What is Goth?

A letter I wrote to an older friend in 2004 about my time in the Goth Scene in Aussie.

Getting ready to go out to a Goth night. I was the only one at the club that looked like this.
I wanted to be like the Black Metal guys… And while among the most masculine in the club, I was also wearing the most makeup… the irony is not lost on me.
The digital watch completed the Look.

You may be interested to read my Prior Story (Linked below)for some insight… into my entry into and role in Sydney Goth scene…

This is an email I wrote to a friend trying to describe GOTH to a 55 year old Well Educated Australian Family man who heard some music I was listening too… “Nightwish”. He was floored and bought everything he could. This led to discussion of the scenes of Metal and Goth and he said “I saw people out on the town dressed up like halloween, are they into Nightwish?”… I said no they are Goth Nightwish is Finnish Melodic Power metal… there are alot of scenes…. and it’s just too much to unpack….They dont really listen to Nightwish…

He said “What is Goth?” and here we are with this Super Cringe email of me trying to explain Late 90s Goth to this guy… It’s a good painful read. Fill your boots.

( Skip the link - If you have read the below )

This Details the Sydney Goth scene of the late 90s early 2000s.

Your global experience of the Goth scene may differ… but I would like to see if there were any similarities?

THE EMAIL :

So Bill….“What is Goth?“

In order to for you to fully understand the bizarreness that is earths Gothic subculture I will begin by sourcing a definition of it and then give my opinion and experience of it all.

The Goth subculture is remarkable for its longevity compared with others of the same era. Its imagery shows influences from nineteenth century Gothic literature. The Goth subculture has associated "Gothic" tastes in music and fashion. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles. Common to all , Renaissance style clothes, combinations of the above, and/or lots of black attire, makeup and hair.

Dante and the other heralding names became just as symbolic of the subculture as dressing all in black, wearing the hair dramatically stylised and dyed black, adorning oneself with dark jewelry and body art, and carrying around a decorated tin lunchbox.

A newer literary influence on the Gothic scene was Anne Rice's re-imagining of the idea of the vampire. Movies based on her books have been filmed in recent years - notably Interview with the Vampire, and the more recent Queen of the Damned, in which Goths appear directly and indirectly. The first film, in particular, helped further encourage the spread of Victorian style fashions in the subculture.

Defining an ideology of the Gothic subculture is difficult for several reasons. First is the overwhelming importance of mood for those involved. This is, in part, inspired by romanticism. The allure for Goths of dark, mysterious and surreal mood lies in the same tradition. The rise of Romanticism's Gothic novel during the 19th century saw feelings of horror being commercially exploited as a form of mass entertainment, a process continued in the modern horror film.

The second impediment to defining a Gothic ideology is Goth’s sometimes apolitical nature. Unlike the hippy or punk 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, a dislike of social conservatism and a strong tendency towards cynicism, but even these ideas are not common to all Goths. Goth ideology is based far more on aesthetics than ethics or politics.

The are seperatists to a degree, compared to submitting to the invisible manipulations of popular consumerism and the mass media.

A recent study by Sussex University suggests that Goths are likely to grow up to be doctors, lawyers or architects, and that Goths are usually intelligent, refined and sensitive, and keen on poetry and books.

NOW MY PART.

So now you have read that – I’ll give you my viewpoint. I have been part of the Gothic subculture since I first moved to Sydney in 98.

I have always been attracted to its themes and music and at a game shop in I met a Goth DJ who took me to a few clubs.

Years went by and I would go out dancing at these clubs in Sydney usually once every two weeks as there are only about 100 Goths in Sydney they rent out a bar and decorate it out like Halloween and play music and dance.

One of the main reasons (Besides the aesthetic ) I am part of the Goth scene is because it is mostly composed of Intelligent , artistic individuals. It is also a mostly drug free scene and no one in it that I know of is even a heavy drinker. A lot of the girls dress in a revealing fashion but it also has a high moral ethic in regards to sexuality. (Compared to the rest of Australia) Where Promiscuity is frowned upon and the scene is heavily composed of couples or people who are trying to start some sort of relationship. A lot of them marry young and stay married.

Most of the Goths are university students or have some Goth type job or life, like jewellery making , clothes making ,leather worker or work in a bookstore or wine shop.

As a lot of the people in the scene are quite religious themselves ( Mostly pagans or Wiccans ) I can freely talk about my spiritual beliefs with no worries about being attacked as these people are smarter than that, and a lot of them are happy to find out what its really about. As the conversations often go to spiritual topics I am often asked what I “Believe in “

There are a few interesting phenomena in the scene that I have observed as well.

One is a slight class system. A ranking type system based on behaviour and length of time in the scene. With the Elder Goths (often not wearing any sort of crazy Goth clothing at all and instead wears a dark coloured suit or some similar attire) at the top and the Nu- Goths or Kinder Goths wearing over the top gear – piercing and black mohawks etc at the bottom.

It is pretty cliquey – and although every one is very friendly and accepting of new people , they don’t tolerate people spoiling their illusion. Thus dress codes are heavily enforced at the door. This also prevents the factor of drunken idiots from other nightclubs spilling in to get a look at all the “ Freaks“.

Also if you misbehave there is a type of crude justice system– for example it you are getting too drunk and making a fool of yourself , doing drugs, starting a fight or if you seduce someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend, you will find yourself frozen out of all conversations and on occasion have people hiss at you behind your back until you stand outside the club crying , waiting for your friends to give you a ride home. I observed this happen to a girl once who apparently had tried to steal some girls boyfriend away.

Another factor is what I call the “Freak factor” Because the scene is so underground and fringe, and as I believe it is the hatred of the mainstream and middle class and a feeling of not really belonging to, or agreeing with current society that has led most of the people there, it attracts an inordinate number of freaks.

A few pop to mind. Most of who I saw last Monday.

One Armed Deb.- A pretty good looking girl with a little nubbin for an arm which she uses to hold her hand bag. She introduces herself as One armed Deb.

Zilla.- A guy with a very square head curly black hair that sticks straight up from his head like an eraser from a pencil and he is always wearing the same brown suit , and the back of the suit always has a HUGE amount of animal hair on it.

There is also another guy called Hook. He is a Midget as well and he has a hook for a hand.

And on last count there were three of what I call “Giants”. Mostly women who are about 6 foot 6 and weigh probably 140 kg. Their boy friends are usually tall and pencil thin.

Well for all the above reasons and these - intelligence, ethics, a real group , acceptance and great music – I found the scene to my liking . When I went to Toronto I was welcomed at the clubs and I wasn’t surprised to find that they operated on almost the same protocols.

Now given the choice between this scene which really appeals to me on an aesthetic level and the normal club or pub scene of fighting , everyone trying to get laid, drug use, heavy drinking , a social veneer thing, I would choose my Goth scene every time.

I think they are great loving caring people – you get your usual fuck wits like you do anywhere , but on the whole if I have any problem with it , it is that there is almost no social veneer at all and you have to be ready for a person you have just started talking too start in on a bizarre or personal topic, when all you want to do is listen to some music and have a dance.

If I was found to be giving our secrets away like this I would be in trouble. As the Goths thrive on being misunderstood mocked and laughed at by the “Normals”. Because it makes them right for wanting their little clubs and for their shunning of social conservatism.

They don’t want people to know they are a really happy bunch living often more fulfilling lives than the mainstream. Its all a big Hoax. That often new teenagers who get into the scene and take it all very seriously take a year or so understand.

But it’s funny when they finally click that they have been making fools of themselves taking it all so seriously for as long as it took.

The way most get in to the scene is to apprentice under an older more experienced Goth , who will see that the person likes the aesthetic of Goth and introduce them to various ideas and literature in their teen years and then on their 18^th birthday take them out to a club. Not unlike an debutantes ball or a coming out party of old time Virginia where one is formally introduced to the esteemed Goth hierarchy.

I’ll be the first to admit – it’s not for everyone – and it is a pretty heavy look.

But ultimately it is the playing of a game. Probably 60 – 70 % of the people in the scene realise they are doing just that. Which makes for a great time.

There are Two funny saying in the Goth Scene.

If you say “Goth” or talk about anything as Goth as in “Yeah I’m a Goth” Or “Im fully hooked up in the Goth world.” Then you are not Goth.

That is unless you are an Elder, Veteran of the Scene who can say the above as openly as you like as you realize its all just make believe.

If you “Once were a Goth” Then you never really were Goth.

A final Note on the American Goth

As far as I have found there is no Goth Scene in Sacramento USA. There was a “Goth” club …A friend and I went to in Sacramento that was touted as Gothic. We went out to it a few times when I first arrived there, but it was full of trendoid, shallow, boorish, unintelligent, heavy drinking, badly behaved druggies, who were for the most part pretty perverted and promiscuous. No one knew any poetry or 80s goth music and were listening to Nine Inch Nails and Korn and Marilyn Manson, which is just all an abomination if you ask me.

That shit can just fuck right off.

They wore mass marketed cheap non Handmade “Goth looking”clothes bought from “Gothic Chain stores” . There is an actual STORE here that sells the goth clothes… it’s called Hot Topic.

I made the comment – Sorry man this is not what I was talking about – these guys are total clowns.

We then went home. I put my expensive hand made Special Goth going out clothes away – put a track suit on and did not go out to a Goth Club until I was back in Australia.

I believe a better educational treatise on the subject has never been written. Once you have absorbed its contents you will be so expert of the whole thing that you will be able to nod knowingly when you see a TRUE Goth in the street or in the wild.

So in conclusion – Am I Goth?

No, I am not a Goth, although I previously stated “I have been part of the Gothic subculture since I first moved to Sydney in 98.”

I am another thing entirely.

And that is A HEAVY METAL WARRIOR- PROTECTOR OF THE GOTHS.

But that’s a story for another day.

Best Wez.