DeathRock

- (also spelled death rock) is a term used to identify a subgenre of punk rock, which incorporated elements of horror and first emerged most prominently in the West Coast of the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The music of "modern" (post-1990) deathrock bands have a stronger post-punk influence than the earlier deathrock bands. Additionally, the term "deathrock" can be used as a synonym for first generation gothic rock.

Deathrock emphasizes a creepy atmosphere and an introspective mood within a punk or post-punk musical structure.

Deathrock songs use simple chords, echoing guitars, a prominent bass, and drumming which emphasizes repetitive, tribal beats.

To create atmosphere, scratchy guitars, keyboards, and experimentation with other instruments are sometimes used. Lyrics can vary, but are typically introspective, surreal, and deal with the dark themes of isolation, disillusionment, loss, life, death, etc.

Deathrock singers typically have strong, distinctive voices and a strong stage presence.

The punk subgenres most closely related to deathrock are horror punk and psychobilly.

Deathrock sounds more introspective and romantic than horror punk and it is less lound and fast as it too. Keyboards are another differentiating point: deathrock bands frequently use keyboards for atmosphere, whereas horror punk and psychobilly bands usually do not. Psychobilly, however, is easier to distinguish from horror punk and deathrock because psychobilly bands normally use an upright bass, whereas horror punk and deathrock bands do not.

Despite the similar sounding names deathrock (which is a subgenre of punk) has no connection to the similarly named death metal, which is a subgenre of thrash metal.

Deathrock is also not related to any other music genre with "death" in its name.

While deathrock, positive punk and the Batcave bands were similar enough in sound to eventually all be filed as "gothic," later generations of gothic rock moved progressively away from the original sound.

Nearly 20 years after deathrock first appeared on the music scene in Southern California, the deathrock revival began in Southern California. During 1998 in Long Beach, California, owners of the Que Sera, a local bar, to throw a one-night "old school" Gothic Halloween party. After the success of the one-off party, the event quickly evolved into a regular deathrock club called Release the Bats and a focal point in California for the reemerging deathrock movement. (The club is named after a song by the Australian band the Birthday Party.)

The current deathrock movement is similar to the original deathrock scene in Los Angeles and the Batcave movement in London. In addition to clubs, the current scene is centered around concerts, special events, parties, and horror movie screenings.

The internet is playing a major role in the deathrock revival. There are websites devoted to the discussion deathrock music, bands and fashions as well as horror movies, such as deathrock.com and post-punk.com, plus mailing lists for deathrockers on various online virtual communities, such as MySpace.

The current deathrock movement has four additional influences which didn't exist in the late 1970s.

There has been a shift to a more post-punk sound then there is the apolitical influence of psychobilly which discourages political debates that have the potential to fragment the scene. And the Drop Dead Festival, which is similar to psychobilly's Hootenanny, gives bands with smaller fan bases an opportunity to play before larger crowds.

Deathrock is not only about music, being centered around movies and book it ceases to be all about music and it becomes a life style.

What I like about it so much is the more relaxed and joking like manner in which things are seen. Horror punk with the lively influences puts a smile on my face more often than no.

“Nobody likes you when you’re dead” said Zombina and the Skeletons, 45 Grave don’t care about the concerned citizens and they say it’s Party Time.

Then I have the sensible side with Virgin Prunes and Echo & the Bunnymen; the love with Bella Morte. I get distinctive voices like Klaus Nomi and Robert Smith and so many others.

I get the sadness, the desperation and the fight with Anna Varney Cantodea.

And still I don’t fear the reaper cause we’re all undead and it’s fun.

Release the bats and come to our side! Deathrock never sounded better!

Bands:

- through the 90's

* 45 Grave

* Ausgang

* Bone Orchard

* The Birthday Party

* Brain Eaters

* Burning Image

* Castration Squad

* The Children's Zoo

* Chop Shop

* Christian Death

* Cold September

* Death Cult

* Death Ride 69

* Fahrenheit 451

* The Flesh Eaters

* Gargoyle Sox

* Gun Club

* Holy Cow

* Inca Babies

* Kommunity FK

* Mighty Sphincter

* The Misfits

* The Mob

* The Naked and the Dead

* Nervous Gender (could also be classified as punk)

* Nichts

* The Ochrana

* Of A Mesh

* Paralisis Permanente

* The Plague

* Red Temple Spirits

* Sacred Lies

* Samhain

* Screams for Tina

* Shadow of Fear

* Skeletal Family

* Sorrow (Rose McDowall)

* Specimen

* Super Heroines

* TSOL

* Theater of Ice

* Voodoo Church

- modern

* A Spectre is Haunting Europe (Vancouver)

* All Gone Dead (UK)

* Antiworld (Portland, OR)

* Astrovamps (CA)

* Bella Morte (VA)

* Black Cat Rebellion (IN)

* Black Ice (CA)

* Bloody Dead & Sexy (Germany)

* The Brides (NY)

* Cinema Strange (CA)

* Deadchovsky (France)

* Deadfly Ensemble (CA)

* Devils Whorehouse

* Dinah Cancer and the Grave Robbers (resurrected 45 Grave) (CA)

* Divino Bastardo (Chile)

* Eat Your Make Up (France)

* Frankenstein (CA)

* Frank the Baptist (CA)

* Gorgonas (Mexico)

* Hate in the Box (NY)

* Heiress Presumptive (OH)

* La Peste Negra (Spain)

* Last Days of Jesus (Slovakia)

* Miguel and the Living Dead (Poland)

* Murder at the Registry (Germany)

* N/A (Cincinnati, OH)

* The Phantom Limbs (CA)

* Pagan Holiday (Cincinnati, OH)

* The Poisoning (UK)

* Pins and Needles (CA)

* Penis Flytrap (previously featuring Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave)

* Red Voice Choir (CA)

* Scarlet's Remains (CA)

* Sixteens (Berlin)

* Sleeping Children (France)

* Spooky DeVille (SLC, UT)

* Sunday Mourning (GA)

* Tragic Black (SLC, UT)

* The Vanishing

* When You Fail (Cincinnati, OH)

* The Young Werewolves (New York, NY)

I wanna thank answers.com and the well known wikipedia.org for their immense help in creating this entry.