Gothic Rock
Gothic rock is a dark, atmospheric style of rock that grew out of British post-punk in the late 1970s, with deep vocals, echoing guitars and prominent bass.
Its songs use minor keys, steady tom-heavy or drum machine rhythms, chorus- and reverb-soaked guitar and dramatic singing, with lyrics about romance, death and the supernatural. The London club the Batcave became an early center of the scene. It is slower and moodier than punk and more guitar-based than darkwave, and it gave rise to the wider goth subculture.
Artists it is known for: Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy, The Cure.
- Family
- Alternative & Indie
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom, late 1970s
- Also called
- goth rock, goth
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 8%
About 6,700 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have gothic rock among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Gothic Rock artists
The Cure
Type O Negative
HIM
She Wants Revenge
Joy Division
Molchat Doma
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Amira Elfeky
Bauhaus
Sisters of Mercy
The gothic rock artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.