I haven’t heard anything about the Goth scene lately, except once in a while from some stubborn enclaves in Britain. Up until very recently there were people who lived, fought and died for Goth - gothic weddings, the whole bit. Never felt the calling myself, but that crowd absolutely dominated when I was in college. Has it all just dissolved away or what?
It never was that mainstream. I saw goth band Bella Morte at a local club last year, and there were still plenty of wild-looking goths there. Now whether they look like that every day or just dress up for the show I don’t know, but those with tattoos and many piercings probably don’t work at Home Depot.
I wonder how a big chunk of disaffected teens that normally would have gone goth are now becoming “juggalos”.
… or emo.
Most (?) of the people in the gothic scene weren’t delinquents though, they were middle class, liberal arts scholar types.
I think it perked up a bit through the 90s & 2000s via Vampire: the Masquerade RPG & then a bunch of popular supernatural/vamp TV shows, movies & a few bands cropped up around then as well.
–At least that’s what it seems like to me. It’s not for me except on Halloween & I do get a kick out of seeing a neat goth project once in a while too.
I also played a LOT of V:tM in teh late 90s 'til a few years ago because as we moved around then, most of the local gaming groups played it exclusively or it was that or D&D games.
raises hand in shame Yes, I enjoyed the campy-as-heck Van Helsing movie… but it gave our group some great game ideas.
(Victorian-era supernatural game similar to Van Helsing & LXG where everyone was a Victorian-era character or writer with a touch of supernatural elements in a Cthulhu/mystery setting.)
Isn’t Goth Talk still on?
It seems to me that the Goth scene reached it’s peak popularity several years ago, notably when there were several Goth bands that had managed to crack in the mainstream. Since then, as with most scenes and their popularity, they come and go in phases and it settled back down. These days, though, I think it’s fragmented a little bit since there’s other extraordinarily similar scenes, like Emo, and that probably hasn’t helped. Also, you’re just plain not going to see as many of them as you age because a lot of people who would do that either “grew out of it” or simply can’t tend to do that for the sake of holding down a decent job. That said, I still see plenty of Goths, though they tend to be teens or maybe early 20s. I only see older ones at concerts or whatever.
I keep have the same wonders about various scenes; I always wonder if the scene is disappearing or if me and everyone I’m around is just getting old.
They all hated being called Harry Potter fans, or Death Eaters.
Most of TheKid’s friends who were goth migrated to emo and now are hipsters. Still barely breathing in skinny jeans, the positive is I can see their faces now without the make up and unique heair styles (although every male is attempting to grow beards - most are failing).
Probably a lot fewer than in the late 90s, which was the popularity peak for Insane Clown Posse. On that note, is there a better answer for the question, “Famous band who isn’t actually all that famous?” than Insane Clown Posse?
In the early 60s, Beatniks were cool, but you had to like (or at least pretend to understand) Jazz and non-rhyming poetry. In the late 60s/ early 70s, Hippies were cool, but you had to like (or pretend to understand) Jimi Hendrix and LSD. What do/ did Goths embrace? Vampires? The Addams Family? Any Goths want to enlighten me? (I’m a Hippy … man).
Not a goth, but the ones in my high school in the late 90s were pretty obsessed with Marilyn Manson, Tool, and Insane Clown Posse (yes, they’re sorta-goth).
Vampires became cool and tween-romance material so they lost their dark mascot of the night.
Lorde had a number one hit, and that girl is more Goth than Alaric, her management just doesn’t call it that. I like Goths.
As long as the City Club in Detroit is open, there is goth.
I like Goths too. I still have quite a few friends who are gothy (though most of them are in their 30s and older). They tend toward the industrial/EDM end of the spectrum, though, not the emo-vampire end.
Huh. Marilyn Manson makes sense, but I’ve never thought of Tool or ICP as goth. When I was in high school the go-to bands were The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus and Joy Division. Most of the goths I knew would never have admitted to being Juggalos.
I went and saw VNV Nation in concert a couple of years ago, and the (old) goths were out in full force. (I assume they found babysitters.) I’m 40 and I was pretty much dead center of the age distribution there.
It’s a scene that’s grown up, fragmented, and the fragments gone either mainstream or further underground.
I think that a lot of young people who would have been goths 20-30 years ago, emo/screamo kids 10-15 years ago, are the same ones who are now metalcore scene kids. Sample bands to look up: Motionless in White, Black Veil Brides, Bring Me The Horizon.