Your way in
Deathrock 1979
The American version, more punk and more theatrical, with tribal drums and horror-movie imagery.
- Heaviness
- 4
- Speed
- 5
- Melody
- 7
- Where from
- Los Angeles, USA
- Tempo
- 140-180 bpm
- Song length
- 3-5 min
- Written about
- Horror film imagery, Death, theatrically, Religion, blasphemously, Los Angeles
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Deathrock | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light How much weight do you want behind it? | 4 out of 10 | 80% | ×2 |
| A steady walk What pace? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1979 | 60% | ×1 |
| The dark What should the words be about? | Horror film imagery, Death, theatrically, Religion, blasphemously, Los Angeles | 100% | ×1 |
| Short. Say it and stop. How long should a song be? | up to 5 min | 75% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 85% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1, length 1 out of 7. Deathrock ties with the next, and won on being the broader of the two. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Bauhaus, In the Flat Field 1980
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead. Nine minutes that founded an entire subculture.
The pick names a track. This is the record the encyclopedia holds by them.
- 2The one to put on first
Christian Death, Only Theatre of Pain 1982
Christian Death - Only Theatre of Pain. Rozz Williams was nineteen when he wrote it.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Gothic rock, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Deathrock's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Beat / British Invasion 85%
The British took American rock and roll, added vocal harmony and shipped it back across the Atlantic. Both hard rock and pop-rock start here.
6 steps from Deathrock, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Beat / British Invasion -
Proto-metal 83%
The heavy bands from before the term existed: over-amplified acid rock, already built around the riff.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 7 steps from Deathrock.
The way into Proto-metal
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- Light put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Death metal, Brutal death metal, Sludge metal. Worth 2 of 7.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 7.
- The dark put 119 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 7.
- Short. Say it and stop. put 18 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Doom metal, Progressive rock, Progressive metal. Worth 1 of 7.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.