Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.

Back in the days of Elvis, rock was a pretty singular thing. But from that point on, things

began to get complicated. Over the decades, rock music is cleaved and separated and stratified into a

million different subtypes, punk, metal, Prague, country rock, industrial, grunge, crout

rock, emo, you know what I mean. Each subtype, and even each sub subtype or even

sub subtype, has a specific appeal to a certain audience.

This gives rise to an equal number of rock-related subcultures or sub-sub-cultures or even sub-sub-sultures.

Some of these subcultures come and go. They have a lifespan that corresponds to a particular musical trend.

And once that trend runs its course, the subculture it spawned, withers, and dies.

It happened with New Wave back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Anyone still into rockabilly?

They even grunge is gone, although its echoes remain.

But then there's goth.

Goth rock began as a spin-off from the British punk of the 1970s and became quite the

rage by the early 1980s.

But unlike a lot of rock-based subcultures, it did not wither and die.

Instead, it spread and got stronger.

Its influence began to extend beyond just music. It crept into film

and fashion and television and literature in every corner of pop culture. It is really, really

fascinating. But goth can also be very misunderstood. I mean, let's face it, the look and sound of goth can be a little scary and intimidating to the uninitiated.

And just like every subculture, it's the crazies, the extremists, that bring a bad name to everyone.

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