The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk 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 movies and -according to César Fuentes Rodríguez and Carol Siegel- to a lesser extent, the BDSM cultureCésar Fuentes Rodríguez "Mundo Gótico", pages 18 & ss./pages 206 & ss.Carol Siegel "Goth's Dark Empire", pages 8-13 and ss.

The goth subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and fashion, 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 death rock, punk, androgynous, medieval, some Renaissance and Victorian style clothes, or combinations of the above, most often with black attire, makeup and hair.

Origins and development

By the late 1970s, there were a few post-punk bands in the United Kingdom labeled "gothic." However, it was not until the early 1980s that gothic rock became its own subgenre within post-punk, and that followers of these bands started to come together as a distinctly recognizable movement. The scene appears to have taken its name from an article published in UK rock weekly Sounds: ‘The face of Punk Gothique’, written by Steve Keaton and published on February 21 1981.
The opening of the Batcave in London's Soho in July 1982 provided a prominent meeting point for the emerging scene, which had briefly been labeled positive punk by the New Musical Express. ''Batcave'' club history ''Scathe.demon.co.uk''. URL Accessed April 23, 2006. The term "Batcaver" was later used to describe old-school goths.

Independent of the British scene, the late 1970s and early 1980s saw death rock branch off from American punk. Archived Interview with Ms. Dinah Cancer ''Alicebag.com''. URL Accessed April 23, 2006. In 1980s and early 1990s, members of an emerging subculture in Germany were called ''Grufties'' (English ''"vault creatures"'' or ''"tomb creatures"''); they generally followed a fusion of the gothic and new wave with an influence of new romantic, and formed the early stages of the "dark culture" (formerly called "dark wave culture").

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. These include but are not limited to ''neogoths'' in Western Europe and North America, ''mallgoths'' in the US, ''dark'' in Latin America and Italy, ''hackians'' in New Zealand and ''spooky kids'', ''moshers'' or mini moshers in the UK. More positive terms, such as ''mini-goths'' or ''baby bats'', are also used by some older goths to refer to youths whom they see as exhibiting potential for growth into mature goths later on. The prevalence of internet-based information regarding goth has resulted in a distorted and overstated perception of varying slang terms as used in reality and offline, particularly with regard to those terms allegedly used outside of the UK and US.

The response of these newer 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 its 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 rock and death rock scene were limited in number, and included Bauhaus, Specimen, Siouxsie & the Banshees,The Damned, Southern Death Cult, Ausgang, Sex Gang Children, 45 Grave, UK Decay, The Virgin Prunes, Kommunity FK, Alien Sex Fiend and Christian Death. Gloria Mundi, Joy Division, The Cure, Dead Can Dance, early Adam and the Ants and Killing Joke have also been associated.

By the mid-eighties, the number of bands began proliferating and became increasingly popular, including The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission UK, Xmal Deutschland, The Bolshoi and Fields of the Nephilim. The nineties saw the further growth of eighties bands and emergence of many new bands. Factory Records, 4AD Records, and Beggars Banquet Records released much of this music in Europe, while Cleopatra Records amongst 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 Records. This produces what is colloquially termed ethereal wave, a subgenre of dark wave music.

By the mid-1990s, styles of music that were heard in venues that goths attended ranged from gothic rock, death rock, industrial music, EBM, ambient, experimental, synthpop, shoegazing, punk rock, 1970s glam rock, indie rock, to 1980s dance music. This variety was a result of a need to maximize attendance from everyone across the alternative music scene, particularly in smaller towns, and due to the eclectic tastes of the members of the subculture.

Recent years have seen a resurgence in the early positive punk and death rock sound, in reaction to aggrotech, futurepop, 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 Festival brings in death rock fans from all over the world. Goth and death rock magazines like ''Drop Dead Magazine'' (a companion to Drop Dead Festival) also help spread its popularity.

Today, the goth music scene thrives in Western Europe, especially Germany, 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 America still sees large scale events, most recently, Chamber's Dark Art & Music Festival http://www.chambernyc.com.

Origins of the term

The original Goths were an Eastern Germanic tribe who played an important role in the fall of the western Roman Empire. In some circles, the name "goth" later became pejorative: synonymous with "barbarian" and the uncultured due to the then-contemporary view of the fall of Rome and depictions of the pagan Gothic tribes during and after the process of Christianization of Europe. During the Renaissance period in Europe, medieval architecture was retroactively labeled gothic architecture, and was considered unfashionable in contrast to the then-modern lines of classical architecture.

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 Catholic religion and the supernatural. Enthusiasts for gothic revival architecture in the United Kingdom were led by Horace Walpole, and were sometimes nicknamed "goths", the first positive use of the term in the modern period. The gothic novel of the late eighteenth century, a genre founded by Horace Walpole with the 1764 publication of ''The Castle of Otranto'', 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 documentation to increase its effect. Henceforth, the term was associated with a mood of horror, morbidity, darkness and the supernatural as well as camp and self-parody. The gothic novel established much of the iconography of later horror literature and cinema, such as graveyards, ruined castles or churches, ghosts, vampires, nightmares, cursed families, being buried alive and melodramatic plots. An additional notable element was the brooding figure of the gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero. The most famous gothic villain is the vampire, Dracula, originally depicted in a novel by Bram Stoker, then made more famous through the medium of horror movies.

The powerful imagery of horror movies began in German expressionist cinema in the twenties then passed onto the Universal Studios films of the thirties, then to camp horror B films such as ''Plan 9 From Outer Space'' and then to Hammer Horror films. By the 1960s, TV series, such as ''The Addams Family'' and ''The Munsters'', used these stereotypes for camp comedy.

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''.

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 Byronic hero, in particular, was a key precursor to the male goth image, while Dracula's iconic portrayal by Bela Lugosi appealed powerfully to early goths. They were attracted by Lugosi's aura of camp menace, elegance and mystique. Some people even credit the band Bauhaus' first single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released August 1979, with the start of the goth subculture, though many prior art house movements also influenced gothic fashion and style. Notable early examples include Siouxsie Sioux of the musical group Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Dave Vanian of the band The Damned. Some members of Bauhaus were, themselves, fine art students and/or active artists.

Some of the early gothic rock 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-cheek, but as time went on, bands and members of the subculture took the connection more seriously. As a result, morbid, supernatural, and occult themes became a more noticeably serious element in the subculture. The interconnection between horror and goth was highlighted in its early days by ''The Hunger'', a 1983 vampire film, which starred David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon. The movie featured gothic rock group Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" in a nightclub. In 1993, Whitby became the location for what became the UK's biggest goth festival as a direct result of being featured in Bram Stoker's ''Dracula''.
The film Sleepy Hollow,shot itself in a somber tone accordingly has the pivotal role of the "Headless rider" played by Chris Walken as a dead "hessian" mercenary of dark,germanic barbarian and satanic ancestral iconography.

Throughout the evolution of the goth subculture, familiarity with gothic literature became significant for many goths. Keats, Poe, Baudelaire and other romantic writers became just as symbolic of the subculture as dressing all in black.

A newer literary influence on the gothic scene was Anne Rice's re-imagining of the idea of the vampire. 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. Movies based on her books have been filmed in recent years — notably ''Interview with the Vampire'', in which goths appear directly and indirectly.

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 Crow'' drew directly on goth music and style. Neil Gaiman's acclaimed graphic novel series ''The Sandman'' influenced Goths with characters like the dark, brooding Dream and his sister Death. Anne Rice's book series ''The Vampire Chronicles'' and the popular World of Darkness roleplaying games, especially ''Vampire: The Masquerade'', also referred directly to gothic music and culture and encouraged an interest in the scene. Influences from anime, cyberpunk fiction such as ''The Matrix'' and Shadowrun have increased interest in the goth scene although unrelated, adding to Cyber subculture, or Industrial/goth fusion; and the popularity of Industrial music.

A regular goth character is portrayed positively on the American television series NCIS. Abby Sciuto, played by Pauley Perrette, is uniquely goth, but works firmly on the side of the protagonists as a highly skilled forensic scientist.

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 motives. 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 fiction, Pre-Raphaelites or Art Nouveau. In the Fine Art field, Anne Sudworth is a well known goth artist with her dark, nocturnal works and strong Gothic imagery.

The subculture was an influence on photographers such as Viona Ielegems from Belgium, Anni Bertram from Germany, Stéphane Lord from Canada and Nadja Lev from the USA. Famous graphic artists close to Goth are Rachael Huntington, Gerald Brom, Nene Thomas, Luis Royo, Dave McKean, Jhonen Vasquez, Alice Egoyan, Myka Jelina as well as the American comic artist James O'Barr. H R Giger 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 romanticism 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 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 camp 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 with tolerance. Many in the media have incorrectly associated the Goth subculture with violence, hatred of minorities, white supremacy, 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.ReligiousTolerance.org's article on "Goth "

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 hippie 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, tendency toward intellectualism, a dislike of social conservatism, and a mild tendency towards cynicism, but even these ideas are not universal to all goths. Goth ideology is based far more on aesthetics than ethics or politics.

Goths may, indeed, have political leanings ranging from left-liberal to anarchist, 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".

For the individual goth, involvement with the subculture can be extremely valuable and personally fulfilling, especially in creative terms. However, it also can be risky, especially for the young, partly 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 long since died out.

Controversy

The gothic fascination with the macabre has raised public concerns regarding the well-being of goths. The mass media 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.http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8996-goth-subculture-may-protect-vulnerable-children.html Some individuals who have either identified themselves or been identified by others as goth, whether correctly or incorrectly, have committed high profile violent crimes, 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.Marcia Montenegro The World According to Goth Christian Answers for the New AgeEric Lipton Disturbed Shooters Weren't True Goth from the Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1999

Public concern with the goth subculture reached a high point in the fallout of the Columbine High School massacre 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, 5 months later, stated that there was no involvement between the goth subculture and the killers, who held the music in contempt.Columbine retrospective

The Dawson College shooting, in Canada, also raised public concern with the goth scene. Kimveer Gill, who killed one and injured nineteen, maintained an online journal at a web site, VampireFreaks.com, in which he "portrayed himself as a gun-loving Goth."September 14, 2006. Shooting by Canadian trench coat killer affects industrial / goth scene Side-line.com. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bd/Fatality666_profile.gif Kimveer Gill's VampireFreaks.com profile 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", implicating that Gill was involved in the goth subculture. During a search of Gill's home, police found a letter praising the actions of Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold 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". Singh, Raman NRI Kimveer Gill, Montreal native gunman called himself 'angel of death',
kills One and injuring 20 NRI Retrieved on March 22, 2007.

Mick Mercer, author, noted music journalist, and world's leading historian of Goth musicBlu Interview with Mick Mercer Starvox.netKyshah Hell Interview with Mick Mercer Morbidoutlook.comMick Mercer Broken Ankle Books stated, of Kimveer Gill, that he was "not a Goth. Never a Goth. The bands he listed as his chosen form of ear-bashing were relentlessly Metal and standard Grunge, Rock and Goth Metal, with some Industrial 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 music for Gill's actions and added "It doesn’t matter actually what music he liked.".Mick Mercer Mick Mercer talks about Kimveer Gill mickmercer.livejournal.com.

Another school shooting that was wrongly attributed to the goth subculture is the Red Lake High School massacreShooter is described as 'Goth kid' , ''Star-Telegram'' (subscription required). Jeff Weise 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 music. Weise was also found to participate in neo-nazi online forums. NBC, MSNBC and news services Teen who killed 9 claimed Nazi leanings MSNBC

Other murders which are attributed to people suspected of being part of the goth culture include the Scott Dyleski killing,CNN.com. October 22, 2005. Vitale slaying suspect charged with murder . Retrieved on March 13, 2007. and the Richardson family murders,Reynolds, Richard, Accused killer, 12, linked to goth site , ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', April 28, 2006.Johnsrude, Larry, Goths say Medicine Hat killings give them bad name , ''Edmonton Journal'', April 26, 2006. 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 prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance. As is the case with members of various other controversial subcultures and alternative lifestyles, outsiders sometimes marginalize goths, either by intention or by accident. Goths, like any other alternative sub-culture sometimes suffer intimidation, humiliation, and, in extreme cases, physical violence for their involvement with the subculture.Marcia Montenegro The World According to Goth Christian Answers for the New Age

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. Goth couple badly hurt in attack BBC News-UKBonnie Malkin and agencies Woman 'attacked for being a Goth' dies Telegraph.co.uk News

Criticism

Some postcolonialist literary and cultural critics see goth subculture as inherently eurocentric, as it draws on imagery and aesthetics at the heart of western cultures. Furthermore, they argue that most of the horror themes that goths embrace (even though these references apply soley to Horror Punks and not Goths) often have racist connotations.In contrast to these critics, film historian David J. Skal argues that horror cinema has always served as a socially acceptable outlet for subversive social criticism,David J. Skal: "The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror" Faber and Faber, Inc., 1993 ISBN 0-571-19996-8 and thus neither horror imagery nor (by extension) the Gothic subculture adhere to the description suggested by these critics.

Cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez has satirized the goth subculture in his comics ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac'', ''I Feel Sick'', and ''Fillerbunny''. Vasquez depicts it as showing tendencies towards backbiting, unoriginality, and conceit. At the same time, his work is also self-mocking, particularly when it touches on issues such as murder and depression (common in ''Johnny the Homicidal Maniac''), which are topics of interest in Goth subculture.

References

;Books

Baddeley, Gavin: ''Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark Culture'' (Plexus, US, August 2002, ISBN 0-85965-308-0)

Davenport-Hines, Richard: ''Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin'' (1999: North Port Press. ISBN 0-86547-590-3 (trade paperback) - A voluminous, if somewhat patchy, chronological/aesthetic history of Gothic covering the spectrum from Gothic architecture to The Cure.

Fuentes Rodríguez, César: ''Mundo Gótico''. (Quarentena Ediciones, 2007, ISBN 8493389161)-In Spanish. Covering Literature, Music, Cinema, BDSM, Fashion and Subculture topics-

Hodkinson, Paul: ''Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture'' (Dress, Body, Culture Series) 2002: Berg. ISBN 1-85973-600-9 (hardcover); ISBN 1-85973-605-X (softcover)

Kilpatrick, Nancy: ''The Goth Bible : A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined''. 2004: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-30696-2

Voltaire: ''What is Goth?'' (WeiserBooks, US, 2004; ISBN 1-57863-322-2) — a view of the goth subculture

Andrew C. Zinn: ''The Truth Behind The Eyes'' (IUniverse, US, 2005; ISBN 0-595-37103-5) — Dark Poetry

;Notes