Goth(s): Classic or Dud

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hippies do not bite they suck

mark s, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

ah-ha! but i am growing my hair... i actually overheard someone the other day saying "i'll just have to send energy to that thought". i'm not that much of a hippy. but back to GOths! what really annoys me about them is that they all seem to think they're part of some superintelligent upper class of humanity, because nonGoths are mundane and probably in hock to The Man to boot, and, like, being a Goth is so alternative and nonconformist, y'know? and yet they are the most conformist bunch of people i have ever EVER seen, and you must remember that i travel through The City every single day. i see more variety in those grey pinstripe suits than i do in the average Goth pub (not that i've been to many).

katie, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Goths seem to fancy other goths in the majority: or so it seems. I have a feeling it's something to do with the whole "oh we belong to the same subculture shtick". Then again, one of my friends I consider to be intelligent and interesting but he IS a goff. In no way however is he a hippy. He however dated an extremely um.... not goth girl, "square" isn't the term but perhaps... conformist? would be a term. It was an interesting relationship to see develop and sadly ultimately fail. He is very rockist.

(Mmmmmm, garlick....)

Darla, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Goth pubs are FABULOUS, they're very fun. I agree with Katie that their insistence that they are somewhat more "elite" than everyone else is tiresome yet at least they manage to be entertaining when doing do. I've simply had to give up taking some of them seriously and when you can pierce the faux-morbid mindset that is the WORST, you end up with a quite intelligent and funny human being. If you're friends with someone you'll be friends if they wear black all the time or not. (Incidentally, wearing all black = QUIDS IN in the not looking like a twat stakes, wearing all black leather = ewwww). But anyway goth pubs: classic. Cheap beer, snakebite and you can usually con them into putting some good pop hits on the jukebox where jbox = New Order/Joy Division/the more stupid looking end of the 80s spectrum heh.

Horror films: mmmm I want to see CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

Darla, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

OK starry darla, i agree with you that goth pubs can be fun. but some of the goths i have met REALLY MEAN IT about the elite thing and deserve nothing more than a good punch. i believe Mr T once poured a pint (not of snakebite though) over the specimen of GOthery that you are due to meet for this very reason.

katie, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

a brief word from ex-goth, the G:

Fashion nightmare, but quality pop songs sung in a deep voice. I was a goth for a few years and am amazed I never got beaten up. I wore an arm full of bangles, purple tye-dye shirts and pointed suede boots. I certainly deserved a beating.

Key pop moments:

Sisters of Mercy - First & Last & Always

The Mission - Children / God's Own Medicine

Fields of the Nephilim - Dawnrazor

The Cure were a phony, cuddly goth band so they don't count

At least you could tell by the names whether a band were goth or not. "I'd like the new Skeletal Family single, please." "Sorry mate, we don't serve goths."

chris, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hehehe!! This should be interesting! I developed my deadpang way of a put-down to deal with these goths who considered themselves too elite and zooming off in their little flights of fantasy. It seemed to work quite well as a coping mechanism and managed to snap them out of it sometimes. If they REALLY mean it obviously they are wrong and must be discouraged but I'm not going to let it ruin my life that they're 3733T 74M3X0R5. What I do dislike is when they get on the high horse that they are being OPPRESSED by a SOCIETY that LETS THEM DOWN when what are they contributing to society? Some dull ramble about Poppy Z. Brite down the local goff caff whilst signing on and sponging off as many people as possible and believing it's some kind of communal spirit? CHIZ to that, mate.

Sarah, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

http://www.velvet.net/wannabegoth.gif

Kodanshi, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh and SNAKEBITE = bleaurgh. I was given cider ONCE and never again, it was rejected by my body on account of it being evil, unstylish and POISON.

The thing with ALL subcultures, not just your Goths, is putting on that superiority schtick is their (immature, intellectually bereft) way of reconciling themselves to the fact that 99 per cent of people don't share their interests and think they dress funny, to boot. There's more to being different or creative than relative to 'the normal' or in blatantly reactionary terms. Most of the British Goths I have met come from net-curtain homes and whinge all day in Estuary-speak (this voice, when talking about decadence, puts me in mind of Readers' Wives sections of yer top-shelf jazz mags). The American ones are all middle- class because at least when I was growing up you needed time and money to source all the lifestyle accessories. Most of them grow out of it and don't really make such a mark in the world.

Poppy Z Brite, however, is ACE. I commissioned her to do some work for this project of mine and she hooked me up, completely unbidden, with her literary agent. Now THAT is pure class.

suzy, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Most of the goths I've ever met are really dull and it's a case of the outer image being different or whatever to compensate for the fact that the inner has nothing going for it. Obviously this is not true of all goths, but often people tend to jump on the "individuality" bandwagon because they are lacking in coherent identity or not getting enough attention.

Ronan, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sweet CHEESES. Suzy, forget about the literary agent hoo-hah, have you evah READ her stuff?! To be fair I read an interview with her in heh heh, BIZARRE rag where she seems to have calmed down a bit but her books are laughable trash and tosh. How awful. And my friends tried to order chartreuse because of her. Strangely we could find no booZoRs that served it, especially not the FC, cha. Entire premise of book is that she likes those funny oriental chaps with their funny eyes and would rather like to suck out their eyeballs. And if you can't do that, why not slash open several orifices? Whilst coming across as unsufferably SMUG. And in New Orleans. Please, it's not exactly GRIMSARGH is it. More North Western fiction is needed. Perhaps I should write some, although if I wanted to do it for NaNoWriMo I'd have to start getting my 80wpm FREAK ON.

Anyway, I dunno about estuary accents either, see goth haven WHITBY.

Sarah, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The American ones are all middle- class because at least when I was growing up you needed time and money to source all the lifestyle accessories.

Yeah, all of the proper goths girls I knew would spend hundreds of dollars on boots or custom leather corsets.

I was never really properly goth in that sense, never had the money or the inclination to dress up like that. I would just wear loads of black, but I really always looked more like an indie boy than a goth girlie.

Nicole, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(k-rowr)

mark s, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ronan are you some kind of Faithless fan?! (Faithless = goths).

Sarah, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Subcultures can be fun but I've never gotten goths. I went through a whole year of highschool wearing nothing but black but I've never owned a Cure or Smiths record.

I dye my hair black, own lots of black clothes and have tattoos but shudder at the term goth. I have matching pin-up girl red nails and lips so hopefully this disqualifies me?

Samantha, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sarah, do you honestly think I would commission a book of literary fiction without reading the authors' previous? Sometimes violence in fiction ain't just about the violence, it stands in for some other kind of brutality. Or it's just Nihilism 101. Or as both Dennis Cooper and John Waters say, 'I write it down here so as not to do it out there'. Whatever. See the rather cool book of criticism by the proto-Goth Elizabeth Young for really good precis of her work, it's called Pandora's Handbag and she makes nice work of Dennis Cooper too.

And speaking of literary, Whitby is Gothland because of DRACULA.

suzy, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I love Whitby. And Dennis Cooper's writing is awful. Is he a goth?

Samantha, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

and that's another thing, GOths often seem to be under the delusion that they are vampires. HELLO!?!?!?!!!!

katie, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'd rather not, I tried to stop thinking about PZ-Brite when I left sixth form and I'd prefer not to start again now :)

Was Dracula from Whitby? I must go home and read my book of Lancashire ghosts and start a New Wave of North West fiction. It'll be ACE! ANd yes I know Whitby aint NWoNW before anyone sez anything. Actually I think I am on a winner here I even haf a catchy new name for my genre!

Sarah, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nah, old art punk from Altadena, looks like fortysomething Donald Sutherland. Dennis' writing is like totally LA, dude. You either love it or you hate it, sometimes both at once.

Samantha, your look sounds like the Betty Pages. Is this so?

suzy, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Curses to you Suzy! I hate being told I have the betty page look and will point out that I wear glasses and she didn't!! My look is proto- rockabilly I suppose but not consciously Betty Page. I prefer Gil Elvgren thank you.

Samantha, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

my most recent cd to replace vinyl included sisters of mercy. i still prefer to think of them as novelty pop acts rather than goths (despite this being transparently the case). goths = rockist = too serious, whereas this corrosion on top of the pops = one of the funniest things i've ever seen in my life. and that includes seeing kittens falling off radiators on you've been framed.

Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Betty Page is cool, but I can understand being pished orf if that isn't your intentional style icon.

Corinne Drewery? *ducks*

suzy, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Re: Samantha, your look sounds like the Betty Pages. Is this so?

You mean like this Dita Von Teese the Betty Page for the 21st Century and don't forget the cherry red lipstick.

DJ Martian, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I had to google that one. Swing Out Sister? The name rings some bells but can't place them. The black hair/red lips look is fairly common so I don't sweat comparisons too much. The Betty Page comment comes up far less now that I'm no longer a 24-7 retro kitten. She is cool and was great looking but there are so many other pin-up girls! Someone once called me a Vargas girl and I much preferred that.

Oh, and I hate LA as well so I guess that's explained.

Samantha, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The grandmother of black bangs/red lips is of course LOUISE BROOKS. This was me until I was out of college, before that I looked like a little beatnik boy.

suzy, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Being a goth was more than just owning a couple of Sisters of Mercy records. The clothes were almost anti-fashion and the cross-gender aspect was also a poke in the eye for the establishment. Being a goth was a sign of nonconformity; two raised fingers against conventional attitudes and a sign that you were different, independent, you stood alone from the crowd. I am 31 and work in Finance.

chris' mate, The G (ex-goth), Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ah yes when I wore a bob I got Louise Brooks all the time. Now my hair is much longer. I must scan some pictures to add to the picture you thread. I've got some back of me and Hank on Halloween. But we look so drunk. . .

Samantha, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Vampire stuff really took off because of AIDS allegory in '80s. Blood, sex, death, living in an Undead world passed from lover to lover, get the gist?

Also New Orleans = Gothtown because of creepiness, humidity, Catholicism, voudoun, Anne Rice and all graves ABOVE GROUND.

suzy, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

In my NWoNW novel New Orleans will COWER before Goosnargh!

Sarah, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Does humidity equal gothness? Doesn't their hair wilt and eyeliner run? If this is true then surely Houston, TX is the goth capital of the US.

Samantha, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Because it really is an anti-establishment lifestyle and not a fashion thing. Corporate Goth. I ask you. http://www.waningmoon.com/corpgoth/fashion.html

Anna, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The LA area will always have a claim to Goth love. Especially what with the lingering legacy of Christian Death. ;-)

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah but can you stop them all wearing black spandex cycling shorts? Please Ned, pretty please?

suzy, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Poppy Z Brite is hysterically bad. And all that gay man trapped in a womans body stuff she bleats about makes me want to hurl.

RickyT, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Just send me your other e-mail address again for my reference, Suzy, and I'll do what I can. ;-)

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You, don't have to worry about that Suzy, Goths don't excercise. Even if they did, they'd have to do it indoors so as to avoid ruining their PASTY WHITE complexions.

turner, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I find some goth girls attractive. I'm going to write a song about it.

james, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

We (some friends and I, including Mr. Brian Macdonald, man of goodness) were planning out a radio musical called _Can't Stop the Goths_ based of course on _Can't Stop the Music_. Brian and friends Jake and Ben went so far as to create one song for it, supposedly written by the band Maybelline Messiah, called "And the Dead Will Rise" -- sample lyrics:

"Liar, liar, Jesus on fire!
You crawl with me into a pit of desire!

And the chorus:
"And the dead will rise
And the blood will call
A million faces on the screaming wall
Bring disease, doom, despair
And DEATH."

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

LA is the home of the goodtime party people goths! Search: 45 Grave-"Partytime". Except they inevitably become thirtysomething junkie shut-ins.

Funny, Ned, I was once gonna write a Busby Berkeley style goth review, "Goths-a-poppin'!" Your show sounds better, though.

Arthur, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Search: 45 Grave

"I was FUCKED BY THE DEVIL/He sure FUCKED THE SHIT out of me." The Debasement Tapes collection is hilariously wrong as well.

Fret not, Arthur, I like your vision as well. And hey, been to the new Amoeba yet? :-)

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I love the fashion, but everything else is pretty dud (death fixation especially, argh). And I don't have the money to buy a week's worth of properly goth clothes, but since I accidentally dyed my hair black while trying to get it back to my natural color I am having quite a lot of fun with evil vampire makeup. As for company, I prefer the computer nerds and religious nuts to the goths.

Maria, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

In maybe '83 or '84, I had dyed black hair, wore all black clothes, even sometimes black eyeliner, owned a Bauhaus t-shirt, but I wasn't goth! I swear!

Sean, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, you were just Marc Almond. ;-)

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Or maybe just a death rocker. That way you can be into the Gun Club, too!

Hi Ned, no, I haven't been there. Currently unemployed and relatively broke so I think I'd go mad, darling, simply mad if I set foot in the joint. But we should get together soon and maybe Amoeba's just the place. We can go out to eat at Chan Dara on Cahuenga afterwards.

Arthur, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sounds like a plan, I think we were going to do an early December run up or something...

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

ah goth gurls *shiver* more specifically goth princesses who really put the effort in, although why did they always *always* have a fat mate? local alt nite in cheltenham back in 92/3 was basically goth/crusty nite, which is the only reason i know all the words to vengeance by NMA, honest (and all the hand movements, ditto temple of love), but why all the walking backwards and forwards????

carsmilesteve, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

james, John Wesley Harding already wrote a song about goth girls called (strangely enough) "Goth Girl". It's kind of crap tho. For him at least.

I was one, back in the day. For a few days out of each week anyway. Because, you see, I'm completely useless with style commitments.

Kim, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like Goths, you know, all the ones I know are actually really nice and aren't Goth supremacists at all. They like all the dressing up and the snakebite, y'see.

DG, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Early December will be magic, Ned.

Also, DG's right. Goths are the least snobbish of subculties. Much friendlier than hippies. And they seem to embrace all types: gay, transgendered, handicapped, overweight, anorexic, OLD--anyone can be a goth.

Arthur, Wednesday, 21 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

lol

Ste, Monday, 4 August 2008 10:43 (fifteen years ago) link

Black milk of daybreak

NickB, Monday, 4 August 2008 10:45 (fifteen years ago) link

Goth or not?

Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 04:32 (fifteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

You must:

1. Be The Goth
2. Feel The Goth
3. Repeat

Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:49 (fifteen years ago) link

one month passes...

I bought a bottle of wine tonight from Spain that turned out to have a black cork in it. Now maybe black corks are normal things in some part of the world or other, but they're damn well not anything I've seen before. This as further proof that it is impossible to compete with Bimble's inherent gothness. You have been warned.

Roasted Ghost (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Saturday, 18 October 2008 05:49 (fifteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

dammit

Chaki Demus & Pliers (ENBB), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 18:35 (fourteen years ago) link

i went to a goth party last friday, and it was very strange but kind of fun. they played an entire Christian Death album, and some old-time Bauhaus shit, then it sort of went the way of 80s-postrock dance party, which is not inherently goth, but pretty good nonetheless.

the table is the table, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 19:44 (fourteen years ago) link

was it a birthday party

Vokuhila (latebloomer), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 23:23 (fourteen years ago) link

ba-bum-FLOP

Vokuhila (latebloomer), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 23:24 (fourteen years ago) link

I've got a gentle respect for hot weather goths.

cant go with u too many alfbrees (Abbott), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 23:35 (fourteen years ago) link

That is commitment.

Hatfail of Hollow (Nicole), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 23:44 (fourteen years ago) link

Lucian is a sanguine vampire, not an energy or psi vampire like his mom.

Vokuhila (latebloomer), Wednesday, 3 June 2009 23:47 (fourteen years ago) link

Goths in Brisbane are hilarious/awesome, they walk around with black lace umbrellas to keep the sun off

Chaka Demus & Plies (sic), Thursday, 4 June 2009 12:24 (fourteen years ago) link

I've got a gentle respect for hot weather goths

I was just thinking the same thing - especially when i got to this photo.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zDgw4yU3QkA/ShZzAvehEJI/AAAAAAAAADw/A0zM591PHrs/s1600-h/vampyres_tk_2.jpg

There's a lot of effort gone on there.

Brandy Frotte and Reel De La St-Jean (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 4 June 2009 12:31 (fourteen years ago) link

Oh I see - no linking, eh?

Well, it's here anyway.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zDgw4yU3QkA/ShZzAvehEJI/AAAAAAAAADw/A0zM591PHrs/s1600-h/vampyres_tk_2.jpg

Brandy Frotte and Reel De La St-Jean (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 4 June 2009 12:32 (fourteen years ago) link

See, I have never met ANYONE EVER IN MY LIFE who dresses like that.

Outside, maybe at at stretch, LARPers dressing steampunky at a con or something. But ffs. Nobs.

Trayce, Friday, 5 June 2009 00:02 (fourteen years ago) link

classic, duh. goth girls = hot

brian krakow has a posse (bug), Friday, 5 June 2009 00:03 (fourteen years ago) link

lol, no.

k3vin k., Friday, 5 June 2009 00:04 (fourteen years ago) link

lol, yes!

brian krakow has a posse (bug), Friday, 5 June 2009 00:05 (fourteen years ago) link

http://www.industrialgothic.com/

brian krakow has a posse (bug), Friday, 5 June 2009 00:09 (fourteen years ago) link

GBOTW is still GOING? wow. Couple of my friends were in that years ago, I think.

Well, when I say friend, I mean "horrible cow who assaulted me at a nightclub and is a basket case that I worked with", but whatevs.

Trayce, Friday, 5 June 2009 00:15 (fourteen years ago) link

incredibly, yes.

brian krakow has a posse (bug), Friday, 5 June 2009 00:18 (fourteen years ago) link

Its funny looking at the late 90s images, theyre all fairly down to earth, proper old school girls. The recent stuff is all fetish porn and suicide girl shit.

Trayce, Friday, 5 June 2009 00:20 (fourteen years ago) link

four years pass...

Goth goth goth

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/29/style/goth.html?_r=0

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 29 October 2013 20:58 (ten years ago) link

finger on pulse

I like to think I have learnt a thing or two about music (Neil S), Tuesday, 29 October 2013 21:52 (ten years ago) link

- What I admire about that 'gothopotamus' person upthread, and the other person in the photo, is that the look transcends what they've got to work with physically. There's a dark, glamourous ideal that they're going for, and, whether or not that's a good ideal, the devotion to it against all the odds (short fat male w/ eyeliner for example) is surely Classic.

- Mystery and imagination are precious even in their most degraded forms, true/false

- Goth doesn't age well VERSUS why the hell not be 32, pushing your kid in a pram, wearing a black top hat and army boots

cardamon, Tuesday, 29 October 2013 23:11 (ten years ago) link

The older I get the more I appreciate sullenness and misanthropy.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 29 October 2013 23:16 (ten years ago) link

one year passes...

Goth at the BBC! Sex Gang Children! Lols a plenty and some great music!!!

Barry Gordy (Neil S), Friday, 31 October 2014 22:22 (nine years ago) link

five years pass...

TS: ostro v visi

Well, that's a fine howdy adieu! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 1 July 2020 15:45 (three years ago) link

two years pass...

It's World Goth Day! I made a playlist, mostly obvious stuff but I will ride or die for the Tanya Tucker track belonging in there: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7AngEshubU4FnaeXGm54Cp?si=81988a85b72c423b

two months pass...

massive goth banger!! i think i've played it...5 times this morning. i would totally play this out at the club. if i had a batcave to spin at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5V1c3Hnypw

scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2023 16:13 (eight months ago) link

Basement of your store, it can happen.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 August 2023 17:08 (eight months ago) link

look Ned i'm on the ILX!

scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2023 17:52 (eight months ago) link

Hurrah!

Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 August 2023 18:17 (eight months ago) link


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