Season of the witch

As Margaret Thatcher prepared to enter 10 Downing Street, four bands born of punk – Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, the Cure and Magazine – found a way to distil the dissonance and darkness of the shifting decade into a new form of music. Pushing at the taboos the Sex Pistols had unlocked and dancing with the fetishistic, all will become global stars of goth. By the time Thatcher is cast out of office in 1990, the arrival of goth will have imprinted on the cultural landscape as much as the Iron Lady herself. Now, 40 years since its inception, Cathi Unsworth provides a comprehensive overview of goth.