Goth Music Genres Explained: 40 Years of Dark and Brooding Bangers (with Playlists)

Bone-rattling bass and haunting synths echo from the walls of a crowded club. The scent of clove cigarettes and hairspray is thick in the air as people draped in black sway to the beat. For over four decades, these scenes have played out in shadowy nightclubs across the globe, as goths gathered to celebrate the night. 

Goths might share a fondness for eyeliner and black clothes, but the music they listen to is a kaleidoscope of genres. From the first throbs of post-punk to the echoing soundscapes of witch house, gothic music has evolved in dozens of directions over the decades. One thing has remained constant, though: a romantic soul, and a heart of darkness.

This primer on the many subgenres of gothic music will help you explore the dark corridors of this enduring subculture and find your next favorite artist. As you’ll see, the boundaries between these genres can sometimes get fuzzy, as goth artists experimented with different sounds throughout their careers and took inspiration from various musical tendencies. There is often a bit of overlap between, say, ethereal wave and gloom pop, but this guide will give you a rough overview of the diverse sounds and moods goth music has to offer.

Playlists are included to expand your musical palate and give you a feel for each genre’s uniquely dark sound.

What makes music goth?

The goth subculture first coalesced around music. It was the sound that came first, before the corsets, face paint, and big leather boots. Music remains its bloody heart, creating a dark mood and an aesthetic of romanticized gloom.

Goth music circles themes of love, death, sadness, and alienation, often using imagery associated with horror (think vampires, graveyards, ghosts, and dark fairytales). Its sound tends to be melodic and bass-heavy, with pounding, dancefloor-ready drums. A lot of goth music is electronic, featuring ethereal synth lines and echoing effects. There is often an element of over-the-top theatricality to goth music: big emotions, big gated snares, big, chunky basslines, big hair. In order to fully enjoy its dark delights, you’ll have to leave any irony poisoning at the door. 

Its sound largely derives from a bone-scraping bass tone. Gothic rock songs often use bass rather than guitar to play the melody, resulting in a rich, dark sound. Synthesizers can add organ notes or tinkling piano effects to add a sense of creepy atmosphere. 

Whatever the genre, goth music creates a feeling of darkness that is also alluring and romantic.

Post-Punk & Proto Goth

By the late 1970s, the first wave of punk rock had begun to splinter apart as formative bands like the Sex Pistols crashed and burned. At the same time, musicians across the UK in particular were taking inspiration from punk’s simplicity, energy, and DIY ethos, turning its raw sound into something dark and introspective. 

These new post-punk bands were artsy, experimental, and ambitious, weaving simple, angular guitar riffs with lyrics that explored alienation and despair. At the same time, post-punk musicians often found inspiration in the exciting, politically charged music coming out of the Caribbean, incorporating dub and reggae beats to form a unique new sound.

As these new musical currents were percolating, some existing bands that had come up in the London punk scene like Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Damned began to adopt a darker, more melodic sound at the dawn of the 1980s. These were the first shadowy strains of what would become goth rock.

Proto Goth & Post-Punk Playlist:

The Fall - Mansion

Joy Division - Dead Souls

Wire - I Am the Fly

The Slits - FM

The Fall - Frightened

Pere Ubu - Non-Alignment Pact

The Sound - New Dark Age

Joy Division - A Means to an End

The Damned - Street of Dreams

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Jigsaw Feeling

Gothic Rock

Bauhaus’s 1979 single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” emerged fully formed from this dark morass of ‘70s malaise, essentially creating gothic rock as a genre in just under ten lumbering, anxious minutes. An elemental descending bass pattern drags listeners into the pit of hell alongside strange, skittering guitar effects like bats flitting past. Frontman Peter Murphy croons about the Count, conjuring vampire imagery steeped in cinematic history. The result is an instantly iconic track containing all the raw elements of what would become the goth subculture.

The gothic rock that followed built upon this template of melodic, earth-shaking bass and gloomy atmosphere, often adding ghostly synths and deep, dark vocals. Bands like the Cure and the Sisters of Mercy expanded on the sound, crafting music that was drenched in oh-so-’80s studio production while keeping a core of romanticized darkness.

The Second Wave

By the early 1990s, gothic rock had begun to take on sonic elements of other alternative genres such as shoegaze, neoclassical, and indie rock. The result was a flourishing goth music scene that expanded the genre beyond the heavy bass and pounding drums that had been the hallmarks of goth rock since the days of London’s Batcave club scene. 

Gothic Rock Playlist:

Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi’s Dead

The Sisters of Mercy - Lucretia, My Reflection

Specimen - Beauty of Poisin

The Cure - A Forest

Bauhaus - The Passion of Lovers

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Night Shift

The Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love

The Cure - Plainsong

Dead Can Dance - The Trial

Faith and the Muse - Shattered in Aspect

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Rhapsody

London After Midnight - Spider and the Fly

Rosetta Stone - The Witch

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Dark 1980s New Wave Music

These 80s bands were goth-adjacent while still being radio-friendly enough for mainstream airplay. Mostly hailing from the UK, new wave groups with a dark, introspective aesthetic were sometimes collectively called New Romantics. They took inspiration from literature and art and forebears like David Bowie, the Velvet Underground, and Nico to create deeply personal music, often with a wistful, romantic tinge.

Dark New Wave Music Playlist:

Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

Chameleons - Second Skin

Tears for Fears - Broken

New Order - Dreams Never End

Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?

Modern English - Gathering Dust

Killing Joke - Love Like Blood

Duran Duran - Come Undone

Kate Bush - Under Ice

The Psychedelic Furs - Sleep Comes Down

Felt - Primitive Painters

Deathrock

Hardcore punk’s energy and drive combine with imagery and themes from B-movie horror in this genre that arose in the ‘80s in the U.S. alongside West Coast hardcore bands like Black Flag. Psychobilly bands like the Cramps helped to inspire the retro horror look and surf guitar sound as well, although deathrock is more purely punk. With its fast tempos and rumbling guitars, deathrock doesn’t share much sonic common ground with most goth music–but its fascination with all things spooky puts it squarely in the goth category.

Deathrock Playlist:

The Cramps - Human Fly

45 Grave - Evil

Misfits - Hybrid Moments

X - Nausea

Christian Death - Deathwish

Alien Nation - Last Rites

Misfits - Spinal Remains

Darkwave

Darkwave or coldwave is a term for the dark electronic dance music that arose in the ‘80s as a moody offshoot of the new wave bands that were taking over the airways and MTV. Characterized by a keyboard and synth-driven sound, darkwave music often uses drum machine beats to create a cold, mechanical soundscape. Darkwave has evolved somewhat since its inception in the era of AquaNet, but the core of its chilly, echoing electronic vibe has remained largely unchanged.  

Darkwave Playlist:

New Order - Ultraviolence

Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence

Clan of Xymox - Medusa

Lebanon Hanover - Gallowdance

Twin Tribes - Monolith

Ritual Howls - Nervous Hands

Ethereal Wave

This soft and dreamy take on darkwave features breathy vocals, gentle harpsichord-like synth lines, and chiming guitars, creating a hypnotic and soothing sense of atmosphere that seethes with melancholy. Scottish trio Cocteau Twins are generally considered to be the progenitors of the genre, and the artists that followed created sonic confections that are as dark as they are lush and inviting.

Ethereal Wave Playlist:

Cocteau Twins - Aloysius

Julee Cruise - Falling

Slowdive - Some Velvet Morning

This Mortal Coil - Another Day

Cranes - Jewel

Cocteau Twins - Wolf in the Breast

Lycia - Wandering Soul

Faith and the Muse - Elyria

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Industrial

This harsh, dissonant sound arose in the late 80s and early 90s as a reaction to the polished, overproduced hair metal and slick new wave that were dominating the airwaves. Metallic clangs and distorted guitars echo as if from the inside of an abandoned warehouse, as repetitive drum machine beats keep time. Industrial music was unafraid to embrace the ugliness of modern life and turn it outward.

The most successful industrial band to come out of this rock movement was Trent Reznor’s powerhouse Nine Inch Nails, but it had its roots in earlier experimental groups like Throbbing Gristle and Suicide, whose music was about provocation and pushing the envelope. Later in the decade, Marilyn Manson would take industrial rock mainstream with endless airplay on MTV.

Industrial Playlist:

Throbbing Gristle - Discipline

Coil - Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)

Nine Inch Nails - Closer

Skinny Puppy - Assimilate

The Smashing Pumpkins - The Everlasting Gaze

Ministry - Thieves

Nine Inch Nails - The Only Time

Marylin Manson - Beautiful People

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Gothic Metal

Metal is known for its many, many subgenres, and several of them adopt a gothic aesthetic. Ornate, driving guitars and fast drums characterize some symphonic gothic metal songs, while slow, sludgy doom metal and haunting black metal or blackgaze are other prominent threads in the gothic tapestry. From heavy and gloom-shrouded to operatic and campy, this genre covers a whole spectrum of moods. Whichever style you prefer, there’s definitely a gothic metal band out there to fit your inner darkness.

Gothic Metal Playlist:

HIM - Passion’s Killing Floor

Frayle - White Witch

The 69 Eyes - Wasting the Dawn

My Dying Bride - A Kiss to Remember

Type O Negative - Anesthesia

Cradle of Filth - Bathory Aria

Gloom Pop

Created by singer songwriters with a dark sensibility, gloom pop offers up gothic vibes in a polished, shimmering package. Featuring minimal beats, lush production, and soft, ghostly vocals, these songs always set a melancholy mood. This genre takes the gossamer soundscapes of dream pop and weaves them into a shroud of night.

Gloom Pop Playlist:

Drab Majesty - Oxytocin

Still Corners - White Sands

Cold Cave - A Little Death to Laugh

Zola Jesus - Night

Jenny Hval - Female Vampire

Chelsea Wolfe - Feral Love

Recent Goth Music

Current goth bands draw heavily on the legacy of their dark forebears. In a lot of cases, it can be hard to tell if a darkwave or goth song was made today or in 1983. This sense of continuity  is part of the appeal of diving into this dark, atmospheric music–but that doesn’t mean there aren’t innovative things happening in the goth music scene. Art rock and darkwave pioneers like Chelsea Wolfe are consistently putting out interesting releases.

Recent genres like witch house with its ghostly “degraded tape” effects provide sonic invention and create new electronic soundscapes from the feelings of gloom and alienation that are the building blocks of goth music. At the same time, a flourishing post-punk revival that’s been going strong since the 2010s has ensured that plenty of dark, atmospheric music stays in the spotlight.

Recent Goth and Post-Punk Playlist:

Have a Nice Life - Bloodhail

SURVIVE - Hourglass

Chelsea Wolfe - Eyes Like Nightshade

Fontaines D.C. - Bloomsday

Crystal Castles - Year of Silence

Raw Moans - Lightning Strikes

White Ring - King

As you can see, goth music has evolved over the years, a creeping vine branching out into so many dark blossoms. Whether it’s mainstream artists adopting alternative styles or underground bands inventing entirely new sounds, the musicians on this list have all added to the dark labyrinth of goth music genres.

These goth playlists should help you explore the shadowy corridors of gothic music through its decades of changes. Hopefully, you’ll find some new faves to add to your library. Enjoy embracing the gloom!