Gothabilly

Gothabilly is one of several music and cultural subgenres of rockabilly. The earliest known use of the word gothabilly was by The Cramps in the late 1970s, to describe their blend of somber, rockabilly-influenced punk rock. Since then the term has come to describe a fashion and music trend that bridges both the gothic and rockabilly subcultures.

Gothabilly is particularly active in the western portion of the United States, with many of today's bands originating in California.

Gothabilly is a musical subgenre that developed from mixing the gothic subculture with rockabilly music. Gothabilly retains the country music and blues influences of rockabilly but adds aspects of punk rock and gothic rock to create a distinct combination of styles. The gothabilly sound was defined in the mid 1980s embodied by a slower tempo and melancholy ambience with romantic, literary, occult and religious themes. More recent adopters had brought a faster pace and horror themes often with a humorous or comic attitude with deliberately cheesy themes, such as camp 1960s monster movies and the television shows like The Addams Familyand The Munsters.

Gothabilly is frequently viewed as a sub-sect of the psychobilly subgenre, as both use the upright double bass and simple rhythms of rockabilly chord progressions and incorporating punk influences. However, gothabilly differs from psychobilly in that gothabilly lacks much of psychobilly's aggression and incorporates aspects of gothic music such as jangly guitars drowned in reverb, rolling jungle drums, organs, and tends to be slower and more atmosphere-oriented. While both incorporate monsters, ghosts and other horror imagery and themes, gothabilly adds aspects of the romantic and paranormal.

Gothabilly style is a tongue-in-cheek play on 1950s-inspired kitsch aesthetics of the rockabilly subculture, but with a dark gothic influence, blending retro rock and roll fashions with the somber features of goth.

Typical Gothabilly Outfit

The gothabilly wardrobe incorporates some style elements from the retro culture revival, including: stylized flames, 50's tattoo imagery, animal prints, creeper shoes, cherry accessories and ubiquitous polka dot clothes, pencil skirts, fishnet stockings and high heels, all popular in both the rockabilly and psychobilly scenes.The goth influence can be seen in the softer textures of black silks, satins, lace and velvet, corsets, top hats, antique jewelry, PVC, and leather.

The term gothabilly is used not only to describe a musical genre but a fashion and a lifestyle as well. Gothabilly and psychobilly both enjoy the sound of the double bass and share interests in B-rated horror movies, kitsch, hot rods (especially hearses, see www.hearseclub.com for example!), vintage fashion, the macabre and all things noir.

Goth influenced rockabilly band - The Horropops 

Model Anna Fur Laxis in rockabilly outfit.

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