Billy Corgan recently described himself as ‘an OG goth’ during a chat on ‘Howie Mandel Does Stuff’ and reflected on goth music’s influence over the years.
Asked if goth still exists, Corgan said, “Oh, yeah. It’s bigger than ever. Goth is huge now. The Cure just had the number one album in the U.K. after a 16-year absence. Well, maybe last week, but it was just now.”
He was talking about ‘Songs of a Lost World,’ The Cure’s first album since 2008. The record also topped Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart and reached Number 4 on the Billboard 200 when it came out on November 1.
Goth music started in the U.K. during the 1970s while the likes of The Cure, Joy Division, and Bauhaus brought it to wider attention. Corgan’s own band drew inspiration from them as they entered the music scene in the 1980s.
Explaining The Smashing Pumpkins’ roots, the singer said, “When people think of the ‘90s, they think of everybody bursting through the door and suddenly Kurt Cobain’s on MTV every five seconds, but really, we came out of the culture of the ‘80s, which was much smaller with factions between ska music and punk and what now is known as alternative rock. These were all just club things.”
The goth influence on The Smashing Pumpkins was most evident in their early albums, especially 1998’s ‘Adore,’ which was a commercial and critical success in the U.S. and the U.K.
But the band shifted back to a more traditional alternative rock sound in their next album, ‘Machina/The Machines of God.’ Recently, they’ve experimented with heavier metal tones in their latest release, ‘Aghori Mhori Mei’ (2024).
