#bauhuas

[jfcollage]

Bad Bunny collage by me ❤️🖤

[jake-04]

I did some research on Bauhuas for a history of rock course. The information might not be 100% accurate but I’m kinda proud of how it came out. The performance I mentioned is the 2005 Coachella Performance.

In the 70s there was a specific subset of people, known as “bat cavers”. These people would dress up in messy hair known as the “bats nest” and wear black clothes with black on white makeup. These people were also seemingly obsessed with morbid and spooky topics. Today people like this are known as “goths” and the popularity of this subculture can be attributed to the release of 1979’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by post punk band, Bauhaus.

At the time of release post punk wasn’t related to goth people so much as it is today, so one can imagine the public’s shock after hearing this eerie 10 minute track about a dead actor. What made this song so special was the eerie tone of the guitar, strong drum backbeat, distortion, and the morbid theme of the lyrics. This song can be loosely placed into multiple genres, the most striking of these being the reggae genre. When compared to genres surrounding reggae, like 2-tone ska, it becomes more apparent.

This cemented what the post-punk genre would become over the next 40 years. Post release, the song was described as “gothic”, thus sparking the new genre and subset of music culture.

“Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, on the surface, is a ten minute song about a dead actor, specifically, the actor that played Count Dracula in the 1931 film “Dracula”. However, there are multiple ways to look at the lyrics. The most prominent being the description of Bela Lugosi’s burial. Apart from the repeated “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, there are three lines that outline this exactly. The first line is “the victims have been bled.” This can be seen as the preparation for the burial where the embalmer rids the body of fluids and unnecessary items. “Red velvet lines the black box” is a reference to how Bela’s coffin was lined with red velvet. “The virginal brides file past his tomb” is his visitors walking by his tomb.

However, if you know about goth culture and its origins, there is another meaning to these lyrics. “White on white translucent black capes, back on the rack” can be seen as the commercialization of this sub-culture of people, the same can be said for the line “the victims have been bled” where the victims are the bat cavers who’ve been bled of their culture. “The bats have left the bell tower” is referring to the closing of the old goth club “The Bell Tower” in London and also about the term “bat cavers” “leaving”, or being replaced by the term “goth”.

The performance that I have linked took place at Coachella in 2005. Bauhaus was on stage, shrouded in darkness, and started with the simple drum backbeat. The entire band is dressed in gothic black clothes and the stage is barely lit once the lights come on, adding to the eerienes of the band and its music. The lights come on at the first beat of the drum to reveal Peter Murphy, the vocalist, hanging upside down as if he was a bat. Right off the bat this performance is very gothically inspired. Everyone in the crowd is excited and screaming. At one point the bassist crosses his arms over his chest as if he was Dracula rising out of his coffin. Bauhaus is an excellent example of a post punk band that really took on the gothic themes of the genre.

Thanks for reading! 🖤

[abwwia]

Gertrud Arndt (German, born Poland, 1903-2000) Masked Self-Portrait (No. 16) 1930 Gelatin silver print 8 15/16 × 6 15/16 in. (22.7 × 17.6cm) Museum Folkwang, Essen

Gertrud Arndt (née Hantschk; 20 September 1903 – 10 July 2000) was a German photographer and designer associated with the Bauhaus movement. She is remembered for her pioneering series of self-portraits from around 1930. via Wikipedia

[salviaspine]

Propaganda Magazine, issue 25, Pages 20 and 21.

Published Winter 1999.

[kafkasapartment]

Pierre Jeanneret

Office Chair, 1955

Wood and teck (teak).

[vampire-meta-knight]

Which of these classic goth bands is your favorite?

Bauhaus

The Sisters of Mercy

The Cure

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Joy Division

Christian Death

Alien Sex Fiend

Suspiria

Show Results

Voting ended onMar 8, 2023

[stoogeaohlic-11]

Peter Murphy

[marieemaar]

The Hunger , 1983. Tony Scott - Forever