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Topic ClosedHawkwind's influence on gothic/industrial music

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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Hawkwind's influence on gothic/industrial music
    Posted: September 20 2014 at 14:32
This is something that has come up in a couple of threads but I haven't seen remarked upon very often: When 1960s/1970s psychedelic forerunners of the post-punk scene's darker and spacier practitioners, The Doors and the Velvet Underground are usually brought up in addition to certain Krautrock acts' bass-driven propulsive dark sparse sound, as well as David Bowie and Alice Cooper as having contributed to the image and visual aesthetic.

Yet Hawkwind aren't mentioned very often - despite having been cited as inspiration by Andrew Eldritch, Al Jourgensen, Siouxsie Sioux, Robert Smith and others influential in that scene. HW also at some point toured with Throbbing Gristle's prior incarnation COUM Transmissions, who were kind of tangential to that milieu in terms of ideology and overlapping fanbase. TG's synth-heavy droning soundscapes and dystopian futuristic atmosphere certainly are somewhere in the similar aesthetic neighbourhood, as is Ministry's from their third LP onwards combining that aesthetic with heavy guitar rock. Even in the artists referred to before, though, there are certain similarities: The often fantastic subject matter (if with different sets of symbolism) combined with a pessimistic dystopian worldview in the lyrics, the compositions being built around layering abstract guitars and synths over driving hypnotic, as well as the rather camp type of performance-art sensibility. Hell, consider this Christian Death song where the late Rozz Williams does a pretty blatant Robert Calvert impression right down to the accent:



Compare to this:



I'm guessing it's the rather different visual aesthetics, if you compare to VU or Bowie, that means the Hawks are neglected when it comes to this particular historical genealogy? (also being very "early-1970s" as opposed to "late-1980s")
"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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