Head Over to the Dark Side: 8 Proto-Goth Style Icons Inline
Photo: Getty Images1/8Alice Cooper
The theatrics of Alice Cooper’s earliest stage shows—snakes, skulls, and all—long prefigured “shock rock.”
Photo: © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo2/8Vampira
Horror hostess with the mostess Vampira, née Maila Nurmi.
Photo: © Photos 12 / Alamy Stock Photo3/8Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
A somnambulist murderer who sleeps in a coffin? Conrad Veidt’s portrayal of Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (1920) might just be the O.G.—original goth, that is.
Photo: Getty Images4/8Dave Vanivan (with former wife Lori)
The Damned are most notable as a punk powerhouse, but even from the band’s earliest days, frontman Dave Vanian’s look brimmed over with a certain vampiric appeal.
Photo: Getty Images5/8Lou Reed
The monochromatic uniforms favored by Lou Reed and John Cale during their Velvet Underground days reached a dramatic new high circa the early ’70s when Reed struck out on his own.