At some point the tide shifted and goth became sort of cool again. I don’t mean in ‘reality’ whatever that is, I just mean in the churning ever incestuously devouring sea of popular culture goth somehow slowly shifted from being interesting, dangerous, scary, sexy to nerdy and dorky and something like a dirty little secret to being “cool nerdy” like yeah so what! kinda cool nerdy and back around to – gasp, hmm – being sort of cool, being something that many people and bands and films might actually claim to be a part of, whether or not they had anything to do with “goth.”
I’m being abstract because this is only a half-formed thought, but I’m an obsessive peruser of toy stores, art and design magazines, furniture catalogs, fashion magazines and all that assorted cultural ephemera, and I can tell you right now, my lonely wanders through the pages of Lucky and Blueprint have rewarded me with the striking return of black and neo-Victorianism and lucite paperweights with insects trapped in their light-catching centers, the fetishisation of all things John Derian and kabinett-o-curios-esque; my sleuthy stalking down the aisles of Urban Outfitters and anthropologie has uncovered black opaque glass goblets and mismatched plates with reprinted etched illustrations and long bell-sleeved garments, the return of cheap velour and deep purple, the triumphal wallpapering of everything in sight with dark damask and hell–even the return of dark wallpaper.
I should have known all this was coming when I spotted those black latex stockings in ANOTHER MAGAZINE in ‘04. This goth-creep has been going on, slowly, for a couple of years. (AM is always ahead of me.) I’ve been sort of perplexed and amused all the way at both the popular perception of “goth” and “freaky” and a tinge annoyed at the appropriation of what I kinda sorta felt was my own style but not really and more than a tinge happy to find really neat cheap china with black flowers on it at Target.
But the thing is– the music. It was always about music. I blinked and suddenly there are bands who do not sound “goth” in the slightest–like this one for example, being pushed as “goth shoegaze” today on myspace–bands with nothing at all to link them with “goth” except for their art direction. MCR also comes to mind as a band rather successfully appropriating “goth” and making boring poprock, as if somehow elaborately costumed music video clips could make up for the utter lack of drama in the music itself. The result is unintentional self-parody. Kids today.
All these years of ridicule, of cape jokes, of vampire jokes, of sunlight jokes, of fat goth internet picture memes. I’m caught between well-of-course and wtf. When did goth become something to pretend to be?
Also: I just noticed this entry is incredibly pretentious. Sorry. I used to be goth.
January 1st, 2001 - 12:00 am
November 5th, 2007 - 10:25 pm
The “original” goths were unintentional self-parody of punks. And punk was practically self-parody to begin with.
“When did goth become something to pretend to be?”
It always was.
November 5th, 2007 - 10:26 pm
lol
I should have said: “…again?”
November 5th, 2007 - 10:32 pm
Heh, but it’s true. The Ramones didn’t look that way by accident. Joey Ramone designed and enforced their uniform of beat-up sneakers, jeans and a t-shirt. And of course their names weren’t even real. The entire thing was an affectation. The Sex Pistols were a designed band. Bauhaus was a pastiche of punk from five years earlier and German expressionist movies.
So, goth and punk aren’t authentic. Maybe folk is. Except Bob Dylan’s accent was affected. And his supposed hero, Woody Guthrie, was partially a pastiche of black culture and blues culture, a culture he was never a part of.
If you’re looking for authenticity, subculture is the wrong place to look. Subcultures have value, but their value is not in their authenticity.
November 5th, 2007 - 10:34 pm
You forgot to mention the “goth” halloween costume. Which has been available to the mass public for at least 5 years now.
November 5th, 2007 - 10:35 pm
[insert diatribe beginning with AND WHAT DOES 'AUTHENTIC' MEAN ANYWAY]
I’m not seeking authenticity in subculture, don’t worry. I’m instead observing the current state of subcultural churn.
November 5th, 2007 - 10:36 pm
Jeremiah, I am still pretending that does not exist. But thanks for injuring my brain by making me think about it.
November 5th, 2007 - 11:00 pm
Eh- every fall/winter for many years now, things of the goffik nature are in. I’ve got enough back issues of vogue/bazaar/elle/etc. to vouch for that
black is the new black every fall/winter
chunky bracelets
victorian blouses
filigree and damask
velvet and gauze
silver and jet
it all comes into style for the cold months, and then somehow we’re supposed to forget about it and then it’s “all new” next year.
I’m still happy to reap the castoffs at goodwill seasonally.
November 5th, 2007 - 11:01 pm
Even hair metal came back for about 5 months. They made a live-action movie of the Underdog cartoon. Steampunk is cute, but just a double-churn.
I had a music theory professor named Dr. Muncacszi. He was an elderly Hungarian man, whose manner of speaking and looking at you was always serious in that way that only old people from the old country (when it still was The Old Country) can look at you seriously.
He talked about the development and progress of music over the years, from pre-baroque, to baroque, to classical, then romantic, and then 20th century styles, breaking down into atonalism and noise. He said that most of the musical possibilities have already been used up, which is why people are resorting to awful sounding music, and that after all the possible musical pieces have been written, the end of the world would follow soon after.
He was probably a crackpot.
But, if he was right, if the churners can keep it up, without being 100% rip-off artists, they’re the only ones keeping the universe from collapsing.
November 6th, 2007 - 12:02 am
MCR are the least goth band in the world, and yet I love them in a slightly unhealthy way. Gerard Way used to be a big giant comic book geek and for that I adore him, even though I used to roll my eyes hugely at his band all of four months ago.
November 6th, 2007 - 12:02 am
“He said that most of the musical possibilities have already been used up”
That sounds like the quote from the head of the US Patent Office in 1900 saying that nothing new could get invented.
Every art progresses and pastiches from the past. We’ve evolved more “chimera” style then not, but maybe that’s how music should progresses. There are probably just as many true innovators today as there was during the Renaissance, but it’s hard to find them/not get overloaded when they are still alive. All the famous Masters really are just the ones who have stood the test of time. If we picked only 20 musicians from the last century to say were the important ones, it would be a pretty impressive 20.
On that note, I mostly agree with you and that’s why I’m a fan of industrial. How do you rebel against anti-music (punk)? Use noise.
“people are resorting to awful sounding music” “breaking down into atonalism and noise”
His problem there is his close-minded viewpoint. He’s decided atonalism and noise can’t be defined as music by someone. He subjectively thinks that it is awful sounding. It’s his loss that he can’t expand his concepts past what’s comfortable and familiar.
I’d love to see what the average elderly college professor’s reactions were to abstract art and dadaism when they first appeared.
*sigh*
November 6th, 2007 - 12:32 am
“On that note, I mostly agree with you and that’s why I’m a fan of industrial. How do you rebel against anti-music (punk)?”
I have to say that this is what tires me about these churn cycles. Everybody wants to define their new art by how it overturns whatever is the dominant form of the time is. Overcoming the current title holder in a staged performance isn’t art. That’s professional wrestling.
November 6th, 2007 - 2:22 am
Eh, that was just my reaction to your professor’s comments on noise being without merit and creativity.
I personally listen to all sorts of music and prefer stuff that is innovative yet mindful of what’s come before.
I like the definition of industrial as music reflecting the times and world we live in, much like previous music has been a reflection of a more agriculturally based world:
ndustrial was a term meant by its creators to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation of people, previous music being more “agricultural.” A fatalist-but-realistic, slightly misanthropic and often intensely dehumanized or mechanical atmosphere was present in the music and the the utilization of gritty, hands-on technologies and techniques, rather than any concrete compositional detail, was a common practice.
On this topic, Peter Christopherson of Industrial Records once remarked, “The original idea of Industrial Records was to reject what the growing industry was telling you at the time what music was supposed to be.” – Wikipedia
November 6th, 2007 - 8:37 am
Oh, I love it when interesting things become fashionable. Then they fall out of style, and I get to dumpsterdive the clearance racks for goodies.
I am so glad sometimes that I am not Cool.
November 6th, 2007 - 8:57 am
I just wanted to use this icon.
I should make one with a cape.
November 6th, 2007 - 9:07 am
I thought it was all about 120 BPM, drum machines, distorted vocals (preferably in German), no guitars, faux military uniforms, platform boots, hair extensions, corsets as outergarmet, goggles, having library with Rand, Huxley and Gibson… all done by people who have never worked in an actual factory assembly line.
November 6th, 2007 - 10:20 am
You are wrong.
The definition of industrial is k0rN.
November 6th, 2007 - 10:53 am
That’s just it though–that’s why the past couple of years was noteworthy to me. The trend has not been relegated to the darkest days of winter. It has actually been in full force through spring and summer, especially in interior design, furniture, home style.
True, everything ebbs and flows.
November 6th, 2007 - 12:23 pm
FTW!
November 6th, 2007 - 12:47 pm
I thought it was about being a kid with a synthesizer and some bad snare drum samples recording songs about how life is a downward spiral into deeper and deeper depression.
November 6th, 2007 - 1:16 pm
Does Niggy Tardust count as industrial? Wikipedia seems to think so. I’m so confused. There are no goggles, but an eyepatch!
November 6th, 2007 - 8:41 pm
heh. funny story.
someone was describing this girl as “nice but kinda pretentious.” i said, “that’s ok, i used dj the goth scene.” to which he replied “oh…so you’re used to pretentious.”
it’s funny cause it’s both sad and true.
November 10th, 2007 - 4:00 pm
I remember vividly when goth seemingly ‘came to light’ and can’t think of a time when I felt more like that painting ‘The Scream’ which was supposed to be representative of nature’s reaction to our raping and pillaging of the planet. And, for what it’s worth, I still have my capes and odd jewelry that I allow only selected people to see, and even then, only on special occasions. I’ve long since stopped attending events like ‘the long black veil’ or anything similar simply because I can’t seem to gleen the same sensation from them that I used to in the days of my horrifically misspent youth. At the same time, what really turned me off was precisely what you mentioned here, in that major producers of pop-culture finally figured out that there was a ‘market’ in the goth community and that they should begin to pander to those individuals because they were frequently angst ridden youths feeling amazingly disenfranchised, even though they might be from extremely financially secure backgrounds. Ergo Hot Topic et al. Then again, the Abercrombie and Fitch, Roca Wear and Sean John, or even the metal heads all have had places to go, people to do, and things to wear during their formative adolescent years for decades… why not develop an extra market in order to squeeze the last dollar out of the uber-image conscious dollar toting youth while deluding them into thinking that they’re ‘actually being different’. Add in tattoos, piercings, internet based communities, et voila! Instant justification. Then all it took was ‘Not Another Teen Movie’ and Marilyn Manson, VampireFreaks.com, and Columbine (even bad press is good press, despite the fact that it was discovered that the formerly accused ‘Trenchcoat Mafia’ had nothing to do with the goth scene at all, but that’s another post), and there was no stopping it. The dilemma arises when the disgustingly uninformed American’t public confuses ‘goth’ with things like ‘My Chemical Romance’, which I believe is more of where your question lies. Since it’s too easy to misconstrue those wearing all black and having a few earings with ‘what is goth’ (the inherent tendency of an uneducated public to ascribe characteristics that are, in fact, unrelated to the character) the very definition of ‘goth’ in the public conscious has/is evolved/evolving.
blablablaaaa
And if that wasn’t enough, check this out.