The
goth subculture is a contemporary
subcultureIn sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong...
found in many countries. It began in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
during the early 1980s in the
gothic rockGothic rock is a musical subgenre of Post-Punk and Alternative Rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
scene, an offshoot of the
post-punkPost-punk is a popular musical movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from nineteenth century Gothic literature along with
horror moviesHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
and to a lesser extent the
BDSMBDSM is a compound acronym derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , sadism and masochism ....
culture.
The goth subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and
fashionGothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the Goth subculture; a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical Gothic fashion includes black dyed and crimped hair, bright lips and black clothes. Both male and female goths sometimes wear dark eyeliner and dark...
, whether or not all individuals who share those tastes are in fact members of the goth subculture. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles. Common to all is a tendency towards a lugubrious, mystical sound and outlook. Styles of dress within the subculture range from
deathrockDeathrock or deathpunk is a term used to identify a sub-genre of punk rock incorporating horror elements and spooky atmospherics, that emerged on the West Coast of the United States in 1979.-Characteristics:...
,
punkPunk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry, and body modifications of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including...
,
androgynousAndrogyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ and γυνή that can refer to either of two related concepts about gender: the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, as in fashion statements; or the balance of "anima and animus" in psychoanalytic theory.-Androgyne:Androgyne derives...
,
VictorianVictorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and grew in prominence throughout the Victorian era and the reign of Victoria, a period which would last from June 1837 to January 1901. Covering nearly two thirds of the 19th century, the 63 year reign...
, some
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
and Medieval style attire, or combinations of the above, most often with
blackBlack is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
attire, makeup and hair.
Origins and development
By the late 1970s, there were a few
post-punkPost-punk is a popular musical movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
bands labeled "gothic." However, it was not until the early 1980s that
gothic rockGothic rock is a musical subgenre of Post-Punk and Alternative Rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
became its own
subgenreA music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
within
post-punkPost-punk is a popular musical movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
, and that followers of these bands started to come together as a distinctly recognizable movement. The scene appears to have taken its name from an article published in UK rock weekly
SoundsSounds was a British music paper, published weekly from October 10, 1970 – April 6, 1991. It was well known initially for giving away posters in the centre of the paper and later for covering Heavy Metal and Oi! music in its late 1970s-early 1980s heyday...
: "The face of Punk Gothique", written by Steve Keaton and published on February 21, 1981.
The opening of the Batcave in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
's
SohoSoho is an area in the centre of the West End of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is an entertainment district which for much of the later part of the 20th century had a reputation for its sex shops as well as its night life and film industry...
in July 1982 provided a prominent meeting point for the emerging scene, which had briefly been labeled positive punk by the
New Musical Express. The term "Batcaver" was later used to describe old-school goths.
Independent from the British scene, the late 1970s and early 1980s saw death rock branch off from American punk. In 1980s and early 1990s, members of an emerging subculture in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
were called
Grufti[e]s (English
"vault creatures" or
"tomb creatures"); they generally followed a fusion of the gothic and
new waveNew Wave is a genre of rock and pop music that emerged in in the middle to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, and...
with an influence of
new romanticNew Romanticism was a youth fashion movement that peaked in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s. Originally centered around part of the Synthpop music scene, it has seen several revivals since then, and continues to influence popular culture...
, and formed the early stages of the "dark culture" (formerly called "
dark wave cultureDark wave, also written as darkwave, is a music genre that began in the late 1970s, coinciding with the popularity of New Wave and post-punk. Building on those basic principles, dark wave added dark, introspective lyrics and an undertone of sorrow for some bands...
"). Brian Lauzon of Acton, Massachusetts was an early American adopter of the movement.
After post-punk
After the waning in popularity of
post-punkPost-punk is a popular musical movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
, the subculture diversified both musically and visually. This caused variations in the "types" of goth. Local scenes also contributed to this variation. By the 1990s,
Victorian fashionVictorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and grew in prominence throughout the Victorian era and the reign of Victoria, a period which would last from June 1837 to January 1901. Covering nearly two thirds of the 19th century, the 63 year reign...
saw a renewed popularity in the goth scene, drawing on the mid-19th century gothic revival and the more morbid aspects of
Victorian cultureThe Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements...
.
Current subcultural boundaries
By the 1990s, the term "goth" and the boundaries of the associated subculture had become more contentious. New subcultures emerged, or became more popular, some of them being conflated with the goth subculture by the general public and the popular media. This conflation was primarily owing to similarities of appearance, social customs, and the fashions of the subcultures, rather than the musical genres of the bands associated with them. As time went on, the term was extended further in popular usage, sometimes to define groups that had neither musical nor fashion similarities to the original gothic subculture. This has led to the introduction of goth slang terms that some goths and others use to sort and label members of loosely related or at times unrelated subcultures.
The response of these pseudo-groups to the older subculture varies. Some, being secure in a separate subcultural identity, express offense at being called "goth" in the first place, while others choose to join the existing subculture on their own terms. Still others have simply ignored its existence, and decided to appropriate the term "goth" themselves, and redefine the idea in their own image. Even within the original subculture, changing trends have added to the complexity of attempting to define precise boundaries.
The goth scene
The bands that began the
gothic rockGothic rock is a musical subgenre of Post-Punk and Alternative Rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
and
deathrockDeathrock or deathpunk is a term used to identify a sub-genre of punk rock incorporating horror elements and spooky atmospherics, that emerged on the West Coast of the United States in 1979.-Characteristics:...
scene were limited in number, and included
BauhausBauhaus were an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
,
SpecimenSpecimen are a British band formed in the 1980s. Their music has been described as spanning many different genres of music, including; Glam, Goth, Punk and Post-Punk and are widely credited as one of the pioneers of the Gothic movement, both musically and stylistically.-Biography:The band formed in...
,
Siouxsie & the BansheesSiouxsie & the Banshees were a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin, the only constant members....
, The Damned,
Southern Death CultSouthern Death Cult was a gothic rock band in the early 1980s. It is now primarily known for having given its lead singer and parts of its name to the multi-platinum hard rock band The Cult. Despite the similarities in the names, "Southern Death Cult" was distinct from "Death Cult"/"The...
,
Ausgang-Discography:*I Am A Horse - as Kabuki, 1982, 7" single*The Teachings Of Web - 1984, 12" EP*Solid Glass Spine - 1984, 7" single *Head On! - 1984, 12" EP*Hunt Ya Down - 1985, 12" EP*Manipulate - 1985, LP...
,
Sex Gang ChildrenThe Sex Gang Children are a gothic rock group that formed in the early 1980s in England. Although the original group only released one official studio album, they remain one of the more well-known bands out of the early Batcave scene and have reformed for new albums and touring various times since...
,
45 Grave45 Grave, is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California formed in 1979. They are associated with horror punk, deathrock and goth rock. The original group broke up in 1985 but vocalist Dinah Cancer subsequently revived the band.-History:The band was formed in Los Angeles, California during...
,
UK DecayUK Decay is a Luton-based band, formed out of the ashes of another local band called The Resistors, who were Steven Abbot guitar, Steve Harle on drums, Paul Wilson vocals, and Martin Smith bass.- History :...
,
The Virgin PrunesThe Virgin Prunes was an Irish gothic rock band. The band formed in 1977 and disbanded in 1986 after the departure of member Gavin Friday. The rest of the band continued on without him for a while as The Prunes, but they too ended activities by 1990....
,
Kommunity FKKommunity FK is a gothic rock rock band that helped establish what came to be known as the deathrock scene in Los Angeles. The band was formed in 1978 by American rock singer Patrick Mata influenced by Killing Joke, Throbbing Gristle, David Bowie, Public Image Limited, and Joy Division...
,
Alien Sex FiendAlien Sex Fiend are a gothic rock band from the UK, composed of the married couple Nik Fiend and Mrs. Fiend. Currently, the band is based in Cardiff, Wales....
and
Christian DeathChristian Death is an American deathrock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1979. The band was fronted and founded by Rozz Williams and featured guitarist Rikk Agnew...
.
Gloria MundiGloria Mundi was an early Goth/Punk/rock band. The name of the band is Latin and means the glory of the world. This could be a reference to the phrase "Sic transit gloria mundi" meaning "this is how the glory of the world passes"....
,
Joy DivisionJoy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences,...
,
The CureThe Cure are an English alternative rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976 by Robert Smith, Lawrence Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
,
This Mortal CoilThis Mortal Coil was a dream pop supergroup led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were technically the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotating cast of supporting artists, many who were signed...
,
Dead Can DanceDead Can Dance is a band composed of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. Formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981 and initially based there, it disbanded in 1998 but reunited temporarily for a world tour in 2005.-Career:...
,
mittageisenmittageisen is a Swiss Dark Wave band of the early 1980s.The name refers to a photomontage made by John Heartfield in 1934. This picture was published on the frontpage of the "Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung / Workers Illustrated Journal", published on 19. December 1935. Heartfield was an early...
, early
Adam and the AntsAdam and the Ants were a British rock band band during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were one of the bands at the time that marked the transition from the 70s punk rock era to the New Wave/post-punk era....
and
Killing JokeKilling Joke are an English post-punk rock band formed in October 1978 in Notting Hill, London, England. Founding members Jaz Coleman and Geordie Walker have been the only constant members.A key influence on industrial rock, their early music was described by critics...
have also been associated.
By the mid-eighties, the number of bands began proliferating and became increasingly popular, including
The Sisters of MercyThe Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band that formed in 1980. After achieving early underground fame in UK, the band had their commercial breakthrough in mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasing new recorded output as a strike against their record company...
,
The MissionThe Mission were a gothic rock band formed in 1986 from the splinters of the freshly-dissolved rock band The Sisters of Mercy....
(known as The Mission UK in the US),
Xmal DeutschlandXmal Deutschland was a musical group from Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1980 as an all-girl band, they became successful outside their native country. Vocalist Anja Huwe was often compared to contemporaries like Siouxsie Sioux...
,
The BolshoiThe Bolshoi were a London-based music group prominent mostly in the mid-late 1980s. They are best known for the hit song "A way" or "Away" .-History:...
and
Fields of the NephilimFields of the Nephilim are a semi-active English gothic rock band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in 1984. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Carl McCoy, saxophonist Gary Whisker, Tony Pettitt on bass, guitarist Paul Wright and drummer Alexander "Nod" Wright...
. The nineties saw the further growth of eighties bands and emergence of many new bands.
Factory RecordsFactory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, and James and Orchestral...
,
4AD4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...
Records, and
Beggars Banquet RecordsBeggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...
released much of this music in Europe, while
Cleopatra RecordsCleopatra Records is a Los Angeles-based independent record label.- History :Founded in 1992 by long-time music fan Brian Perera and, it specialises in gothic rock, hard rock, heavy metal and reissues of out-of-print music...
among others released much of this music in the United States, where the subculture grew especially in New York, Los Angeles, and Orange County, California, with many nightclubs featuring "gothic/industrial" nights. The popularity of 4AD bands resulted in the creation of a similar US label called
Projekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ethereal, darkwave, ambient, shoegazer, dream-pop and dark cabaret created by...
. This produces what is colloquially termed
ethereal waveEthereal wave, also called ethereal darkwave in Europe and ethereal goth or simply ethereal in the US, is a term that describes a subgenre of Dark Wave music. Developed in 1983/1984 as an outgrowth of gothic rock, ethereal was mainly represented by bands such as Cocteau Twins Ethereal wave, also...
, a subgenre of dark wave music.
By the mid-1990s, styles of music that were heard in venues that goths attended ranged from
gothic rockGothic rock is a musical subgenre of Post-Punk and Alternative Rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
, death rock,
industrial musicIndustrial music is an experimental music style, often including electronic music, that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s to describe Industrial Records artists...
, Gothabilly,
EBMElectronic body music, EBM or Industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
,
ambientAmbient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, experimental,
synthpopSynthpop is a subgenre of pop and electronic music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It originated during the New Wave era of the late 1970s and to mid-1980s, and it has continued to exist and develop ever since....
,
shoegazingShoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted until the mid 1990s with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
,
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, to 1970s
glam rockGlam rock is a style that developed in the UK in the post-hippie early 1970s that was "performed by singers and musicians wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots." The flamboyant costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a campy, theatrical blend of...
.
Recent years have seen a resurgence in the early positive punk and death rock sound, in reaction to aggrotech,
industrialIndustrial music is an experimental music style, often including electronic music, that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s to describe Industrial Records artists...
and synthpop, which had taken over many goth clubs. Bands with an earlier goth sound like Cinema Strange, Bloody Dead And Sexy, Black Ice, and Antiworld are becoming very popular. Nights like Ghoul School and Release The Bats promote death rock heavily, and the
Drop Dead FestivalThe Drop Dead Festival is the largest Gothic Punk themed festival, it books as many as sixty five bands per event, and have been known to attract attendees from over 30 countries. DDF is a post-punk, Deathrock multiple day festival, annually held in New York, NY and Europe with additional...
brings in death rock fans from all over the world.
Today, the goth music scene thrives in
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
- especially in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, with large festivals such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen, M'era Luna and others drawing tens of thousands of fans from all over the world. However,
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
still sees large scale events, most recently, Chamber's Dark Art & Music Festival
http://www.chambernyc.com.
Origins of the term
The original
GothsThe Goths were a heterogeneous East Germanic tribe. The historian Jordanes claimed that the Goths arrived from semi-legendary Scandza, believed to be somewhere in modern Götaland , and that a Gothic population had crossed the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century, lending their name to the region of...
were an
Eastern Germanic tribeThe Germanic tribes referred to as East Germanic constitute a wave of migrants who may have moved from Scandinavia into the area between the Oder and Vistula rivers between 600 - 300 BC. Later they went to the south...
who played an important role in the fall of the western
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
. In some circles, the name "goth" later became pejorative: synonymous with "
barbarianBarbarian is a term for an uncivilized person, often used pejoratively, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
" and the uncultured due to the then-contemporary view of the fall of Rome and depictions of the
paganGermanic paganism, or Germanic mythology includes the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples preceding their Christianization. The best documented version of the Germanic pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Odinism, though other information can be found from Anglo-Saxon and...
Gothic tribes during and after the process of
ChristianizationThe historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once, also includes the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due...
of Europe. During the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
period in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, medieval
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
was retroactively labeled
gothic architectureGothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
, and was considered unfashionable in contrast to the then-modern lines of
classical architectureClassical architecture is the architecture of classical antiquity; chiefly the impressive public buildings, which have survived to be studied in the modern age...
.
In the United Kingdom, by the late 1700s, however, nostalgia for the medieval period led people to become fascinated with medieval gothic ruins. This fascination was often combined with an interest in medieval romances,
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
religion and the supernatural.
The gothic novel of the late eighteenth century, a genre founded by Horace Walpole with the 1764 publication of
The Castle of OtrantoThe Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally regarded as the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th century and early 19th century...
, was accountable for the more modern connotations of the term
gothic. He originally claimed that the book was a real medieval romance he had discovered and republished. Thus was born the gothic novel's association with
fake documentationA false document is a form of verisimilitude that attempts to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected suspension of disbelief for a work of art...
to increase its effect. Henceforth, the term was associated with a mood of
horrorThe distinction between horror and terror is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to Gothic literature and film . Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced...
, morbidity, darkness and the supernatural as well as
campCamp is an aesthetic sensibility wherein something is appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. When the usage appeared, in 1909, it denoted: ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, and effeminate behaviour, and, by the middle of the 1970s, the definition comprised: banality,...
and self-parody. The gothic novel established much of the iconography of later horror literature and cinema, such as
graveyardA graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones. It is usually located near and administered by a church....
s, ruined
castleA castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress, in that it describes a residence of a monarch or...
s or churches,
ghostA ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person...
s,
vampireVampires are legendary creatures said to subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, generally by drinking their blood. Although typically described as undead, some minor traditions believed in vampires that were living people....
s,
nightmareA nightmare is an unpleasant dream. Nightmares cause a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror. The dream may contain a situation of extreme danger, or sensations of pain, bad events, falling, drowning, being raped, becoming disabled, losing loved ones,...
s,
curseA curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or unhappiness will befall another person or persons. In particular, a wish that harm or hurt will be inflicted by any supernatural power, such as a spell, a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic, witchcraft, a god, a natural force,...
d families, being
buried aliveBurial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
and
melodramaThe theatrical genre of melodrama uses theme-music to manipulate the spectator's emotional response and to denote character types. The term combines "melody" and "drama" . While the use of music is nearly ubiquitous in modern film, in most cases it is used within a fairly rigid structure...
tic plots. An additional notable element was the brooding figure of the gothic
villainA villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
, which developed into the
Byronic heroThe Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings of Lord Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad, and dangerous to know"...
. The most famous gothic villain is the
vampireVampires are legendary creatures said to subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, generally by drinking their blood. Although typically described as undead, some minor traditions believed in vampires that were living people....
, a
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
legend of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, best known from
Bram StokerAbraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.-Early life:He...
's novel
DraculaDracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel,...
and the horror movies it influenced.
Certain elements in the dark, atmospheric music and dress of the post punk scene were clearly
gothic in this sense. The use of
gothic as an adjective in describing this music and its followers led to the term
goth.
19th century
The Revolutionary War-era "American Gothic" story of the Headless Horseman, immortalized in
Washington IrvingWashington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
's story "
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820...
" (published in 1820), marked the arrival in the New World of dark, romantic story-telling. The tale was composed by Irving while he was living in England, and was based on popular tales told by colonial Dutch settlers of New York's Hudson River valley. The story was adapted to film in 1922, and in 1949, in the animated
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. ToadThe Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is an animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released to theaters on October 5, 1949 by RKO Radio Pictures...
. It was readapted in 1980 and again in
Tim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, producer, writer and artist. He is famed for his dark and quirky films, such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, which he co-wrote and produced...
's 1999
Sleepy HollowSleepy Hollow is a 1999 period horror film directed by Tim Burton. Based on the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the film stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Sir Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Richard Griffiths...
. Burton, already famous through his films
Edward ScissorhandsEdward Scissorhands is a 1990 comedy-drama fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film tells the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage...
,
BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice is a American comedy horror fantasy film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros. The plot revolves around a recently dead young couple who become ghosts haunting their former home, a quaint and quiet house on a hill overlooking the...
and
BatmanThe Batman, originally referred to as the Bat-Man, is a fictional character, a comic book superhero co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger , appearing in publications by DC Comics...
, created a storybook atmosphere filled with darkness and shadow.
Throughout the evolution of goth subculture, classic romantic, gothic and horror literature has played a significant role.
KeatsJohn Keats was an English poet, who became one of the key figures of the Romantic movement. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Keats was one of the second generation Romantic poets...
,
PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the...
,
LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, known then simply as weird fiction....
,
BaudelaireCharles Pierre Baudelaire was a nineteenth century French poet, critic, and translator. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Baudelaire's name has become a byword for literary and artistic decadence...
and other tragic and romantic writers have become as emblematic of the subculture as has using dark eyeliner or dressing in black. Baudelaire, in fact, in his preface to
Les Fleurs du malLes Fleurs du mal is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857, it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements...
(
Flowers of Evil) penned lines that as much as anything can serve as a sort of goth malediction:
- C'est l'Ennui! —l'œil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
- Il rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
- Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
- —Hypocrite lecteur,—mon semblable,—mon frère!
- It is Boredom! — an eye brimming with an involuntary tear,
- he dreams of the gallows while smoking his water-pipe.
- You know him, reader, this fragile monster,
- —hypocrite reader,—my twin,—my brother!
20th century influences
The influence of the gothic novel on the goth subculture can be seen in numerous examples of the subculture's poetry and music, though this influence sometimes came second hand, through the popular imagery of horror films and television. The powerful imagery of horror movies began in
German expressionist cinemaGerman Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European art...
after the first world war and then passed onto the
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
films of the twenties and thirties, and then to the horror films of the English
Hammer StudioHammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film Noir, and comedies and in later...
. By the 1960s,
TVTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
series, such as
The Addams FamilyThe Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964 to April 8, 1966...
and
The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. The show was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era, such as Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the The Addams Family. Although the...
, used these stereotypes for camp comedy. The
Byronic heroThe Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings of Lord Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad, and dangerous to know"...
, in particular, was a key precursor to the male goth image, while Dracula's iconic portrayal by
Bela LugosiBéla Lugosi was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen, well known for playing Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version...
appealed powerfully to early goths. They were attracted by Lugosi's aura of camp menace, elegance and mystique. Some people even credit the band
BauhausBauhaus were an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
' first single "
Bela Lugosi's Dead"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is a gothic rock song written by the band Bauhaus. The song was the band's first single, released in August 1979, and is often considered to be the first gothic rock record released. It did not enter the UK pop charts, but remained on sale for many years thereafter...
", released August 1979, with the start of the goth subculture, though many prior art house movements also influenced gothic fashion and style, the illustrations and paintings of Swiss artist, H. R. Giger being one of the earliest. Notable other early examples include
Siouxsie SiouxSusan Janet Ballion , better known by her stage name, Siouxsie Sioux , is a British singer-songwriter, best known as the vocalist of Siouxsie & the Banshees between 1976 and 1996, and of its splinter group The Creatures...
of the musical group
Siouxsie & the BansheesSiouxsie & the Banshees were a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin, the only constant members....
, and Dave Vanian of the band The Damned. Some members of Bauhaus were, themselves, fine art students or active artists.
Some of the early
gothic rockGothic rock is a musical subgenre of Post-Punk and Alternative Rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
and death rock artists adopted traditional horror movie images, and also drew on horror movie soundtracks for inspiration. Their audiences responded in kind by further adopting appropriate dress and props. Use of standard horror film props like swirling smoke, rubber bats, and cobwebs were used as gothic club décor from the beginning in The Batcave. Such references in their music and image were originally
tongue-in-cheekTongue-in-cheek is a term used to refer to humor in which a statement, or an entire fictional work, is not meant to be taken seriously, but its sarcasm is subtle...
, but as time went on, bands and members of the subculture took the connection more seriously. As a result, morbid,
supernaturalThe term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are spells and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others...
, and
occultThe word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
themes became a more noticeably serious element in the subculture. The interconnection between horror and goth was highlighted in its early days by
The HungerThe Hunger is a 1983 English language horror film. It is the story of a bizarre love triangle between a doctor who specializes in sleep and aging research, and a stylish vampire couple ....
, a 1983 vampire film, which starred
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
,
Catherine DeneuveCatherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of beautiful ice maidens for various directors, including Luis Buñuel and Roman Polanski. Deneuve won two César Awards for her performances in Le Dernier Métro and Indochine . She has also received BAFTA and Academy...
, and
Susan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1970, and won an Oscar for her performance in the 1995 film, Dead Man Walking...
. The movie featured gothic rock group Bauhaus performing "
Bela Lugosi's Dead"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is a gothic rock song written by the band Bauhaus. The song was the band's first single, released in August 1979, and is often considered to be the first gothic rock record released. It did not enter the UK pop charts, but remained on sale for many years thereafter...
" in a nightclub. In 1993,
WhitbyWhitby is a town and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England. Nowadays it is a fishing port and tourist destination. It is situated from York, at the mouth of the River Esk and spreads up the steep sides of the narrow valley carved out by the...
became the location for what became the UK's biggest goth festival as a direct result of being featured in Bram Stoker's
Dracula.
A literary influence on the gothic scene was
Anne RiceAnne Rice is a best-selling American author of gothic and religious-themed books from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death from cancer in 2002...
's re-imagining of the idea of the
vampireVampires are legendary creatures said to subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, generally by drinking their blood. Although typically described as undead, some minor traditions believed in vampires that were living people....
. Rice's characters were depicted as struggling with eternity and loneliness, this with their ambivalent or tragic sexuality had deep attractions for many goth readers, making her works very popular in the eighties through the nineties.
Later media influences
As the subculture became well-established, the connection between goth and horror fiction became almost a cliché, with Goths quite likely to appear as characters in horror novels and film. For example,
The CrowThe Crow is a comic book series created by James O'Barr. The series was originally written by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his girlfriend at the hands of a drunk driver. It was later published by Caliber Comics in 1989, and became an underground success, with some movie studios...
drew directly on goth music and style.
Neil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman is an English author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, audio theatre, and films. His notable works include The Sandman comic series, Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's acclaimed graphic novel series
The Sandman influenced Goths with characters like the dark, brooding
DreamDream is the fictional protagonist of DC Comics' Vertigo comic book series The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman.One of the seven Endless, inconceivably powerful beings older and greater than gods, Dream is both lord and personification of all dreams and stories, all that is not in reality...
and his sister
DeathDeath is a fictional character from the DC comic book series, The Sandman . The character first appeared in The Sandman vol. 2, #8 , and was created by Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg....
.
Visual art influences
The Goth subculture has influenced different artists - not only musicians - but also painters and photographers. In particular their work is based on mystic, morbid and romantic motifs. In photography and painting the spectrum varies from erotic artwork to romantic images of vampires or ghosts. To be present is a marked preference for dark colours and sentiments, similar to
Gothic fictionGothic fiction is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an...
,
Pre-RaphaelitesThe Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
or
Art NouveauArt Nouveau is an international movement and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century . The name 'Art nouveau' is French for 'new art'...
. In the Fine Art field,
Anne SudworthAnne Sudworth is a British artist internationally known for her paintings of magical trees and haunting moonlit landscapes. Drawing and painting since early childhood, she started her career as a professional artist in 1993 when she presented her first exhibition "Visions and Views"...
is a well known goth artist with her dark, nocturnal works and strong Gothic imagery.
Some of the graphic artists close to Goth are
Gerald BromGerald Brom is an American gothic fantasy artist and illustrator. Born the son of a U.S. Army pilot he spent much of his early years on the move, living in many countries such as Japan and Germany...
,
Nene ThomasNene Tina Thomas is an artist living in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.-Biography:In 1994, Nene Tina Thomas was approached by Wizards of the Coast to produce artwork for their card game "Magic: the Gathering." Her artwork is also featured in such card games as Shadowfist, Legend of the Five Rings,...
,
Luis RoyoLuis Royo is a Spanish artist, known for his darkly sensual paintings of women and mechanical life forms. He has also recently started doing sculptures of some of his earlier art....
,
Dave McKeanDavid McKean is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician....
,
Jhonen VasquezJhonen Vasquez , also known by his pseudonym Chancre Scolex, is a cartoonist living in Los Angeles, California, United States...
,
Trevor BrownTrevor Brown is an English artist from London presently living in Japan whose work explores paraphilias, such as pedophilia, BDSM, and other fetish themes. Innocence, violence and Japanese popular culture all collide in Brown's art....
,
Victoria FrancésVictoria Francés is a Spanish illustrator, born in Valencia. She is a graduate of the Facultad de Bellas Artes de San Carlos at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain....
as well as the American comic artist
James O'BarrJames O'Barr is an American graphic artist, best known as the creator of the comic book series The Crow.-Personal life:O'Barr, an orphan, was raised in the foster care system...
.
H. R. GigerHans Rudolf 'Ruedi' Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer, who won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for his design work on the film Alien....
of Switzerland is one of the first graphic artists to make serious contributions to the Gothic/Industrial look of much of modern cinema with his work on the film "Alien" by Ridley Scott.
Ideology
Defining an explicit ideology for the gothic subculture is difficult for several reasons. First is the overwhelming importance of
mood and
aesthetic for those involved. This is, in part, inspired by
romanticismRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
and neoromanticism. The allure for goths of dark, mysterious, and morbid imagery and mood lies in the same tradition of Romanticism's gothic novel. During the late 18th and 19th century, feelings of horror, and supernatural dread were widespread motifs in popular literature; The process continues in the modern horror film. Balancing this emphasis on mood and
aesthetics, another central element of the gothic is a deliberate sense of
campCamp is an aesthetic sensibility wherein something is appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. When the usage appeared, in 1909, it denoted: ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, and effeminate behaviour, and, by the middle of the 1970s, the definition comprised: banality,...
theatricality and self-dramatization; present both in gothic literature as well as in the gothic subculture itself.
Goths, in terms of their membership in the subculture, are usually not supportive of violence, but rather tolerant. Many in the media have incorrectly associated the Goth subculture with violence, hatred of minorities, and other acts of hate. However, violence and hate do not form elements of goth ideology; rather, the ideology is formed in part by recognition, identification, and grief over societal and personal evils that the mainstream culture wishes to ignore or forget. These are the prevalent themes in goth music.
The second impediment to explicitly defining a gothic ideology is goth's generally apolitical nature. While individual defiance of social norms was a very risky business in the nineteenth century, today it is far less socially radical. Thus, the significance of goth's subcultural rebellion is limited, and it draws on imagery at the heart of Western culture. Unlike the
hippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district...
or
punkThe punk subculture is a subculture based around punk rock. It includes music, ideologies, fashion, visual art, dance, literature and film. The punk scene is composed of an assortment of smaller factions that distinguish themselves from one another through unique variations...
movements, the goth subculture has no pronounced political messages or cries for social activism. The subculture is marked by its emphasis on individualism, tolerance for diversity, a strong emphasis on creativity, tendency toward intellectualism, and a mild tendency towards cynicism, but even these ideas are not universal to all goths. Goth ideology is based far more on
aestheticsAesthetics is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
and simplified
ethicsEthics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as what the fundamental semantic, ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is , how moral values should be determined , how a moral outcome can be achieved in specific situations , how moral...
than
politicsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
.
Goths may, indeed, have political leanings ranging from left-wing to right-wing, but they do not express them specifically as part of a cultural identity. Instead, political affiliation, like religion, is seen as a matter of personal conscience. Unlike punk, there are few clashes between political affiliation and being "goth". Similarly, there is no common religious tie that binds together the goth movement, though spiritual, supernatural and religious imagery has played a part in gothic fashion, song lyrics and visual art. In particular, aesthetic elements from
CatholicismThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
often appear in goth culture. Reasons for donning such imagery range from expression of religious affiliation to satire or simply decorative effect.
While involvement with the subculture can be fulfilling, it also can be risky, especially for the young, because of the negative attention it can attract due to public misconceptions of goth subculture. The value that young people find in the movement is evidenced by its continuing existence after other subcultures of the eighties (such as the New Romantics) have died out.
Fashion
Goth fashion is stereotyped as a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of
dressA feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body....
. Typical gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, dark eyeliner, black fingernails, black period-styled clothing; goths may or may not have piercings. Styles are often borrowed from the Elizabethan,
VictorianThe Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements...
or medieval period and often express Catholic or other religious imagery such as crucifixes or ankhs. The extent to which goths hold to this style varies amongst individuals as well as geographical locality, though virtually all Goths wear some of these elements. Fashion designers, such as
Alexander McQueenAlexander McQueen CBE is an English fashion designer.-Biography:Born in the East End of London, the son of a taxi driver, McQueen started making dresses for his three sisters at a young age and announced his intention of becoming a fashion designer...
and
John GallianoJuan Carlos Antonio Galliano Guillén, CBE, RDI , professionally known as John Galliano, is a Gibraltarian-British fashion designer.-Early life and career:...
, have also been described as practicing "Haute Goth".
Goth fashion is often confused with
heavy metal fashionHeavy metal fashion is the style of dress, body modification, make-up, hairstyle, and so on, taken on by fans of heavy metal, or, as they are often called, metalheads.-Origins:...
: outsiders often mistake fans of heavy metal for goth, particularly those who wear black trench coats or wear "
corpse paintCorpse paint is a style of black-and-white, or just white makeup, used extensively by black metal bands during live concerts and photo shoots. The makeup is used to intensify the bands' imagery of evil, inhumanity, and corpse-like decay. It is most commonly used just on the face, but also on arms...
" (a term associated with the
black metalBlack metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure....
music scene).
Controversy
The gothic fascination with the
macabreMacabre is a quality of certain artistic or literary works, characterized by a grim or ghastly atmosphere. In these works, there is an emphasis on the details and symbols of death...
has raised public concerns regarding the well-being of goths. The
mass mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
has made reports that have influenced the public view that goths or people associated with the subculture, are malicious; however this is disputed and the Goth subculture is often described as non-violent. Some individuals who have either identified themselves or been identified by others as goth, whether correctly or incorrectly, have committed high profile
violent crimeA violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent...
s, including several school shootings. These incidents and their attribution to the goth scene have helped to propagate a wary perception of Goth in the public eye.
Public concern with the goth subculture reached a high point in the fallout of the
Columbine High School massacreThe Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton...
that was carried out by two students, incorrectly associated with the goth subculture. This misreporting of the roots of the massacre caused a widespread public backlash against the North American goth scene. Investigators of the incident, five months later, stated that there was no involvement between the goth subculture and the killers, who held goth music in contempt.
The
Dawson College shootingThe Dawson College shooting occurred on September 13, 2006 at Dawson College, a CEGEP in Westmount near downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The perpetrator, Kimveer Gill, began shooting outside the de Maisonneuve Boulevard entrance to the school, and moved towards the atrium by the cafeteria on the...
, in Canada, also raised public concern with the goth scene.
Kimveer GillKimveer Singh Gill was a Canadian murderer who perpetrated the Dawson College shooting at Dawson College in Westmount, Quebec, Canada on September 13, 2006. He killed one student and wounded nineteen others before he committed suicide.-Background:Kimveer Gill was a 25-year-old Indo-Canadian born...
, who killed one and injured nineteen, maintained an online journal at a web site,
VampireFreaks, in which he "portrayed himself as a gun-loving Goth." The day after the shooting it was reported that "it are rough times for industrial / goth music fans these days as a result of yet another trench coat killing", implying that Gill was involved in the goth subculture. During a search of Gill's home, police found a letter praising the actions of
Columbine shootersThe Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton...
Eric Harris and Dylan KleboldEric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold were the high school seniors who committed the Columbine High School massacre. They killed 13 people and injured 21 others. Three people were also injured as they escaped the attack...
and a CD titled "Shooting sprees ain't no fun without Ozzy and friends LOL". Although the shooter claimed an obsession for "Goth", his favorite music list was described, by the media, as a "who's who of heavy metal.
Mick MercerMick Mercer is a journalist and author best known for his photos and reviews of the goth, punk, and indie music scenes. He publishes a monthly online magazine called "The Mick"...
, author, noted music journalist, and world's leading historian of Goth music stated, of
Kimveer GillKimveer Singh Gill was a Canadian murderer who perpetrated the Dawson College shooting at Dawson College in Westmount, Quebec, Canada on September 13, 2006. He killed one student and wounded nineteen others before he committed suicide.-Background:Kimveer Gill was a 25-year-old Indo-Canadian born...
, that he was "not a Goth. Never a Goth. The bands he listed as his chosen form of ear-bashing were relentlessly
MetalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
and standard
GrungeGrunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
,
RockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
and Goth metal, with some
IndustrialIndustrial music is an experimental music style, often including electronic music, that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s to describe Industrial Records artists...
presence.", "Kimveer Gill listened to metal", "He had nothing whatsoever to do with Goth" and further commented "I realise that like many Neos this idiot may even have believed he somehow was a Goth, because they're only really noted for spectacularly missing the point." Mercer emphasized that he was not blaming
heavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
for Gill's actions and added "It doesn’t matter actually what music he liked."
Another school shooting that was wrongly attributed to the goth subculture is the
Red Lake High School massacreThe Red Lake massacre was an incident of mass murder that occurred in two places on the Red Lake reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. The first murders began on the morning of March 21, 2005, when 16-year-old Jeffrey Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend...
.
Jeff WeiseJeffrey James Weise was a Native American high school student who murdered nine people and injured five others in a shooting spree on March 21, 2005...
killed 7 people, and was believed by a fellow student to be into the goth culture: wearing "a big old black trench coat," and listening to
heavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
. Weise was also found to participate in neo-nazi online forums.
Other murders which are attributed to people suspected of being part of the goth culture include the
Scott DyleskiScott Edgar Dyleski was convicted of murdering his neighbor, Pamela Vitale, the wife of prominent attorney Daniel Horowitz. He received the maximum penalty allowed by the law, life without parole. As a juvenile at the time of the murder he did not qualify for the death penalty...
killing, and the
Richardson family murdersThe Richardson family murders are the murders of three members of the Richardson family in Medicine Hat, Alberta. The murders were devised and committed by the family's 12-year-old daughter and her 23-year-old boyfriend.-Discovery:...
, although neither of these cases raised the same amount of media attention as the school shootings.
In part because of public misunderstanding and ignorance surrounding gothic aesthetics, goths sometimes suffer
prejudiceA prejudice is a preconceived belief, opinion or judgment especially toward a group of people characterized by their race, social class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or religion...
,
discriminationDiscrimination is a sociological term refering to treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group that is taken in consideration based on class or category. The United Nations explains: "Discriminatory behaviours take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or...
, and
intoleranceIntolerance is an antonym to "tolerance". The term may refer to one of the following.Medical/biological conditionsIn medical/biological context the term is commonly used synonymously with "sensitivity", e.g., "salycylate sensitivity", "cold sensitivity", etc.*Drug intolerance*Food...
. As is the case with members of various other controversial subcultures and
alternative lifestyleAn alternative lifestyle is a lifestyle generally perceived to be outside the cultural norm. Usually, but not always, it implies an affinity or identification within some matching subculture...
s, outsiders sometimes marginalize goths, either by intention or by accident. Goths, like any other alternative sub-culture sometimes suffer
intimidationIntimidation is intentional behavior "which would cause a person of ordinary sensibilities" fear of injury or harm. It's not necessary to prove that the behavior was so violent as to cause terror or that the victim was actually frightened...
,
humiliationHumiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have...
, and, in many cases, physical violence for their involvement with the subculture.
In 2006 four goths were attacked in San Diego
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
by a
NavyA navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
man and his brother resulting in one goth, Jim Howard, having to be rushed to the hospital. The perpetrators of this attack were found guilty in August 2007 on four related accounts, two of which were felonies. It was made clear that the goths were assaulted due to their subculture affiliation. This can be otherwise known as a "hate crime" though the San Diego courts do not recognize this attack as such at this time.
On August 11, 2007, two goths, walking through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, England were attacked by a group of teenagers because they were goths. Sophie Lancaster subsequently died from her injuries. On April 29, 2008, two teens Ryan Herbert and Brendan Harris were convicted for the murder of Lancaster and given life sentences, three others were given lesser sentences for the assault on her boyfriend Robert Maltby. In delivering the sentence Judge Anthony Russell stated “This was a hate crime against these completely harmless people targeted because their appearance was different to yours.” He went on to defend the goth community, calling goths “perfectly peaceful, law-abiding people who pose no threat to anybody.” Judge Russell add that he “recognised it as a hate crime without Parliament having to tell him to do so, and had included that view in his sentencing.” Despite this ruling, a bill to add discrimination based on subculture affiliation to the definition of hate crime in British law did not pass.
In 2008, Paul Gibbs, a Briton from
LeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The historic core at the heart of Leeds in 2001 had an estimated subdivision population of 443,247, whilst the entire city, that includes the urban and suburban areas incorporated into the city in 1974, had an estimated...
, UK was attacked by three men. He and his group of about 20 young goths were on a camping trip in the vicinity of Rothwell when two 18-year-olds (Quinn Colley, Ryan Woodhead) and one 22-year-old (Andrew Hall) raided, stabbed four of the men and robbed two women.
Quinn Colley had previously appeared in a homemade clip rapping on his love of violence.
Gibbs was offered a motorbike ride by the attackers who at first insidiously befriended the group. On their way Gibbs was knocked down from the bike, rendered unconscious by a helmet and had his ear sliced off. Afterwards, the attackers returned to the camp.
Colley and Woodhead were sentenced to at leat 2.5 years of prison while Hall at least 4.5 years.
Gibbs' ear was found 17 hours later thus doctors could not immediately reattach it. Instead they stitched it inside his stomach with the hope that some of the tissue will re-grow. The ear could be reconstructed by using
cartilageCartilage is a stiff yet flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...
removed form Gibbs' ribs.
A study published on the
British Medical JournalBMJ is a partially open access medical journal. It is among the most influential and widely read peer-reviewed general academic journals in the field of medicine in the world....
concluded that "identification as belonging to the Goth subculture [at some point on their lives] was the best predictor of self harm and attempted suicide [among young teens]", and that it was most possibly due to a selection mechanism (persons that wanted to harm themselves later identified as goths, thus raising the percentage of those persons who identify as goths). The study was based on a sample of 15 teenagers who identified as goths, of which 8 had self-harmed by any method, 7 had self-harmed by cutting, scratching or scoring, and 7 had attempted suicide. The authors said that most self-harm by teens was done before joining the subculture, and that joining the subculture would actually protect them and help them deal with distress in their lives. The authors insisted on the study being based on small numbers and on the need of replication to confirm the results. The study was criticized for using a small sample of goth teens and not taking into account other influences and differences between different types of goth.
See also
- Gothic fashion
Gothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the Goth subculture; a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical Gothic fashion includes black dyed and crimped hair, bright lips and black clothes. Both male and female goths sometimes wear dark eyeliner and dark...
- Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an...
- Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of Post-Punk and Alternative Rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
- History of subcultures in the 20th century
-1900-World War I:In the early part of the 20th century, subcultures were mostly informal groupings of like-minded individuals. The Bloomsbury group in London was one example, providing a place where the diverse talents of people like Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, and E.M...
- List of Gothic rock bands
- New Gothic Art
New Gothic Art is a contemporary art movement that emphasizes darkness and horror. As Francesca Gavin puts it, -Boston Gothic exhibition:The style began with the "Gothic" exhibition organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, curated by Christoph Grunenberg, which took place April 24 -...
- Toronto Goth Scene
The Toronto goth scene, the cultural locus of the goth subculture in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the associated music and fashion scene, has distinct origins from goth scenes of other goth subcultural centres, such as the UK or Germany. Originally known as the "freaks", the term "goth" appeared...
- Singapore Dark Alternative Movement
The Singapore Dark Alternative Movement is an informal, social collective catering to the needs of the Singaporean gothic and alternative lifestyle community. It also functions as a support / help group for members within the latter regarding issues such as suicide, gender and sexuality...
External links
- Article from the New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine and website covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier. New Scientist has maintained a...
on benefits of the Goth subculture.