Obviously the group was soon tagged "Godfathers of Goth-Rock", but this only reflects part of the truth. At the beginning of their career Bauhaus had little in common with the music scene around the Batcave club. It was only later that Bauhaus developed a resemblance to the Goth scene, if only for their looks.

Music-wise, Bauhaus would categorize themselves as "Dark Rock'n'Roll" rather than "Goth Rock", which is remarkable as the band had their roots in 1970ies Glam-Rock rather than Punk or New Wave. At the end of the day, Bauhaus were certainly influenced by the likes of early David Bowie, The Stooges and Roxy Music - a fact often ignored by some Bauhaus-enthusiasts. In fact, some of the songs Bauhaus have played and recorded, are plain Rock'n'Roll: just listen to their version of Marc Bolan's "Telegram Sam".

It didn't take long for Bauhaus to gain enough popularity to put out a record that did not feature any of the singles they had released before (1980ies' "In the Flat Field" on the 4AD label). Soon they were to sign a recording contract with independent label Beggar's Banquet, a proof of their relatively quick success.

Bauhaus however followed their chosen path with only minor deviations: a song like "Kick in the Eye" was certainly more commercial and dance-oriented than previous titles, and the second album "Mask" did show some maturity - but all this would do Bauhaus no harm, quite on the contrary: for the first time, the established music media showed interest in the band. Peter Murphy had a guest appearance at "Maxell-Tape-TV" and in the horror-movie "The Hunger" (starring Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie), singing the lines of "Bela Lugosi is dead".

The close relationship to former Glam-Rock-hero Bowie was even more obvious when in 1982 Bauhaus covered "Ziggy Stardust", one of his greatest hits ever. Bauhaus however never were the music media's darlings, a fact they did not much care about. At one time they showed up an overly impertinent journalist in front of a huge audience in order to point out that they were not dependent on the favour of the music press.
 
> Bauhaus and their uncommon sense