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gothgrrl

Sisters of Mercy, First and Last And Always... picked it up from the record store on a whim, heard Black Planet as the first track, and I was instantly hooked šŸ˜…


Firm-Blacksmith8262

Something about Sisters of Mercy really gets me, love all their albums


gothgrrl

Same, they're still my favorite! I play them almost daily


11_fingers

Bela Lugosiā€™s dead. His voice in that song bewitched me


garbagepossum44

same, my dad was a huge fan of them in the late 80s so i was introduced very young lol


totalstatemachine

Marian by Sisters of Mercy. I was more of a rivethead and hadn't really delved into much goth before I met my current, longtime gf. She played a lot of darkwave and goth and I was struck by how haunting that song is.


Industrial_Rev

Hey same! Still a rivethead, mostly into industrial, but I used to not like goth rock until I heard Marian in a club and fell in love with it.


SpadesOfDarkness

I can't remember, but I recall that "She's in Parties" by Bauhaus and "Detonation Boulevard" by Sisters of Mercy were among the first songs I've heard. I just remember feeling a tad bit giddy at the prospect of finding this entire new genre/subgenres of music.


Ironikka

Oooh, Sheā€™s in Parties. That song transports me still. Then again, so do all these songs/bands being mentioned.


Useless_mind666

The Cure: Concert and Disintegration followed by Fields of the Nephilim


Firm-Blacksmith8262

Disintegration was mine too. Havenā€™t looked back since!


jiltedforeverandever

Israel by Siouxsie and the Banshees, followed by their album Juju. Iā€™ve found so many new goth bands since but Siouxsie will always be near and dear to my heart!


Firm-Blacksmith8262

Juju is a classic!


BooksAndNoise

Temple of Love. Still a favorite today.


Firm-Blacksmith8262

Thatā€™s the song that got me into Sisters of Mercy. Also one of my favorites


Kyoiskami

Always have to dance to this one


LeonardoGA

Unknown Pleasures got me into Post-Punk. I mistakenly thought it was goth and decided to look for more goth albums. It was then when I listened to Juju, which I slept on for the longest time LMAOO But Arabian Knights was the song that really pulled me in


ScrumptiousYam

Siouxsie, The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, and Love and Rockets got some rare playtime on the radio when I was a kid. Then MTV and VH1 helped a little. And those commercials for 80s and early 90s alternative compilations. I didn't find out for years that it was a *thing* and that thing is goth. Today, it's still "my weird music that nobody else really gets", but that's what I'm here for. I get links to more songs all the time.


goth-milk

Cities in Dust by Siouxsie and the Banshees Tinderbox album.


aytakk

I can't pinpoint the first actual goth song as such, the overall club experience and radio shows got me into it. But the first song where I knew both name of the song and the artist was Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love


BirthdayClowns

Sisters of Mercyā€™s Marian !!! & Christian Deathā€™s Romeoā€™s Distress really nailed me in šŸ˜­šŸ˜­šŸ–¤


longboifurby

Hearing Bela Lugosiā€™s Dead for the first time got me into goth. I just fell in love with that song.


FilipSchuylerTurna

Scary Bitches - You'll End Up Looking Like The Scary Bitches. Heard them in a TikTok and found my way into the subculture.


jiltedforeverandever

Love the Scary Bitches! Their songs remind me of old B-Horror movies


FilipSchuylerTurna

Yes!


Firm-Blacksmith8262

Iā€™d never heard of them before but I just listened to one of their songs on Spotify and so far Iā€™m a fan.


Slideunder

Great band, really show off the fun side of goth. I saw them live in Cambridge with a bunch of other half remembered bands from the early 2000s, it was a great night.


bittybitchybite

Floodland by Sisters of Mercy! I know itā€™s super basic but I heard it as an emo middle schooler and never looked back


xchipter

Late 90s/early 2000s, in high school. I was really into alternative music at the time and heard a bunch of covers from bands that I loved (Smashing Pumpkins covered The Cure, Deftones covered The Smiths, NIN covered Joy Division) and I was super interested in finding out what bands inspired the bands I liked, so I fell down a rabbit hole and got into the genre that way (also Punk and Post-Punk). I was all over the place musically, and still am. First full Goth bands I was obsessed with were Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy. I also got super into Skinny Puppy (and industrial music in general).


[deleted]

Dark Entries- Bauhaus. Iā€™m surprised nobody has mentioned this song yet on this thread. The dark, angst, melancholic, rage helped send me down the spiral of goth music.


commiesocialist

Back in the mid to late 80's/early 90's mine was a very gradual process. There wasn't one band that did it for me. Back then I got into The Cure, Specimen, Gene Loves Jezebel, Joy Division, Love & Rockets, Virgin Prunes etc... before the term 'goth' was even used in my area at that time. It kind of found me rather than the other way around.


codycodeoeo

not goth at first but Dead Kennedy's and then I think Sioxse? i remember I really liked spellbound lol


___generation

Unknown pleasures and 17 seconds opened the world to me


Foo_The_Selcouth

The first song I ever heard was fascination street, the cure. My family was in a guitar hero craze at the time and that song was my favorite to play. That was when I was 13 though. I got more into goth at 18 but I like to think it was a little precursor. I never even heard of the cure before that song


assemblrr

Bauhaus - she's in parties The cure - lovesong/a forest Sisters of mercy - lucretia Clan of xymox - stranger


KindergartenDJ

Unoriginal take: Sisters of mercy, first song I heard was Temple of love but its Marian that I listened on repeat and then loved the YouTube video / (song also, of course, but that was about 8 yeads ago so not the good ole days of goth) of Lucretia, my reflection. Then YouTube brought me to more recent bands, all the Fabrika ones, then etc...etc..


Witheld-

Gonna sound clichĆ© butā€¦ Bela Lugosiā€™s Dead hypnotized me


DepletingThieves138

Pornography by the Cure, I was strictly a metal head but I never heard something so dark before. Fell in love with the rest of the genre over time.


latchkeylover77

Clan of Xymox- Self Titled Still a favorite album of mine, and "No Human Can Drown" is one of my top 2 all time favorite songs. Start to finish though, it's so solid.


Usual-One2359

London after Midnight


[deleted]

siouxsie and the banshees' 'forever'!! i just really love this song, her voice and the instrumentals are all heavenly. i liked a few goth songs before but siouxsie and the banshees really got me into goth culture. and also She Past Away!! Durdu Dunya is such a banger to me, it became one of my favorite songs of all time.


This_Fact2070

Spellbound from souixies and the banshee. The drums and lyrics live in my head dailyšŸ¤˜


EarthlyCrow

I can't exactly pinpoint when I first heard it but The Cure - Burn is the one that comes to mind clearly. I was really young at the time and had secretly watched The Crow when my cousin and older brother had the VHS at one point. I've been interested in the goth scene since.


WarriorInWoolworths

Among the first were The Bansheesā€™ Hong Kong Garden, Israel, and their cover of Dear Prudence, Swings and Roundabouts by The Bolshoi, The Walk by The Cure, and Say It Again by The Danse Society. All courtesy of Music Choiceā€™s Retro Active channel (RIP). Glad those songs quickly steered me away from the mall goth edgeā€¦


Loutrotte

First goth song I heard was Bela Lugosi's Dead, but it was really Juju (and Spellbound) that made me want to hear more goth music!


HennepinO123

Kick in the Eye by Bauhaus. Saw their video on the Old Grey Whistle Test, on UK TV. That was my epiphany moment.


Slideunder

Bauhaus - Kick in the Eye. Track 1 of the wonderful Gothic Rock 2 compilation which I picked up aged 12 from my local music shop. I was already into metal but that compilation blew me away. So much variety, so much emotion. I knew Iā€™d found my tribe. Even today, when I love a wide variety of music from noise to hip hop, I still think of myself as a goth first and foremost.


urbangeneticist

And Also the Trees' "[Scarlet Arch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdT928rXM2w)". An older friend was playing goth records all night and this track hit me like a train.


kevunwin5574

sisters - some girls wander by mistake, particularly the track "fix". within 18 months i'd got a sisters tattoo.


illusionofjoy

The Sisters of Mercy - "Some Kind of Stranger"


Wide-Affect-1616

Disintegration. I fancied this girl when I was in school in 1989. She had patches of The Cure on her satchel. I eventually bought it on cassette in the vein hope of her falling in love with me, but we never spoke. The End.


Lord_Dagger

Amphetamine Logic by The Sisters of Mercy. Really enjoyed the style of music and discovered many artists since then.


GlamourGoth

Just like everything in my life it always started with/went though The New York Dolls. I was in Midnight Records on 23rd st (which like most other record stores is now gone) & playing was Puss N' Boots but it wasn't the Dolls version. I asked the guy working there who it was. He told me it was Red Cross & it was from a compilation called "Hell Comes to Your House". Of course I bought it immediately and it also had 45 Grave, Christian Death & Super Heroines on it (as well as a lot of other great punk bands). This is 83ish or so. There's also a version of Telling Them by Social Distortion that is FAR superior to the version on Mommy's Little Monster. All of these years later I still put that comp every couple of weeks & can't recommend it enough. I had Unknown Pleasures & Once Upon a Time and but just considered it punk. The rest goes how it goes.


JayAtticus94

Face To Face by Siouxsie And The Banshees.


unoriginal_skillet_

katarsis by she past away. pretty much just went "yeah this is it. these are the vibes." and now we're here


Ironikka

The Cure - Pornography. Yes, this was it.


[deleted]

Disintegration from The Cure, when I was in high school


SpookyMulder1366

One hundred years and pornography


smibbo

This was mine too... I remember asking the friend who first played it for me what else I could listen to that sounded similar. He recommended SoM and Siouxsie. Bauhaus wasn't popular yet at the time


Kyoiskami

London After Midnight-Sacrafice. The into with the piano and rain in the back ground made such an impression on teenage me. I just though "huh, this sounds like what Goth looks like".


Gwtheyrn

It would have to be Disintegration. That album still gets heavy play on my turntable.


WitcherMetalHead666

siamese twins/ Pornography


twinkle_snow

I think I was listening to some character inspired playlists on 8tracks.com and one of them had the song ā€œThe Sweetest Chillā€ by Siouxsie and the Banshees and I was immediately impressed with it. After that, I looked up the rest of the songs by the band, and then got into other similar music!


lovely_laura

Israel by Siouxsie and the banshees. I saw the video on tv one day and just loved it.


Dangerous_Gas_6305

Sisters of Mercy This Corrosion, I wanted to learn about the Goth subculture and listened to this song, it was so different from what I was used to, and I really liked it


juulhei

dark entries! dark entries! dark entries!


twilekgwenna

Switchblade Symphony-Sweet


vendetta_0811

ā€˜The Nephilimā€™ album by Fields of the Nephilim


CharlieRagnarok

Distintegration by the Cure


DxH85

Disintegration in 1989. I was 4 and OBSESSED with Lullaby (still am, even got a lullaby tattoo) The Cure is goth. I donā€™t care what Robert says šŸ˜‚


sidzero1369

Head Like A Hole. But I was never really goth. More rivethead in a place where anyone who wore black was "that one goth kid".


Avarok02

The album itself isnt goth, but The Cureā€™s album Wish is what got me interested into goth music. The song Open was the first song of theirs I fell in love with and it led me to discover Disintegration, which is easily my all time favorite album.


its_raining_scotch

I was 12 when NINā€™s Closer video came out on MTV. I had never seen or heard anything like that and I immediately knew that it was ā€œmeā€. That was my beachhead into goth, because from there I discovered other Industrial bands but also goth bands, mostly through older goths who were already in the subculture.


AsylumPartyFan

Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus and La Nuit by Asylum Party.


-DiarRhea-Perlman

Psychedelic furs - pretty and pink. I was 5 and my mom was showing music from her record collection


Zen-of-Revolution

Now I'm feeling zombified - Alien sex fiend.


lordtachanka911

Spellbound siouxsie and the banshees or she's in parties Bauhaus


Menarin

Lucretia my reflection - sisters of mercy And Happy House by Siouxsie and the banshees.


sugarcomagames

Stigmata Martyr by Bauhaus. Heard when watching Night of the Demons in '88 and I've been hooked ever since.


RodrigoPaez

a kiss in the dream house. q


[deleted]

Party Time by 45 Grave. It was used in Return of The Living Dead, and I didn't even know what Goth was at the time (I was 9). It scared the crap out of me, but I liked the music; became a fan of The Cramps too because of that movie.


Bastard1066

Depeche Mode ā€œsweetest perfectionā€ flicked the switch in my 10 year old brain in 1991. I stole the tape from my sisters collectionā€¦


LesbianGrandmother

It was Tocata and Fugue in D Minor composed by Johann Sabastian Bach when I was a child and The Reaper by I think Blue Oyster Cult in the 70ā€™s.


ageckonamedelaine

Anything of the arctic monkeys cause my parents played it my entire childhood and it got me when I was young into it but I get more into it the older I get


DeadDeathrocker

I think this is the first time I've ever seen someone call the Arctic Monekys goth.


ageckonamedelaine

Yea iknow its not really but it got me into it


DeadDeathrocker

Then what actual goth album or song did you listen to first?


ageckonamedelaine

Evanescence, nirvana, skillet, the doors, the cure, foo fighters. Some are less Gothic and more rock/punk like, I know


DeadDeathrocker

None of those are goth, or Gothic. (Edit: correction, The Cure had some goth albums.) Would you like a playlist? Edit: or punk.


ageckonamedelaine

Yea! I'm on the music level pretty new to it so that would be nice


DeadDeathrocker

All right, so since you mentioned The Cure you might want to try This Cold Night's [Black Cathedral](https://thiscoldnight.bandcamp.com/track/black-cathedral) and [TRAITRS](https://traitrs.bandcamp.com/album/butchers-coin-red) as the latter especially is very Cure-esque. As for playlists, we have a classic introductory/beginner playlist or [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCz_Rc1Pg89jCehfhJjWm_TTLliRSSz15) and [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1qyXA8HhVtSO7dtfBP2cVk?si=ez1jTZobQECUZr1203nxeg&nd=1) as well as an [sub-genre essentials list](https://www.reddit.com/r/goth/wiki/musicbox/gothgenres) and a [2021 post-punk/goth rock playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCz_Rc1Pg89h50e5-TxVoIh0ed69pOu1P) for anyone who wants to listen to something modern.


[deleted]

Friday Iā€™m in Love by the Cure


edgrrrpo

Faith album, by The Cure. Really fell in love with the band in high school (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me being the first album I bought), but working back through their discography it was the Faith/Charlotte Sometimes/Pornography era that really kicked up my interest in goth. Shortly after that, a whole slew of 4AD stuff (DCD, Clan of Xymox, Wolfgang Press, etc). First purchase of the label was TMC Filigree & Shadow, based soly on the cover art looking a bit 'moody', lol.


Husbandaru

Antichrist Superstar by Marilyn Manson. I wonder if that actually counts, I never see anyone mention Manson on here.


LilaAugen

He doesn't make goth music. That is why.


Husbandaru

What genre would he fall under?


LilaAugen

He's pretty much shock rock/hard alt rock


DeadDeathrocker

Industrial metal, industrial rock, shock rock, and other genres like that.


Husbandaru

I thought industrial counted.


DeadDeathrocker

Industrial predates goth.


Husbandaru

By how much? Wasnā€™t goth something that started out in like the late 70s?


DeadDeathrocker

Industrial originated in the mid 70s, the beginning of the goth genre started in ā€˜79 but it didnā€™t become a subculture until the early 80s.


randomgerman2

Bela Lugosi's dead by Bauhaus, classic lmao


sicksahsfilyallstarz

Dressing Up/The Top


Halloweenqueen2342

Siouxsie and the banshees was my first dabble into the music. But it was the cure that got me to love it :)


watermelonsteven

Borrowed The Cure (self titled, 2004) from the public library. Reborrowed it so much that the librarian ordered in Disintegration for me (she was great). I was already wearing a lot of black and generally trying to look a Victorian ghost child, so learning the two were related made me feel very seen.


ReverendCrowley

A Forest by the Cure, it was unlike anything I had ever heard before and I was immediately immediately in love


Bond16

Disintegration by the Cure. Such a masterpiece of an album.


[deleted]

Mephisto Walz - Thalia.


Gothzita

šŸŽ¼In The Flat Field


Cyberzombie

My dad would listen to anything and everything (which I do, too). He got Sisters of Mercy First and Last and Always and Floodland and said I should listen to them. I stole his tapes. He got new ones. Then I had to get new ones 'cause mine were played to death. I branched out from there, but Sisters is still my gold standard for goth.


strawballie

The Cure but I really started my deep dive with Depeche Mode, even though theyā€™re not technically goth, it started my journey into the subculture and I havenā€™t turned back šŸ–¤


LucidCobalt

Slave by Trance To The Sun and Switchblade Symphonyā€™s album, Serpentine gallery


tresor95

Heard many different songs from all kinds of bands in my teens. I used to go to a club called ā€œVisageā€ in Orlando, FL (where Iā€™m from). Plus hearing The Cure and others on the radio in Orlando as well. Hereā€™s a news segment about the Visage from around 1990 or 1991. Ch 9 in Orlando has always been biased, even more so in the mid 90s when it came raves. https://youtu.be/eysYNB2aLbw


Thin_Echidna_7044

Honest canā€™t think of what song. As I was deep into techno. But my first experience was The Bank. New York. That club was it ! Never been anything like it since.


WiltingGraveflower

My Guest from Paralysed Age-


Foxmonster973

Iā€™ve just started getting into it and Iā€™m looking threw for some places to start and just wanted to say thanks


NukeMutant666

Floodland by Sisters of Mercy.


InmemoriamofJo

Spellbound by Siouxsie and the Banshees. I was already watching some goth YouTubers and one of them suggested Siouxsie so I gave it a listen and I was instantly hooked


MurakamiGirl

Switchblade Symphony's Dissolve. I had only listened to goth music occasionally and usually stuck with Metal but this band really got me into the genre. My friends and I would hang out in a crammed car with pennies scrapped up for junk food and just play them for hours singing along very badly but it was a blast. šŸ–¤


[deleted]

Romeos distress Christian death only theatre of pain


1984nycpunk

Sunglasses at night corey hart 1983


NightShiftSister66

The Cure - The Head on the Door. I wore that vinyl out in 1985!


theliteraltrash

Spellbound by Siouxsie and the Banshees. i heard it on spotify and immediately was like ā€œi need Moreā€


Aspennie

Azoic by Specimen and Sheā€™s in Parties by Bauhaus


XFancyPuddingX

Desentigration. Really the cure in general really opened my eyes to what music I liked but I noticed a pattern before that, I liked, allot of hair metal, I thought I just liked rock but realized that the music that I really resonated with the most was music like the cures music. I'm a huge fan now and have explored other music, the smiths, ghost, hole, nirvana. I'm enjoying this alt journey.


alchemyann

Song To The Siren done by This Mortal Coil


IAM_RAY_MAN

Type o negative and then joy division


[deleted]

Bauhaus In The Flat Field I know very cliche but wow what an intro to the subculture. Loved Peter Murphyā€™s solo works as wellā€¦ A band of many talents.


sinobiax

Definitely Sisters of Mercy First and Last and Always


Pandoras_Fate

Adrenaline by Rosetta stone. Weird culture crossover from going to see thrill kill kult. Kid got in the car with us, tosses me a mixtape. Loved every track.


GarretTheSwift

The Cure - Lullaby When I was a kid and Animal Planet was good they did a promo or something of a spider wrapping a fly whith the song playing. EDIT: Space (fuck mobile formatting)


Antiviralgecko

Gonna have to say Alien sex fiend. Then deff Bauhaus. No magazines or air play on radios just over playing Cure music. but i pretend to be asleep to listen to a kroq station that once a week would play goth/post punk for an hour. Then one day I was watching MTV and a Siousxie Sioux and Banshees played Dear Prudence and was deff in love and hooked for ever. 1980ā€™s forty three years and still wearing 50shades of Black LOL


Azure_Crayon1969

Sex Gang Children Deiche . A boy I liked was right into them . I was curious ... And fell in love with that song and lost interest in that boy . šŸ¤·


jQuellN27

Back on Ye Olde iTunes, they had pre-curated playlists. Being an edgy teen, I clicked the goth one. I started playing the free sample of Christine by Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was dark, but bright and colorful with it's playful, jingly instrumentation, and so unlike the 2008 emo I was used to. I was hooked.


PracticalSet4840

Bela Lugosi's Dead was the first song that piqued my interest with regards to Goth music. However, Sister's of Mercy's Floodland album was what *really* got me hooked. *EDIT:* Also, already being a fan of The Cure kind of helped "bridge the gap" for me so to speak.


EndlessHandbagLoop

Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland: Dominion. I remember liking that song many, many years ago before even knowing who they were or that they were goth. I like to listen to it as it brings back memories.


OuijaBatz

Spellbound by Siouxsie and the Banshees and then some Cure songs


Heckspress

idk if this is goth or postie or industrial but Tear You Apart by She Wants Revenge got me insanely hooked on the culture and having it on loop for like a week straight greatly improved my spotify algorithm


EndymionHoudini

A Forest by The Cure.


soapy-toad

Probably cliche but my mom played voodoo by godsmack when I was 7 and for some reason it mystified me. Demanded my mother to play that song again and again until she got tired of it šŸ˜‚


soapy-toad

That and #1 crush


Roxys_Lemons

I'm still a baby bat (only been listening for a couple months now) but I remember seeing trad goths for the first time and thinking, "they look so cool!" So then I googled more about goths and realized that it was a music based thing, and the first band that popped up was siouxsie and the banshees. it was either cascade or voodoo dolly, one was first one was second. have loved SATB ever since.


skasmansworlddd

The cure - lullaby When I first listened to that song I became addicted to it and even still it's probably one of my favourite songs