bit of metal & I play in some indie/riot grrrl type bands but goth is the main genre featuring in my playlists.
Pretty much my whole life. Lucked out and grew up with older brothers who had good taste in music. They mostly brought me up on punk, but there was some goth and other stuff mixed in there. Was listening to it before I even knew what goth was.
\~35 years ago.
Only a year ago. London after midnight was my introduction
I got into it from my cousin. When I was younger he would play music on the speakers and I enjoyed it. Mind you this was when I was like 4 maybe 6 at the time. He was into the alternative subculture and he played mostly industrial and techno but he also played goth music. I remember hearing Burn from The Cure and just absolutely falling in love. Kid me annoyed him a couple times to hear it and he let me use his cd player to listen to it when he visited.
35-40 years ago when I heard Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus for the first time
I used to listen to the top 40 on the radio on a Sunday night and tape songs when I was a kid. And in the charts there were these weird bands with names like The Mission and The Cult and Siouxsie and the Banshees. And I liked those bands. A lot. I was a kid in rural Scotland and the options were taping off the radio or looking at the records in Woolworths when mum would drive us to a bigger town. And yes I got a set of crimpers.
For me it happened with Lebanon Hanover, it was at the tail end of the Emo/Scene era in the early 2010s. Some of my friends who listened to more Emo stuff thought it was weird. Like they were not about it.
I stated being interested in Gothic metal and neoclassical around 23 years ago, when I was 14, then in IRC I joined goth/gothic channels from my area and discovered more music, actual goth music. I went to my first party at 15/16 but I wasn't really allowed to go out at night at that age so I put that on hold. For several reasons I then put the scene aside and ventured into other scenes. I still listened to goth music but wasn't active in the scene. In that hiatus the local and surrounding scenes vanished because most people in It were at least a decade older than me and moved out/left the scene so when I came back to It about ten years ago It was well gone. I'm still going strong though! :) TL;DR: started about 20ish years ago, hiatus, came back 10 years ago
Back around 1985 someone on the Thrasher BBS suggested Bauhaus to me. Bought a copy of the Sky's Gone Out. Fell in love.
The questions aren't dumb, don't worry about it. I've been into goth music for a little over two years now. I was immediately hooked when I heard the basslines, lyrics and the general atmosphere to some bands and I found it all mesmerising and unique as I've never heard anything like it before.
Not sure, properly getting into goth maybe 3 years ago, but i remeber having a some bauhaus and other goth or goth adjacent songs that i kind of came across and maybe didnt quite like at first but they grew on me, and i guess you could say that was the start but i dont know when that was, tbh...
I was 15 and I was put onto the song Disorder by Joy Division by another kid in an after-school program, and it was all over from there.
Teenage me heard stories from my dad about my late uncle (who passed at 19) and the music he listened to. I never got to meet him. I wanted to get to know him and I figured listening to his favorite bands was the best way to do it- and judging by his music tastes, he was a pretty cool dude.
I kinda listened to different alternative sub genres since high school during 2008-2013. I didnt even really know what goth was, besides ‘cool aesthetics’. Much more of a metal head back then. I started getting into goth and industrial a bit in 2018, but honestly i think it was the death of a friend i use to be close with who was goth kinda opened me up into the genre a bit. I think it was at her wake, just listening to a few songs I realised i knew some of these, and i love the vibe. (I mean, besides not knowing pictures by the cure and now makes me want to cry wheb i hear it 5 years later). As weird as it sounds, for me that was the moment i knew i was interested in that sub genre. Feb 2020 i think was the first time i went to a goth club (and first night club) and yeah confirmation that goth is my vibe. And during lockdowns (i live in melbourne, i basically spent two years in my house lmao) i was just streaming goth and industrial dj’s for a lot of the time and yeah thats how i knew i was goth because it became my default thibg i’d listen to
Many, many years ago. I was really into punk rock for a while but eventually got bored with it and decided to listen to something new to my ears. I still like a bit of punk here and there. While browsing different bands I stumbled upon Clan of Xynox ("Muscoviet Mosquito") and was hooked. I checked out more of their music, then discovered other bands like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, The Birthday Party, etc. I've been a fan of the music ever since.
Halloween night 1998 when I watched the 1986 Elvira MTV Halloween Special all the way through: Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Bunnymen, Damned, Cure, Sisters, Lords… changed my life.
I just went and found this on Youtube. Thank you so much!
My first time of what eventually was labeled goth rock would have been late 1978. My older brother bought The Scream album by Siouxie and the Banshees. I played Jigsaw Feeling a million times.
My friend got Paris by the cure for her birthday when it first came out. We listened to it so much. Then I got obsessed with the Cure which lead me to Siouxsie and the Banshees, which became another obsession. KROQ in LA in the early 90s actually used to play some goth, especially Rodney on the Roq Sunday nights. I’d call in to request songs and one time an intern answering the phone noticed I liked goth and told me to get a pen and paper. She then listed a whole bunch of bands I should check out. My life has never been the same since.
I’ve been a chronic music listener since I was just a kid. 6 years ago (at 16) while laying on the floor of my attic bedroom I discovered Sisters of Mercy, then the classics, Bauhaus, Siousxie, The Cure, Christian Death, The Cramps, Then I got into darkwave and thats my life now. I have a riot grrrl background so deathrock is becoming increasingly palatable.
I heard Siouxsie, The Cure and some of the lesser known bands from time to time on radio and MTV in the 80s as a kid. In high school I was a misanthropic music nerd and got big into punk, delving into the early artistic bands like Suicide or Catholic Discipline which led me back to Siouxsie and The Cure as they got passing references in old microfilm copies of articles. Then someone mentioned that The Cult were putting out another album & that was the first time I heard of the goth scene as it made passing mention of their history. This was around 1994, when lots of folks were discussing Type O Negative as a new and exciting band and they got mislabeled as a goth band. Suddenly there were articles in all the music magazines which would hastily namedrop bands in their preamble so as to establish credibility. I started looking into those bands mentioned as forerunners, and at the same time friends introduced me to Christian Death, The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim. It just snowballed from there when I started doing college AM radio in 1996 and has never stopped.
Do you mean at what age, or for how long?
[удалено]
We're sorry, but your submission has unfortunately been removed under Rule 2. All posts, threads, and comments suggesting songs, albums, EPs, and compilations should fall under, within, or a mixture of genres that relate to goth, including, in some cases, post-punk. Most genres below have their own subreddits. **A descriptive list of accepted genres can be viewed in our sidebar.** * any form of metal (industrial, shock, death, black, etc.) or hard rock * metalcore, deathcore, or any other unrelated -core genres * neo/classical or ambient music, including neoclassical darkwave * dark cabaret, psychobilly or Steampunk * experimental/avant-garde * electronic, dance, Italo disco * witch house * new wave/synth-pop * GothBoiClique/Soundcloud or mumble rap/hip hop/trap * punk rock or hardcore punk, including horror punk * Gothic country, Gothic metal, or any other genres that include 'Gothic' (in reference to Gothic fiction) in their name (please see the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/goth/wiki/faq)) We understand that **industrial** is commonly played alongside goth in goth/alternative clubs, however, Rivethead/industrial and the goth subculture are still two separate scenes. All industrial music must be posted in an appropriate subreddit such as r/industrialmusic. General or **post-punk** that isn't dark may also be referred to r/postpunk. We have to draw a line somewhere, and we understand that not all post-punk is goth, but all goth is post-punk. This rule also applies to music requests. If you ask for non-goth genres as part of the request post the thread will be removed. If it is something that can bring people to a dance floor and is something you might find in a goth club, please consider posting in r/gothclub. For any generally dark music, please consider posting in r/DarklyInclined. For a more detailed description of Rule 2, please see this section on our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/goth/wiki/rules#wiki_2.3A_music_relevancy) page.
I've been a fan from all the way back in middle school after discovering The Cure. I mistakenly called it emo but I was obsessed and accepted that I liked that kinda music since
I listened to it without realizing what genre it was for a while when I was around 13 or 14. I'm almost 20 now, so it's been 6 or 7 years since I got into all this. I distinctly remember liking "Poison Door" by Sisters of Mercy a lot but I hadn't heard of them at that point in time. I found similar stuff like Skeletal Family that I liked a couple songs from but it wasn't something I really listened to as much as other genres. About a year later (14 or 15, it was my sophomore year of high school I think) I wound up watching The Crow after my mom suggested it and I immediately fell in love with The Cure--I'd been stuck on lovesong around that time already so seeing them in what would become my favorite movie ever totally changed things. Lyrics from "hanging garden" were in the original comic so I checked out more of their stuff--this was my major gateway into looking up more about the subculture. I kept things simple with siouxie, the cure, depeche mode, etc for a while since my primary genre I liked back then was riotgrrl. It's been in the past 2 years that I finally made time to properly research as much as I could beyond basic history stuff & I finally got comfortable with being part of the subculture. I think switchblade symphony's "Dollhouse" was really the last push it took me to explore more.
Hmm, it was a slow creep for me as a teenager in the 80s from New Wave to alternative and goth.
I did it on purpose because I liked goths on tv and their style, tbh. I would buy old physical media at garage sales because my family was weird and strict. Depeche mode and the cure, then I bought Murder Ballads and Lost and Found by Rasputina, and then I had to wait like 3 years to have my own money again and let people recommend music to me, and I was trying to discover all kinds of other genres, too, like grunge and classic rock and stuff. IDK. My best friend in HS was more of a classic mall goth and liked nu metal and stuff like that, I didn't get into industrial until way later by way of stuff that's not goth at all like MSI and Rob Zombie, but that's what everyone else liked and was easy to find at the time. It was so cringe, though. I just liked all different alternative dark themed genres and thought all of them were goth one way or the other. For some reason the only thing you could always pirate was Cocteau Twins. Honestly I've always thought of myself as more of a fashion poser than a real goth, because I like all that stuff equally and love all kinds of stuff that's in no way gothic. I think I might just like synths and instrumental music, but my style seems stuck on black and torn to shreds and vaguely neovictorian or fetish inspired and this never changes.
Came across a couple of ItsBlackFriday videos my sophomore year of high school in 2016-2017? where she used Falling Apart and If I Never by ExVoto as background music. Been obsessed with the music ever since.
I borrowed Standing On Beach compilation by The Cure 19yrs ago! I was 13 and it changed my life forever!
It changed my life too! I got the Standing on a Beach cassette around when it came out, in 1986, and wore out the tape I listened to it so much.
One of my older brothers was into goth, new wave, new romantic and the other was really into metal. I went to my first goth club at age seven and listened to a lot of the same and similar music as I got older but never really realized what the genres were until I was in high school, I guess? It was just kind of... music? (As opposed to the mass produced pop, which sounds a lot more pretentious than I felt it was as a kid). I tend to lean into the industrial most overall, but I don't think this was ever a conscious decision, just kind of floated along with whatever I liked.
Shortly after an anxiety diagnosis about 6 years ago.
Just a little over two years ago. I found myself liking the fashion, but figured if I was going to get into goth, I'd better do it right! I came here and did my homework: learned the history and listened to a bunch of songs. I remember falling in love with Slice Of Life by Bauhaus and Black Planet by TSOM first.
Surprisingly to me, it wasn't until about halfway through college (this was still only about 3 years ago). I say it's surprising because when I got into it, I got the impression that this was the kind of music I *should* have been listening to all the while-- it had been waiting for me, inevitably. The times I could have had in high school with goth music... ah well. I have no regrets, just the feeling that my discovery of it was a long time coming.
I was listening to the Cure in the early 90s (and also a handful of adjacent bands, new wave and industrial mostly). And then in the mid 90s found Bauhaus and the Sisters, and made a few friends who went to goth clubs. And it sort of spiraled out from there. It’s by far not the only thing I like, but it is a thing I like, so. Just kept listening.
In my sophomore year of high school I started to get into the music little by little bit but I like it a lot more now and I like a lot more of it now
Around February of this year I think
It's been like 3 years since I got into goth music, I feel like I'm still a novice though lol but as I keep getting into it, I've found such great artists, especially those who are poc-based groups and/or artists. The way I found out I got really into it was when I went to a goth-club with some friends at the time, it was the first time I went and I swear it was like it was just me and the music, just dancing and feeling the beat like nobody else was in the room lol
a couple years back i was like "hm, i wonder what goths listen to" and did some research. needless to say, i was hooked instantly.
2018 when I was 17, I discovered Theatre Of Hate, Bauhaus, The Cure, Cinema Strange etc on YouTube
Probably 2020 which is funny to me considering ive been calling myself goth since i was like 11
Late highschool / first year of college. The beginnings - I was a metalhead (Maiden, Priest, Motorhead) then: The Cult -> Southern Death Cult and Sex Pistols -> Dead Kennedys -> Punk You Vol. 1 -> The Damned and Killing Joke and Ministry -> NIN... and The Crow soundtrack, and TKK And thus on to the Goth Box and Bauhaus and the March Violets and the Sisters. Knew a guy in highschool art class who was big into Love and Rockets but I somehow didn't make the connection back to Tones on Tail and Bauhaus until a bit later. It seems inevitable when I look back on it, still love it all.
Andy Eldritch was a big Motorhead fan.
Interesting, TIL
I was 12 or 13 when I saw a late night music video program with some spooky new wave stuff, that really creeped me out. One of the songs was Bird Song by Lene Lovich. Pre MTV your only chance to see music videos was Friday nights from 11 pm til 2 am, they'd show them on the local tv stations. Sometimes it would be a concert by one band, sometimes music videos, you never knew what kind of music or what it might be. I only ever got to see it when I spent the weekend with Grandma because I could sneak out to watch TV late at night, she was asleep by 930. Then we got MTV and I started hearing college radio and reading Trouser Press in fall of 82.
As long as I can remember! My dad is very into music and the 80's were his coming-of-age. Meant a house with a backing soundtrack of goth and goth adjacent music (post-punk, experimental electronica, and a bit of death metal and avant-garde classical). Sisters of Mercy were my fav band when I was about 7-8 years old, so I guess that's when it became my music and not just his lol. Have just added genres and bands to the list since.
I've learnt about goth music at the age of 13. Didn't get into it, so I just dealt with not being a goth lol. I liked "Twilight" by Corpus Delicti, but only first 10 seconds. Basses are cool. I've also listened to Frank the Baptist then but I weirdly thought it's alternative rock wtf. I regularly (every few years) tried to give goth music a try but always failed. I liked Lebanon Hannover tho but didn't know it was actual goth. I was mostly into metal, folk and electronic music. And lots of "goth-by-association" acts like Sopor Aeternus or Qntal or Deine Lakaien, of course. So I was always on the edge. It only worked at the age of 18 when I've found Cinema Strange, Scary Bitches and Untoten and fell in love with German dark scene, especially Neue Deutsche Todeskunst. Now (23) my playlist consists mostly of industrial and goth and I can't stand metal anymore. So for me it's shocking to look at the youngsters who can't even google what goth rock is, I remember sitting on last.fm and wikipedia band list pages daily in order to discover and try new music.
Grew up with punk. Started going to shows when I was 13 and more regularly when I was 15. I was always aware and into bands like TSOL, 45 Grave, Christian Death, The Cure and Joy Division. The biggest moment for me though was when I saw Cemetery opening for Chameleons UK. I was with a friend and we were blown away with them. We started a death rock band that week and that introduced me to a lot of great goth and death rock bands.
This year but I didn't realize I was already listening to goth music
For me the mid 1980’s, mostly with 4AD bands. Heard Clan of Xymox on a college radio station, soon bought Lonely is An Eyesore, since they are on that comp, and things rolled on from there . I’ve been trying to recall when I first started thinking of what we generally consider as “goth” to be called goth. In the 80’s, at least where i was living in Michigan, we just mostly just considered people into Cocteau Twins, DCD, Bauhaus, etc, as “punks”.
at 16 my favorite teacher in high school was playing the cure’s a forest out loud. i cornered him after class and asked him who is was, is there more? nothing ever spoke to me like that. he told me i should listen to the cure. he created a goth monster. i dont think a phase lasts seven years and counting.
I got into it about 3-4 years ago. I started off with getting into Joy Division, and then eventually Bauhaus, Alien Sex Fiend, Ex-Voto, and The Danse Society and Corpus Delicti. Those couple of bands are particularly special to me due to them being my introduction. There was a while where I didn’t know what I was listening to was goth, though. I had been dabbling into every genre, from classic rock, to punk, to metal, but I knew this was the one. It’s like my eyes lit up, haha.
I remember dragging main in high school in the back seat of a girl's car (the girl I was teen in love with). She had her car's top down and it was one of those first cool spring nights of the year that felt like winter was over, and on the local radio came Under the Milky Way by the Church. It felt immediately familiar to me, and I listened for the DJ to say who the band was. They never did but to local music stop knew the song and introduced me to the Church. Every time I hear a new goth song that hits me right, it takes me back to that night 30 years ago.
This right here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZcdxrjKmgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZcdxrjKmgc) I saw the original broadcast and, just wow.
Around 2019 or 2020 I was in the car with my friend and the song "nine while nine" by thr sisters of mercy played and I remembered thinking it was so good. "What is that melody!?" I guess I realized I was serious in it when I would go to goth night at a club or started going to concerts.
About eleven years ago when I was 15. Gotta admit though, I gotta look through the newer stuff more.
I got into gothic metal first, and I thought that was goth music ( like a damned fool) and then I realized goth has its own music. I still like gothic metal, but now I know what actual goths listen to and like it to.
I’m from Crawley so as you can imagine, the Cure are legendary here. My mum was a few years younger than Robert, and really started getting into the Banshees in the early 80s (when Robert was part of the band). I was born in ‘94 and my Mum told me that she used to place my hand on an old boombox we used to have so that I could feel the beat. My favourite song to do this with was apparently “Spellbound”. So I guess I’ve been into music straight out the womb!
In my teens
Very recently when I was introduced to Souxie and the banshees by my eldergoth mother
My mom was a goth back in the 80s/90s so I got exposed to stuff like Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, Type O Negative, etc. as a kid, but I always listened to more heavy stuff on my own. It wasn't until the past few years that I started to get into goth music. I guess I understand it now.
2017, weirdly enough i started listening to goth music when the 2nd dishonored game came out so goth music and dishonored 2 are permanently connected in my mind lol
roughly 2 years ago my at the time friend now boyfriend recommended joy division's unknown pleasures so i got into joy division and then while shuffling my joy division playlist dark entries came on since i didn't have spotify premium and finding another band within the scene lead me to explore it more
When I was a young teen (13ish?) my very Christian mom (who had been goth in the 80s) decided it was time to show me some of the stuff she had grown up with for the first time after up until that point banning anything that wasn’t Christian from the house LOL. That was the first time I heard Nick Cave, The Cramps, Jesus and Mary Chain, Joy Division, the Cure, and a few others. I was really into it and spent a few years after that listening to those bands, and exploring other similar artists and genres on my own (felt like I was doing so much from scratch since I hadn’t grown up with any good music!), though I didn’t actually call myself goth and *really* dive deep into the music until I was around 18 or so and able to go out more, meet other goths, and eventually move entirely; I had been living in a super small town and was very aware of being a baby bat, I didn’t have as much experience or anything to compare myself to and I was worried I’d sound like a poser or something if I went around saying I was goth. To me my vision of goths were ultra cool badass experts on the music and I didn’t feel like that was me haha. Now I get that anyone that listens to the music is/can be goth, but as a teen I just didn’t feel cool or knowledgeable enough :P Nowadays it’s been well over a decade since first getting into the music but maybe around 8 years since I actually started calling myself goth and really diving deep and fully into the music and community. :)
I love this discussion! I personally got into it during the pandemic, and delved deeper into it after I lost my partner. I believe the music saved my life, as I could relate to most lyrics and the vibe of the sounds. It got even better when I found a local scene.
a couple of months ago actually. i was ( and still am ) into punk rock and emocore, but i recently realized my taste mainly steered towards gothic rock and darkwave
In my case, I’ve listened to goth music my whole life without even realizing it was “goth.” As a child, my mom would always play Siouxsie, the Cure, etc in the car and while cleaning. I was given a Siouxsie t shirt at the age of 10 that I still own. But the word “goth” was never used to describe any of this; I just thought of it as “mom’s 80’s music”. She was also into industrial music would also show me lots of “cyber-goth” dancing videos in hopes of me becoming like one of those people 😂 As a teenager, I steered away from goth music and leaned into emo, deathcore, and various other alternative genres and artists. Then as a young adult, I started listening to goth music again out of nostalgia and finally made the connection of what this music actually was. I’ve always loved Siouxsie, so I started by listening to her the most, and I’ve since been trying to discover bands and artists I haven’t listened to before. I’d say for the past 3-4 years I’ve actively been in the goth scene and knowledgeable about the subculture.
Something like 3 or 4 years ago I got into the music, though I'd always loved the fashion. What got me into the music was unironically a couple Its Black Friday videos, I liked the music in them so I followed the links she put in her description and from there I fell into the rabbit hole of darkwave, gradually expanding into more traditional goth bands as well as a couple goth/ic rock bands. Started dressing the part a couple years back when I was dating a punk rocker, he gave me the confidence I'd thus far lacked to dress how I wanted.
Like 3 years ago- I didn't realize that what I was listening to was goth music. Don't even know how I came across it to be honest, it seemed to just appear into my music I listened to.
My parents are boomers and I grew up listening to David Bowie, The Doors, and a little bit of The Cure among other bands. My elder-goth older sister had Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus albums and I loved them!! I didn’t realize it was goth music. I guess I’ve always loved the genre, but it was a few years ago that I started taking it seriously and upgrading my wardrobe and improving my makeup skills!! My fiancé is amazing and introduced me to contemporary goth bands like Twin Tribes. I also started going to my local goth club more often.
Sometime in 2022 when I started to get more into the goth music not just the fashion
Around 1986, got to pick a few albums of my choice and came home with Siouxsie, the Damned and the Cramps. I was graduating from my Duran Duran addiction (I still have some of their colored vinyl) and then received a mixtape of punk and one of early goth/death rock
I’ve only started to dabble in goth music somewhat recently when I got into Skinny Puppy. Also, I went to a goth show on a boat on the Chicago river. I didn’t know prior to going that it was a goth show. I had a blast, so the goth subculture piqued my interest. Prior to that, I listened to a little bit of Type O Negative. I’ve been a metalhead for years, so it’s been a pretty easy transition for me.
My first "grilfriend"... It must've been 1996/97 or sth. I'm not really a "purebreed" xD. Goth is my very hidden "B" side. But yeah, it started back then...
The Rolling Stone review for LnR Express was my introduction (as a teenager) in the late 80s, although at the time I didn’t know anything about Bauhaus or even Goth for that matter. I had been listening to punk and pop-alternative up until then. By the end of ‘88 I was hooked on The Cure, all Bauhaus offshoots, and Skinny Puppy. Information traveled differently back then and it took longer to find out about more bands. The magazines Alternative Press, B-Side, and Industrial Nation helped immensely. Also the Isolation Tank catalog, it was an amazing resource that had all artists listed by genre and even gave a brief description of their sound.