Goth
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- This page is a WikiCode word too.
- See also: PUNK, Gothic Jargon Buster
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GOTH
Lord Matt's introduction to goth, Goth and gothic culture. Plus some anally-retentive attention to detail.
Part of the Lord Matt world is this blog: Purged by fire. It's a goth blog. Main fandom: Voices of Masada.
What is Goth?
Goth is a modern subculture that first became popular during the early 1980s within the gothic rock scene, a sub-genre of post punk. It is associated with gothic tastes in music and clothing. Styles of dress range from gothic horror, punk, Victorian, fetish, cybergoth, androgyny, and/or lots of black. However, there is no dress code for goths. (See: Dress Code Goth for a quick contradiction)
Most american writers attribute goth roots to the beatniks which startd off in the US... they might even be right.
History of Goth
Goth can see it's roots in punk and to a great extent goth and punk are the same thing. Goth came about as a name due to the media as a reference to the visigoths and the violence they exhibited (very early punk).
From there it continued and absorbed some or all of each and every style that followed. Teddy-boys and the Mods with their need to "out-style" each other. Beatniks with thier poetry, new romantics and so forth.
Much of the goth scene exists as an example of a natural meme. Almost all of the Goth scene has roots in the early punk scene in London. This was because much of early punk was a rebellion by energetic art school students and similarly minded young people.
From the first there was every eliment of goth embrionic within London Punk.
For example: old clothes and safty pins started as a trend with a certain band (name to follow when I remember or get the books out and look it up) that was followed arround by a second hand cothing ship owner. The antique clothes would disintergrate after even a short set, so he would proform emergency sergery with safty pins on the clothes. The pins and the clothes entered punk and stayed put expirencing moments of revival as the life cycle of early punkeque tends went around and around.
more follows when time permits.
Ages of Goth
- Punk [A]
- Matured Punk / Ermerging Goth [AB]
- Late Punk / Developing Goth [BA]
- Old School (easily recognisable goth) [B]
- Late old school (cross over to 2nd Gen) [BC]
- Second Generation [C]
- Late Second Gen [CD]
- Early Third Gen / Late Second gen [DC]
- Trad Fetish: [DC] (This one is hard to place)
- Third Geners: Cyber / Fetish [D]
- Third Geners: Death Goth [D]
- Third Geners: Mallgoths / skata kids etc. [D]
See also: The Goth Scales
As each generation has it's stereotypes added to the media impression of goth the following generation will imbibe the stereo type and not the original. That's just the way of things.
Each generation was suspisiouse of the next and this has helped to polorise the scene rather heavily with [B] old school / Traditional goths in a minority.
The modern goth scene [D] is split into highly Cyber and Highly Death Metal Goth and never the two shall meet.
Interestingly the [D] Third gen Goths have most in common with the violent anarcistic anti-authoriterion side of Punk than most realise. The only difference is that Punk on the whole did not seem to take it too seriously.
Contemporary proliferation of the term Goth
This section has a number of more in depth sections:
Wikipedia bit In recent years, the word Goth has often been used to describe a wider social group of youths. These might include people with a tendency to wear black clothes or wear goth-style make up. Often, those labelled as Goths lack many of the characteristics historically associated with the subculture, and are sometimes called mallgoths (US) New-Wave, Chavigoth, NuGoth, SkataGoth, Twits, Tenigoths, Third Gen Goths and many other terms in the less forgiving UK.
etc
Interestingly goth in other languages: goto, Gothique, Gootti
