The four songs that influenced Siouxsie Sioux and the sound of Siouxsie and the Banshees
For reasons unknown, locating specific influences for most pioneers of the dark wave scene feels particularly challenging. While there are the obvious names that come to mind when considering the many undertones, some, like Siouxsie Sioux and The Cure, are inexplicably harder to pick apart. Perhaps it’s because it’s a seamless mix of everything and nothing at the same time.
Emerging from the subversive explosions of the British punk scene, Siouxsie and the Banshees crafted their dark chromatic patchwork of musical excellence with a balance of rawness and refinement, underscored by what Joy Division’s Stephen Morris described as “that foreboding sound” that felt just as enticing as unsettling. Occupying one crucial pillar of the pinball machine with The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees felt like a powerful presence that was all about attitude.
According to Robert Smith, Siouxsie and the Banshees set the bar for authentic dark wave with music that changed the game and made his own vision feel entirely possible. As an unexpected member, he once recalled the experience when he first realised music could feel and sound completely different, weighted by its own realness but free from the burden of having to fit any other shape or mould.
That said, when considering the varying influences Sioux channelled in order to achieve such an immersive realm, it’s easier to see just how many sounds, atmospheres, attitudes, and innovative qualities she borrowed from earlier pioneers of the rock scene. Sioux and the band were innovators in the sense that they felt entirely authentic, but they also built upon the worlds founded by others, using them as a leg up to reach new heights of musical brilliance.
This isn’t bad; rather, it meant that she knew how to progress beyond the qualities set by her preceding icons in a way that felt new without appearing as a poor imitation. When asked in 2001 to list some songs or performances she felt particularly endeared to, she listed four that “impacted on me via that British medium”: David Bowie’s ‘Jean Genie’, Roxy Music’s ‘Virginia Plain’, Sparks’ ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’, and T Rex’s ‘Get It On’.
Interestingly, if you were to converge all four of those songs, it’s easy to imagine a perfectly replicated Siouxsie and the Banshees song, from Bowie’s unexpected flamboyance and Spark’s melodic charm to T Rex’s darkly enticing glam. However, all of this came with an additional element that tied it all together like a neatly placed bow—an intensity that added mystique, the kind that felt strangely reserved in nature but theatrical on the surface.
However, the appeal of bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure wasn’t their performativity. As Smith has discussed on numerous occasions, the music was about spotlighting all of life’s ambiguities—the good, the bad, the strange, the unkempt, the dark, the light, and everything in between. As a result, the music wasn’t seemingly “dark” for the sake of it or because that’s what others set out to achieve before. It was there because it felt like an organic centrepiece, reflecting the world in a way others hadn’t done before.
Four songs that influenced Siouxsie Sioux the most:
- David Bowie – ‘Jean Genie’
- Roxy Music – ‘Virginia Plain’
- Sparks – ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’
- T Rex – ‘Get It On’
