I’m half tempted to work some of these up.
It’s hard to name any two genres that seem more innately opposed than goth and country. Country celebrates wide open spaces, the stylized echoes of cow culture, shared mythology and sketches a seemingly-firmly-rooted mode of simple mainstream American living that resonates with much of its wide audience base. Goth music is intentionally arch and occult in its trappings, naturally celebratory of social outliers and intensely nocturnal as it indulges in chilling introspection, and tends to draw listeners from iconoclastic corners.
Pare it down, though, and you’ve got parallel and maybe even complementary traditions of songwriting. Swap out some synthesizers for mandolins, take the vocals up an octave, kill the reverb, put some fringe on the vampire jacket, and suddenly the transformation is complete.
Here, then, are seven goth songs that would actually make great country songs:
bikergeek
Thanks! I am amused. Yeah, I always listened to “Cuts You Up” and thought it would make a great country tune. And that cover of “This Corrosion” is fantastic.
xiphias
Hey! Here’s another suggestion: how about “Hurt”, by Nine Inch Nails? I bet, for instance, Johnny Cash could have done a pretty good cover of that one.
batyatoon
I don’t know why the guy says goth and country are innately opposed. Content-wise, both tend to involve a lot about loneliness and pain.