Deathrock

Often overlapping with, and sometimes considered a subgenre of, gothic rock, the genre was pioneered by bands from the early 1980s Los Angeles punk scene, including Christian Death, Kommunity FK, 45 Grave and the Super Heroines.

The use of lyrics can vary, but are typically introspective and surreal, and deal with the dark themes of isolation, gloom, disillusionment, loss, life, death, etc.

[2] The term "deathrock" was first used in the 1950s to describe a thematically related genre of rock and roll, which began in 1958 with Jody Reynolds' "Endless Sleep"[3] and ended in 1964 with J. Frank Wilson's "Last Kiss".

[7] It most likely came from one of three sources: Rozz Williams, the founding member of Christian Death, to describe the sound of his band; the music press, reusing the 1950s term to describe an emerging subgenre of punk; and/or Nick Zedd's 1979 film They Eat Scum, which featured a fictitious cannibalistic "deathrock" punk band called "Suzy Putrid and the Mental Deficients.

"[8] The earliest influences for some deathrock acts can be traced to the horror-themed novelty rock and roll acts of the late 1950s and early 1960s such as Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers and Zacherle with "Monster Mash";[9] Screamin' Jay Hawkins with "I Put a Spell on You"; Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages with "Murder in the Graveyard";[10] and Don Hinson and the Rigormorticians with "Riboflavin-Flavored Non-Carbonated Poly-Unsaturated Blood".

[11] Contemporarily, the 1979 single "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by British post-punk group Bauhaus was one of the major influences amongst the early deathrock scene.

[1] The Flesh Eaters too took a macabre take on early LA punk, by merging the sound with lyrics influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, the Beat Generation and Catholicism.

[1] Nonetheless, amongst this splinter bands began to form merging the sounds of Los Angeles punk rock with these darker elements to create deathrock.

[10] Tracks by several of these acts were featured on 1981's Hell Comes to Your House compilation LP, which represented an early attempt to collect and promote local artists on the cutting edge of this new, darker version of L.A. punk.

[27] By the time that the Sisters of Mercy gained widespread success in the scene, the term "deathrock" had predominantly fallen out of use and the style was viewed as simply a subgenre of gothic rock.

In these genres, bands including Deathcharge, Cemetery, Lost Tribe and Christ vs Warhol, merged deathrock into hardcore punk and D-beat templates.