Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Why Goth Won't Die




For a sub culture so centered around death, goth won't die. If you are a regular reader here then, you have to be aware the music keeps finding new ways to be reborn. In a recent article Louise Tickle a goth herself wrote on how goths grow up she explores a few reasons for this...see below
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/oct/24/goth-culture-research

But when she poises the question regarding why it endures life changes more than punk and raving, she misses out on on key factor, goth is about embracing you are rather than who you are not like punk. Punk rock is for rebellious suburban teenage, it carries a different kind of anger than say metal. Metal, another subculture that doesn't carry the same visual staying power, with symbols such as the cutting of hair, is more empowering than punk, though garnished with a high dose of fantasy and escapism, where punk is grounded in a hyper-shitty reality they are giving the finger to.

Sure ,there are place like Little Five Points in Atlanta or Venice Beach where some punks are in Never Never Land and staying true but many of these are maintaining this because it is giving them a reason  to not just keep punk alive , but also their alcoholism, which punk is a justifying sound track to cloud their denial of. The rave culture is the same in this regard, their are no elder ravers, because hard drugs do not  carry success stories. There are three options, get sober, go to jail or die.

More proof who can pull off what they do better over 50 Dead Can Dance or Jello Biafra ? Jello and Rollins are doing spoken word or voice overs to car commercials. Danzig is more metal than punk and get memes made for buying cat litter.In a lot of goths, became goths after growing out of punk...Nick Cave, I'm looking at you.

If something centers around your other interests it's more likely to have staying power, you don't meet many people who say, I use to like horror movies and the Cure. You don here a lot of stories of "I use to be a punk , begging for change..." but those are all told in A.A. meetings.

My daughter finds punk and metal too be to loud at times for her developing ears , but she doesn't mind the Cure and will even dance to it. She has seen Nightmare Before X-mas as many times as she has seen Finding Nemo, but probably not as many as she has seen Labyrinth, but it's not a touching as when she squeezes my neck and says "I Love Daddy, he's my Wolf-man", moments that come from parenting on the dark side.        

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