…darn, I was powering down; you turn around and make me think/write for an hour. <gg> (must be on different schedules)
Great links, btw, and an fine enhancement to our discussion. They do, however, open up many subdivisions of people, ideas, and practices than were specified in my exchange. They are many smaller parts of the goth pie.
Noting that the desecrated.com site provoked the question "Who are goths?", later re-specified as "Currently, who are those calling themselves goths?", I was describing the current crop of kids looking like, reading, and listening to, the same stuff as I, then a much younger MrB (noting that I suggested something more around '79/'80).
Strictly speaking, early 80s goths were <surprise> rebellious teens questioning the previous generation (nothing new), and also disconnected from those within their age group who were of the standard WASP norm. That they would stumble onto Bauhaus and the SistersOM, whilst their parents were grooving to old Stones, and their peers were peaking Michael Jackson is not accidental. (**…with the curious sidenote that many of today's teens are playing my parent's records)
On the other side of the coin, Andrew Eldritch (who for all practical purposes, is the SistersOM) likely was a big fan of Kenneth Anger. A 'movement', however, is often a bigger collection of people hovering around central icons regardless of where those icons rooted their thoughts. Where Eldritch may himself create music inspired by Anger, the larger part of Eldritch fans are more interested in Eldritch and his music whilst not knowing a thing about Anger; more inclined to plain anger I suspect. The Sisters were clearly beyond the norm—clearly not Zeppelin or Huey Lewis of time—clearly the 80s goths' own; along with all the trappings (victorian clothing, black preferred). For brevity, I'm just listing some simple music examples rather a detailed list of other 'cultural manifestations'.
Some of the more serious would certainly explore additional areas out of the norm. I really think those are 'complementary condiments'. A lot of Satanists may be goths, but on the whole, few goths would be particularly serious about Satanism. I mean really serious. One might snootily say, “Well, they just weren't very serious about the essence of goth.” I completely disagree. They were very serious—you couldn't convince them otherwise. But it's 1998 and now they have to pay rent. Same with 'Flower Power' from the 60s.
IMO, today's goths have caricatured the clothing and music, but not the reasons. It's still a way to dress up and be different, but if you're going to really rebel, then (dammit) why bring along all the stuff from a just few years ago? That's continuing tradition—hardly rebellion. One could at least make the effort to dig up stuff that's over 100 years old. <indignant sniffle> <gg> ;-)
-MrB
“Tune in, turn on, burn out in the acid rain” - Eldritch |
