In March 1979, in his review of Magazine's second album Secondhand Daylight, Kent noted that there was 'a new austere sense of authority' in the music, with a 'dank neo-Gothic sound'. In a live review about a Siouxsie and the Banshees' concert in July 1978, critic Nick Kent wrote that, concerning their music, 'arallels and comparisons can now be drawn with gothic rock architects like the Doors and, certainly, early Velvet Underground'. In the late 1970s, the gothic adjective was used to describe the atmosphere of post-punk bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magazine, and Joy Division. In 1977, the F Club night in Leeds began, which would be instrumental to the development of the goth subculture in the 1980s.

That same year, the Velvet Underground song ' All Tomorrow's Parties' created a kind of 'mesmerizing gothic-rock masterpiece' according to music historian Kurt Loder. The term gothic rock was coined by music critic John Stickney in 1967 to describe a meeting he had with Jim Morrison in a dimly lit wine-cellar, which he called 'the perfect room to honor the Gothic rock of the Doors'. Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1980 The subculture has continued to draw interest from a large audience decades after its emergence. The style most often includes dark (usually solid black) attire, dark makeup, and black hair. It also draws from the fashion of earlier periods such as the Victorian, Edwardian, and Belle Époque eras. Styles of dress within the subculture draw on punk, new wave, and New Romantic fashion. The music preferred by goths includes a number of styles such as gothic rock, death rock, cold wave, dark wave, and ethereal wave. The subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and fashion. The scene is centered on music festivals, nightclubs, and organized meetings, especially in Western Europe. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from 19th-century Gothic fiction and horror films. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify and spread throughout the world. Notable post-punk artists who presaged the Gothic rock genre and helped develop and shape the subculture includes: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Joy Division. The name Goth was derived directly from the genre. It was developed by fans of Gothic rock, an offshoot of the post-punk music genre.

Goth is a subculture that began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s. Black and white photography of a woman dressed in goth style

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