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Goth subculture

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Gothic girl, trad style, with spikes and piercings
This article is about the contemporary goth/gothic subculture. For the Germanic tribes of the same name, see the Goths.

Goth is a modern subculture that first became popular during the early 1980s within the gothic rock scene, a sub-genre of post punk. It is associated with characteristically "gothic" tastes in music and clothing. Styles of dress range from gothic horror, punk, Victorian, fetish, cybergoth, androgyny and/or lots of black. There is no dress code per se for goths; rather a set of accepted standards which vary according to localities and tastes.

Origins and influences

Original subculture

Long hair and black leather coats are typical features of a gothic look.

By the late 1970s, there were a small number of post punk bands in Britain labeled "gothic". However, it was not until the early 1980s that gothic rock became its own subgenre within post-punk and that followers of these bands started to come together as a distinctly recognisable group or movement. The opening of the Batcave in London's Soho in July 1982 might be seen as marking the emergence of this scene (which had briefly been labeled positive punk by the New Musical Express). As one of the most famous meeting points for early goths, it lent its name to the term "Batcaver", used to describe old-school goths.

Independent of the British scene, the late 1970s and early 1980s saw death rock branch off from American punk. With similar themes and dress, goths and death rockers were sufficiently compatible to more or less merge.

Gothic horror

Gothic girl with elaborate clothing of black lace and skull-shaped jewellery

The gothic novel of the early nineteenth century, was responsible above all else for the term gothic being associated with a mood of horror, darkness and the supernatural. They established what horror stereotypes became by featuring graveyards, ruined castles or churches, ghosts, vampires, nightmares, cursed families, being buried alive and melodramatic plots. Gothic novels are often concerned with the fate of a curious young woman, and a great deal of focus is placed on internal locations. A notable element in these novels was the brooding figure of the gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero, a key precursor in the male goth image. The most famous gothic villain of this genre would be Dracula. In 1993 Whitby became the location for what became the UK's biggest goth festival as a direct result of featuring in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Mary Shelley is known for contributing her novel "Frankenstein," which further led to constructing the popular gothic mood and mindset.

The works of Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson and H.P. Lovecraft, masters of the gothic short story, have also been an inspiration for many goths. Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron were also considered masters of the gothic horror poems. The modern figure of the femme fatale, which has its roots in Romantic literature, is a key image for female goths.

Then the latter years the Gothic Horror novel was defined by Richard Matheson and Stephen King. Blackwood shown some strong examples of the Gothic with his John Silence novels, and then with the short story The Windego. Lovecraft and Blackwood were what defined the gothic story in the early part of the 20th Century, bridging the gap from Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King. Stephen King when he does the Gothic novel puts ordinary people into horrific situations, Lovecraft's trademark was explaining the horror with scientific observations. Then in 1959, his protege, Robert Bloch, penned the Gothic horror classic, PSYCHO. 20th Century Gothic was defined more by the atmosphere in the genre than the dismal setting.

The Gothic in the literary sense is a broad term, it is hard to say off hand where it will go into the twenty-first century but there are many who are willing to adapt the old Gothic influences and make them new once again. Gothic fiction before Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, and Lovecraft wasn't very frightening and there were authors who have the Gothic sensibilities during Edgar Allan Poe's time such as Charles Dickens with his ghost stories. Some authors in the Gothic genre like to use erotic themes while other writers don't have the erotic undercurrent at all, hence they would follow by example in terms of Rod Serling. Show example here, Night Gallery, then later the novel by Macey Baggett Wuesthoff titled Sacrifice. Other examples of the Literary Gothic will be Washington Irving with the story The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

The themes from Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft helped shape the sub culture of Thrash and Speed Metal with the concepts in lyrical content. The aspects of the genre are alive and well just taken into several different directions by various modern horror authors, seeing it evolve from what it was to what it is now. Even the modern authors will echo the imaginations of the authors past. Gothic fiction in the late 20th, early twenty-first is a hard one to define who is the most important writer of this genre is but we can all agree the old Gothic fiction had created much of the impact on an entire subculture from it. As mentioned with author, Bram Stoker, with the creation of his novel had shaped what would inspire the vampire movement.

Cinema

An important medium between the goth scene and gothic literature is the modern popular horror genre, in which the horror film is paramount. One of the earliest impersonators of cinematic goth might be the silent movie actress Theda Bara. Definitive examples of the goth aesthetic in cinema during the silent era include The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, made by director Robert Wiene in 1919, and F.W. Murnau's 1922 film Nosferatu.

Imagery from horror films and television, especially the figure of the vampire and even camp horror B films such as Plan 9 From Outer Space have had significant influence on the evolution of Gothic fashion.

Hammer Horror films and 1960s TV series, such as The Addams Family, The Munsters, and Ann Radcliffe, have also inspired goths. The interconnection between horror and goth was highlighted in its early days by The Hunger, a 1983 vampire film, starring David Bowie, which featured gothic rock group Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" in a nightclub.

Some of the early gothic rock and death rock artists adopted traditional pre-sixties horror movie images and passed them onto their goth audiences. Such references in both their music and image were originally tongue-in-cheek, but as time went on, bands and members of the subculture took the connection more seriously. As a result, morbid, supernatural, and occult themes became a more noticeably serious element in the subculture.

Goth after post-punk

After the demise of post punk, Goth continued to evolve, both musically and visually. This caused variations in style ("types" of goth). Local "scenes" also contribute to this variation. By the 1990s, Victorian fashion had worked its way into the Goth scene, with the mid-19th century Gothic Revival and the morbid outlook of the Victorians (partly owing to the state of national mourning which developed in response to Prince Albert's death, and partly to the Victorians' general obsession with Christian funeral practices). The 2003 Victoria and Albert Museum Gothic exhibition in London furthered a tenuous connection between modern Goth and the medieval gothic period.

Some contemporary media popular among Goths include Anne Rice's novels (The Vampire Chronicles) and notable movies such as The Crow and the movies of Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, etc.), as well as roleplaying games like Ravenloft and Vampire The Masquerade. Cyberpunk, rave culture and anime have also influenced the Goth scene, giving rise to cybergoth.

Over time, the community has developed its own goth slang, with regional variations.

Music

Main article: gothic rock

Since the late 1970s, the number of Gothic or Death Rock bands were limited in number, and included bands such as The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Birthday Party, The Damned, and Joy Division. Many people credit Bauhaus' first single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", about the Romanian actor who was famous for Dracula, with the start of the Gothic movement. By the mid-eighties, these bands began proliferating, including Sisters of Mercy, The Mission UK, Fields of the Nephilim, and This Mortal Coil. The nineties saw the further growth of eighties bands and emergence of many new bands, most of the North American examples being released by the Cleopatra label, such as Mephisto Waltz, Switchblade Symphony, London After Midnight, Christian Death, and Alien Sex Fiend. In the US, the subculture grew especially in New York and Los Angeles, with many nightclubs featuring gothic/industrial nights.

Since the mid-1990s, styles of music that can be heard in goth venues range from gothic rock, industrial, EBM, synthpop, punk, metal, techno, 1980s dance music, and several others, although this does not represent a variety of music that is considered gothic mainstream, but rather a convention among DJ and nightclub owners to condense the number of nights devoted to any particular music venue.

Today, the scene is most active in Western Europe, especially Germany, with large festivals such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Zillo, M'era Luna and others drawing tens of thousands of fans from all over the world.

Bands such as Marilyn Manson, Type O Negative, and Cradle of Filth are often considered to be Gothic, though many "purists" refuse to consider them as such. The popularity of bands such as 4AD music label artists This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance resulted in the creation of a label called Projekt that produces what is colloquially termed Ethereal Goth or Darkwave. Bands which fall under the Darkwave category include Lycia, Project Pitchfork, Love Spirals Downwards, and Black Tape for a Blue Girl.

Contemporary proliferation of the term Goth

In recent years, the word Goth has often been used to describe a wider social group of people. These might include people with a tendency to wear black clothes or wear goth-style make up. Often, those labelled as Goths lack many of the characteristics historically associated with the subculture, and are more correctly called mallgoths in the US, gogans in Australia, spooky kids in the UK, and moshers or emos in Ireland, where a surprisingly large population of gothically inspired youths reside. Many times, scene kids are mistaken for goths due to their tendency to have dyed black hair and wear black clothing. If it seems to an older goth that a particular youth exhibits potential for growth into a "true" goth later on, the more positive term "Baby Bat" is often used. Melbourne playwright Sai Ho is particularly vicious in his hatred of what he terms baby goths.

The word "Goth" or "Gothic" is increasingly being used as insult amongst certain social groups. This is mostly due to the general differences between gothic teenagers and their peers. This can also be used to insult one's sexual preference, as there is an untrue stereotype that most gothic teens are homosexual (all sexual preferences are present among goths). Gothic teenagers who have alcohol or drug addictions may also be treated with hostility, specifically because their appearance makes them stand out more among other teens with the same vices. The anti-religious image that gothic people give off can also create resentment among those with traditional religous beliefs, though there are many practicing Christian Goths.

Religious misconceptions

Beginning in the media, the label "goth" has been used to imply an unhealthy obsession with death, an association with Satanism, and other things which are often considered morbid. Another misconception is that the goth subculture as a whole represents a unified cult-like religion. Goths counter that these negative depictions of their subculture are generally untrue, and relate the accusations to those pointed at the punk scene and fans of metal. Many goths believe in open-mindedness and diversity, and aspire to "free" themselves from the limitations of traditional belief systems. While there are Goths who follow religions such as Satanism or Wicca, there are also Goths who would class themselves as Protestant, Catholic or as belonging to other such religions, though they may not interpret their religions traditionally.

References

  • Baddeley, Gavin: Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark Culture (Plexus, US, August 2002, ISBN 0859653080)
  • Davenport-Hines, Richard: Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin (1999: North Port Press. ISBN 0865475903 (trade paperback) - A voluminous, if somewhat patchy, chronological/aesthetic history of the Gothic covering the spectrum from Gothic architecture to The Cure.
  • Hodkinson, Paul: Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture (Dress, Body, Culture Series) 2002: Berg. ISBN 1859736009 (hardcover); ISBN 185973605X (softcover)
  • Kilpatrick, Nancy: The goth Bible : A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined. 2004: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0312306962
  • Voltaire: What is Goth? (WeiserBooks, US, 2004; ISBN 1578633222) - a humorous and easy-to-read view of the Goth subculture
  • Andrew C. Zinn: The Truth Behind The Eyes (IUniverse, US, 2005; ISBN 0-595-37103-5) - Dark Poetry

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gothic people.
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