[attach id=286479 size="medium"]The CD cover to Bauhaus’s Bela Lugosi’s Dead, considered by many to be the only true band that qualifies as goth.[/attach]

It’s a tendency to enjoy Edgar Allan Poe poetry, a love for mysterious buildings, a sense of style that gravitates towards ornate Victoriana in various shades of black and ... most of all, of course ... it is the music.

While all form part of the package, many who fit within the subculture would say that it is the latter that seals the deal. Considering the cultural heritage that surrounds the word gothic, the music itself is a relatively-new development. It was only in the late 1970s that the word emerged, reportedly when used by music producer Tony Wilson to describe the music of Joy Division. The term was immediately picked up by the media, who proceeded to coin the band as “masters of gothic doom”. The term stuck, and started being applied to bands like Bauhaus. Hailed as purveyors of the only true goth music by many, their Bela Lugosi’s Dead debut single runs for about nine minutes and is considered the definitive work in the genre.

As the 1980s progressed, the music genre developed into more hardcore styles

With the emergence of other bands like Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy and The Birthday Party, the genre soon developed into a fully-fledged subculture. The opening of The Batcave in Soho – one of the first clubs in Europe, aimed specifically at goths – sealed it.

As the 1980s progressed, the music genre developed into more hardcore styles that included EBM, industrial, aggrotech, darkelectro and electropop. Bands like Ministry on the industrial front; Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly on the electro-industrial side; and early Nine Inch Nails on the industrial/EBM front contributed to the emergence of several subgenres that today are also accepted as part of the wider goth scene.