World Goth Day

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Which really should be in the autumn or winter, but isn’t.

The unofficial official start of the Goth subculture – modern version – began with the release of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus. Goth draws from punk, sort of, the Romantic Movement of the 1800s, mostly, and a lot of other things. The music and the visual aesthetic sort of define Goth, as much as one can define such an amorphous subculture. Like other subcultures, it has changed a little over time, but keeps coming back to the same core aesthetic and interest in darkness, loss, night, bats, dark music, and all things black or darker.

The image is from Gothicat.net. They have a lot of great parody designs, as well as real band swag.
I tend to blend two or three of these at any given time, unless I’m feeling like an Elder Goth, sighing at the young purists.

Like most subcultures, goth subculture has many, many variations on the theme of “dark, black, and not what most people wear or listen to.”

I’m a little young to fit this definition of Elder, but it’s pretty close. Elder Neutral would be my closest match. Except (every goth has an except, I suspect.)

Goth has aspects of metal, alternative, dark techno, EDM, classic (Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Type O Negative, The Cure, Joy Division), and “we are NOT goth!!!” groups like The Cure, Souxie and the Banshees, Marilyn Manson, and others. About the only things that anyone can pin down about the goth subculture are the music and aesthetic. And those of us who identify as goth will happily argue over both of those, along with everything else.

Goth also shades into other subcultures and alternative lifestyles. That tends to be where goth gets a reputation for, oh, Satanism, goth girls being both easy and into outre sexual practices, goths always being depressed and suicidal, and into a lot of other semi- to fully antisocial practices. Oh, and “it is a phase that everyone grows out of,” or should.

Pretty much this.

And yes, going full out glamor goth by daylight in summer, especially in Texas, well, no one ever said we were in full possession of good sense.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/goth-everything-you-need-to-know

What Is Goth? An Exploration of the Dark Subculture

8 thoughts on “World Goth Day”

  3. Extrapolating from the article…

    Wearing socks with sandals would be goth, so long as they’re black or have black stripes.

    (innocent look)

  4. We had one young lady in my high school who had the courage to be goth for four years. The most common ‘look’ was country.

    She had long, black-dyed hair, wore black eye liner and lipstick, and black dresses and hose. She graduated goth.

    I think it looked much better than the young gentleman who wore his hair in foot-long spikes (often unhairlike colors). His mother said it took him an hour every morning to do his hair.

    • There was a punk in my HS who used white glue to keep the spikes of his Mohawk upright. It was blue and purple, because the school colors were neither blue nor purple. The goths tended to be lower profile and more kempt than that gent and his buddies.

  5. Well, it’s NOT like you’re ‘outing’ yourself to those of us that know you… And you rock the Victorian Goth most of the time… 🙂

  6. Saw 3-4 at our local theater, last month. Did not horrifying wife by asking the obvious question:

    “So, you haven’t found anything darker than black, yet?” 😉

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