The Art of Darkness

(In deutsch: hier)

„Thick enough to stun an ox,“ Laurie Anderson once said about a book. This one, at 738 pages, certainly fits that description. Nearly a hundred of those pages are dedicated solely to sources, author’s notes, and the index of names and titles. It took me about four weeks to read the book, but despite some slow patches, it was ultimately worthwhile.

However, it’s important to know what the book is actually about. The Art of Darkness – The History of Goth only indirectly discusses Gothic culture as a scene. That would indeed be a very broad field with many branches. There is no single „scene,“ and the scenes in England, the USA, and Germany have certainly not developed identically. John Robb therefore focuses on a specific area: the music. He describes its development largely organized by the cities of the featured bands and musicians.

He does this with great care and considerable research. The number and detail of the interviews Robb conducted himself with bands and musicians is remarkable (and at times, quite lengthy). I was particularly surprised whom he includes in the precursors of Goth rock: The spectrum ranges from David Bowie, T. Rex, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Grace Jones, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Kate Bush, and Kraftwerk, all the way to the Glitter Band, Suzi Quatro, and The Sweet – the influences from which Gothic rock emerged. And while this might initially seem surprising, Robb’s presentation usually makes sense.

The main focus, however, is on the encyclopedic-essayistic accounts of the bands and artists that one would typically categorize as Gothic: From Bauhaus, The Cure, The Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Killing Joke, the Sisters of Mercy, Throbbing Gristle, Philipp Boa, Depeche Mode, Blixa Bargeld and Einstürzende Neubauten, to (repeatedly) Nick Cave & The Birthday Party, all the usual suspects are present. This is highly interesting in parts, especially the early stages; however, the lengthy reproduction of the interviews is sometimes a little tedious and not always productive.

It’s fascinating to trace how the various bands, artists, styles, and local characteristics gradually come together and merge into a recognizable whole without losing their individual identities. Different genres also converge: New Romance, Industrial, Electronic, Punk, but also simply Pop. Significant differences between Europe and the USA are also evident.

Some names one would expect to find are dealt with surprisingly briefly, such as Lydia Lunch, Ultravox!, Nico, or Diamanda Galás, or they are completely absent, such as Wolfsheim, De/Vision, Lacrimosa, London After Midnight, or Anne Clark, to name just a few. But I know it’s impossible to list them all; doing so would exceed the scope of even these 738 pages, and I don’t know of any more extensively researched book on the subject anyway.

John Robb:
The Art of Darkness — The History of Goth
Manchester University Press 2023
ISBN 978-1-5361-7676-9
This book is now also available in a German translation, but I don’t know it.