Deathrock

Death rock (or deathrock) is a rock music subgenre incorporating horror elements and gothic theatrics. It emerged from punk rock on the West Coast of the United States in the early 1980s and overlaps with the gothic rock and horror punk genres.Gitane Demone: ''20 Years in Death'', published in Matzke, Peter; Seeliger, Tobias: ''Gothic!'', Schwarzkopf Verlag, Germany 1999, , p. 42 Bag, Alice:
Interview with Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave
', Women in L.A. Punk, November 2004
"The first prowlings of death rock came in the early '80s before we were labeled as our other counterparts – the gothic movement. There were no Goths. The Death rockers were splintered off from the punk/hardcore scene that was going on at the time. We played punk rock but we loved Halloween and we looked like vampires. So the phrase Death rock was born." Notable death rock acts include Christian Death, Kommunity FK, 45 Grave, and Super Heroines.

Characteristics

Death rock songs usually incorporate a driving, repetitive rhythm section; the drums and bass guitar laying the foundation within a time signature while the guitars either play simple chords or effects-driven leads to create atmosphere. Lyrics can vary, but are typically introspective and surreal, and deal with the dark themes of isolation, gloom, disillusionment, loss, life, death, etc.; as can the style, varying from harsh and dark to upbeat, melodic, and tongue-in-cheek. Death rock lyrics and other musical stylistic elements often incorporate the themes of campy horror and sci-fi films.Stylus Staff:
England Fades Away. Stylus Magazine's Guide to Goth
', 7. August 2006 Despite the similar-sounding name, death rock has no connection to death metal, which is a subgenre of heavy metal.Sheppard, Oliver:
Interview with Kommunity FK
', CVLT Nation magazine, January 6, 2014

Etymology

The term "death rock" was first used in the 1950s to describe a thematically related genre of rock and roll, which began in 1958 with Jody Reynolds' "Endless Sleep"Larkin, Colin: ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music'', Virgin Books, 1st edition, 1998, , p. 353
"In 1958 the band went to Los Angeles, where they were signed to the new Demon label. The label did not use the Storms but did record Reynolds, backed with a number of professional session musicians on his 1958 single 'Endless Sleep' (covered in the UK by Marty Wilde), a song Reynolds had written with George Brown (credited under the pseudonym Delores Nance). The song reached number 5 and became one of the first of the so-called 'death rock' hits of the 50s and 60s (others in that category included 'Tell Laura I Love Her', 'Terry', 'Teen Angel' and 'Leader Of The Pack'). Reynolds made the charts once more with 'Fire Of Love' (also in 1958), but none of his subsequent recordings for Demon, Smash or other labels charted." and ended in 1964 with J. Frank Wilson's " Last Kiss". The term was also applied to the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack". These songs about dead teenagers were noted for their morbid yet romantic view of death, spoken word bridges, and sound effects. In 1974, the term "death rock" was used by Gene Grier to describe the same phenomenon in rock music.

The term later re-emerged to describe the sound of various West Coast punk bands.Kilpatrick, Nancy. ''The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined''. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2004, , p. 89. It most likely came from one of three sources: Rozz Williams, the founding member of Christian Death, to describe the sound of his band; the music press, reusing the 1950s term to describe an emerging subgenre of punk; and/or Nick Zedd's 1979 film ''They Eat Scum'', which featured a fictitious cannibalistic "death rock" punk band called "Suzy Putrid and the Mental Deficients."

History

Predecessors

The earliest influences for some death rock acts can be traced to the horror-themed novelty rock and roll acts of the late 1950s and early 1960s such as Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers and Zacherle with "Monster Mash"; Screamin' Jay Hawkins with "I Put a Spell on You"; Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages with "Murder in the Graveyard";Sheppard, Oliver:
Deathrock: A Brief History, Part I
', Souciant magazine, April 16, 2012 and Don Hinson and the Rigormorticians with "Riboflavin-Flavored Non-Carbonated Poly-Unsaturated Blood". Contemporarily, the 1979 single " Bela Lugosi's Dead" by British post-punk group Bauhaus was one of the major influences amongst the early death rock scene. Other influences included the Doors, David Bowie,Gitane Demone: ''20 Years in Death'', published in Matzke, Peter; Seeliger, Tobias: ''Gothic!'', Schwarzkopf Verlag, Germany 1999, , p. 45 Alice Cooper, the Cramps, Black Sabbath and the Damned.

The Los Angeles punk rock scene began in the mid to late 1970s, with groups like the Runaways, the Weirdos and the Germs. Within this scene The Gun Club's merger of grim take on heavily blues indebted punk was a notable Los Angeles precursor. The Flesh Eaters too took a macabre take on early LA punk, by merging the sound with lyrics influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, the Beat Generation and Catholicism. Furthermore, T.S.O.L. were a defining group in the scene who briefly embraced gothic and deathrock elements.

Origins

At the beginning of the 1980s an offshoot of those interested in darker horror themes emerged from the Los Angeles punk rock scene. According to a 2006 article by '' Stylus Magazine'' one popular theory as to the reason for this split was the 1980 suicide of Germs vocalist Darby Crash. According to this interpretation, Crash's death led to a period of mourning amongst many of those in the scene and eventually to a fascination with the macabre. Nonetheless, amongst this splinter group band began to form merging the sound of Los Angeles punk rock with these darker elements to create death rock. The most prominent of these groups were Christian Death, 45 Grave, Super Heroines and Kommunity FK. The bands generally performed and congregated at the Anti-Club, a club night in Hollywood that would change venues every few weeks. Outside of this scene, Theatre of Ice from Fallon, Nevada independently created a sound which some sources have considered as pioneering death rock.

Interaction

Before death rock was emerging as a distinctively darker subgenre of punk rock in the United States, other subgenres of punk and post-punk were developing independently in the UK.Greene, James: ''This Music Leaves Stains. The Complete Story of the Misfits'', Scarecrow Press 2013, , p. 32
"Los Angeles bands like T.S.O.L., 45 Grave, the Flesh Eaters, Kommunity FK, and Christian Death focused on a grim, discordant, and echoey musical offering very much in line with overseas goth proprietors such as Bauhaus and Joy Division."

By 1980, a wave of post-punk bands such as Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, and The Cure abandoned the intensity of punk music in favor of a more elaborate style characterized by moody guitars and dark droning bass guitar patterns combined with romantic and morbid themes. This style of rock became known as "gothic rock" or "positive punk".Thompson, Dave; Borchardt, Kirsten: ''Schattenwelt. Helden und Legenden des Gothic Rock'', Hannibal Verlag, 2004, , pp. 13−14 A second wave of bands had coalesced a few years later, headed by acts such as Sex Gang Children and Southern Death Cult, along with Brigandage, Blood and Roses, and Ritual. Many of those bands featured tribal drumming, high-pitched vocals, scratchy guitar, and bass guitar as melodic lead instrument and a visual look blending glam with Native American-influenced warpaint and spiky haircuts.

During 1982, the scene was brewing at the London gothic rock club Batcave. Initially envisioned as a venue specializing in glam rock and new wave musical acts, the two main bands which debuted and performed frequently at the Batcave, Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend, developed their own different sounds strongly influenced by horror in British pop culture, which set them apart from the rest of the glam and post-punk scenes in Britain. In 1983, Gun Club toured in Europe as did Christian Death in 1984, leading to cross-pollination between the European gothic rock scene and the American death rock scene. By 1984, California death rock band Kommunity FK toured with UK gothic rock band Sex Gang Children (and the following year with Alien Sex Fiend) which continued the trend in which American and British movements intermixed.

Influenced more by the British scene and less by California, death rock bands began to form in other parts of the United States, such as Samhain (1983) in Lodi, New Jersey

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