Which band founded horror punk?

horrorpunker · Which band founded horror punk?

The answer is always the misfits but theres some bands who came close
45 grave in 1979 or TSOL also in 1979 does anyone else know any very early horror punk bands in the 70's, i mean there must be some but not goth or deathrock bands.

Tommy Hopeless

Not many people know this but there was an artist in the 50's called Screamin' Jay Hawkins who used to start off his shows by emerging from a coffin, he'd sing to a skull and set off smoke bombs, he sometimes performed whith his clothes covered in fake blood too. No doubt he would have had other stage props aswell. His biggest hit was "I Put A Spell On You". There was even an English version of the "character" called Screaming Lord Sutch.

You could argue that these artists (namely Hawkins, who came up with the gimmick first) started the whole horror rock thing, I mean, everyone knows that the Misfits were hugely influenced by 50's rock n' roll music so if you put 2 & 2 together it makes perfect sense.

Also, a huge amount of horror punk/horror rock bands draw influences from the 50's rock n' roll scene so to me it makes perfect sense that it all started back then.

Going back to the actual horror punk arguement - Some say the Misfits created it in the late 70's but in the mid 70's the Ramones were recording songs about horror films, namely "Chainsaw" (based on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Pinhead (based on Freaks), Teenage Lobotomy (loosely based on the Frankenstein story) all of these songs were recorded before the Misfits even formed. The Ramones have a lot of songs based on horror and sci-fi, it's a shame that they don't get a lot of credit in the horror punk world.

DoctorVonBracken

i thought loads of people knew that lol

Tommy Hopeless

So did I but recently people have been proving me wrong haha!

zombiesatemybrain

I knew that too Razz

I think I'll have a listen to Mr Hawkins now as a matter of fact Smile

MonsterMash

If you have to pigeonhole bands into X is this genre, Y is that, I'd say 45 Grave were more deathrock anyway, and TSOL kind of invented that whole SoCal gothic punk thing, but weren't really a purely horror band.

Who invented horror punk? Buggered if I know.

Yeah, there's Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Lord Sutch in the 50s, using horror props in their stage shows. You've got 60s novelty records like 'The Monster Mash' and people like Arthur Brown, then in the 70s you've got Alice Cooper, and bands like The Damned, with Dave Vanian's Dracula image, and The Cramps writing songs about old B-movies and trash culture.

And obviously then the Misfits.

Really, I'd say it's something that evolved over time, like a lot of musical styles, rather than being invented from scratch by one particular band.

zombiesatemybrain

Ah, is that what so cal is, I shant mention them in certain other quaters then... Rolling Eyes

MonsterMash

Oh no, that's specifically SoCal psychobilly they don't like. Which essentially means Tiger Army. I think it's just them having a dig at Tiger Army fans, is all.

You can probably talk about TSOL all you like (and should, they're great, well they were until they started hanging out with Guns n Roses and playing glam rock...)

DoctorVonBracken

im a tiger army fan hate me!

zombiesatemybrain

MonsterMash