The other day I was watching Edward Scissorhands for the first time. I wondered, “is this movie to blame for the ‘Gothic’ look?”
First of all, the Goths were a barbarian tribe who ran around in animal skins. I don’t see the resemblance between that and pink hair, excessive eyeliner, pierced eyebrows and studded collars. What gives?
Second of all, where did the whole look come from anyway? I first started noticing it in the latter part of the 90’s, and by 2002 there was a store in our mall called “Hot Topic” where these people (mostly girls) were buying their clothes.
Oh, and lastly, most of these girls are skanky ho’s, but on the right one, this stuff can be kind of appealing. Never asked out a goth girl before though. (I couldn’t be more different in appearance.)
It’s an interesting question. “Goth” BTW refers to dark, “gothic style”, 'It was a dark and stormy night" type stories and characters, not Visigoths.
Here’s a bit of self important background Origins of Modern Gothic Culture but it doesn’t say much about where the classic “Edward Scissorhands” look comes from.
Here’s something with a little guidance on the origins of the goth “look”
I’ll look for links, but I remember that Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees and a lot of the other early New Wave groups of 1977 and onwards were influenced by old horror films. I didn’t hear the term “goth” until the Nineties, but I think there is a lineage there.
Way back in the early 70’s there were a lot of counter-culture types who were into witchcraft and drugs and all sort of dark things, mostly as a rebellion against the “establishment.” The song “devil woman” by cliff richard came out in 1976, so it had kind of hit the mainstream by then. No one called them goths back then, but it was the same sort of thing. Most of those folks wouldn’t have looked out of place on the set of the Addams Family.
I wasn’t around much before the 70’s, but I don’t think it was socially acceptable for folks to walk around dressed like something out of a horror movie before then. Or, if it was, it wasn’t publicised much. You don’t generally see people dressed like that in movies and tv shows prior to the early 70’s.
There was a thread here not too long ago where someone who was around the English scene at the time recalled them being called “wavers” and didn’t actually hear the term goth used until the '80s. Damn hamsters are clogging the search though. Ah… Check out Post 12
Not that that helps your search for the goth look. Keep in mind that if you’re basing your conception of goths around Hot Topic, you’re sample is going to be heavily skewed towards high school kids who are going for shock value (and a lot of that is being slutty). Let me tell you something, there are few things better than hot goth chicks. Especially without the makeup.
The music they listen to. Real goths don’t listen to New Found Glory and AFI. (Somehow middle-school girls confuse ‘pop-punk’ and ‘goth’ with each other.)
My friends and I considered ourselves “death rock” in the 80s. I didn’t hear the term “goth” for this style until the 90s, though apparently the term was around in the 80s. My impression is that death rock applied more to music and style that was more punk and guitar oriented, and the earliest goth/rock bands, like Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie. Goth is on the other side, music/style that is more new wave/new romantic/synth oriented. My other impression is that the “goth” term/concept was more widely used in the UK long before the US. But whatever, there are whole books and magazines and websites on the subject/history, from mass market to academic, and I’m sure they all claim contradictory things about the origins.
The thing about emo is that nobody who plays emo admits to being emo. If you’re into emo you’re into indie rock. And if you get all your emo from MTV, then you’re not really emo. Because no self-respecting emo kid is going to call themselves emo. Or listen to a band like Good Charlotte.
And the real goths don’t tend to be skanky. Or at least that was my impression of them. You can spot the fake ones a mile away, they’re just ‘punk’ here.
I can speak a bit on the goth movement that was happening in the northwest USA/BC around 80-85 --which was the height of real goth in Vancouver BC/Seattle/Vancouver/Portland. The goths mostly sprang from the punk movement and many ran in the same circles. Like what mrunlucky said, we didn’t call it “goth” we called it “death rock”.
There were different version of goth types at the time. There were the punk goth people who listened to bands like Hunting Lodge, Einstürzende Neubauten, Bauhaus -music that was dark but had energy. These kids had dyed blue-black hair, mostly matted tangles of bigness. Their clothes were a mix of punk and what you would expect a goth to wear today -but pretty much just punks in black clothes. Their attitude was mostly get the most out of life because you might, and most likely will, die tomorrow.
There were the more mellow goths that listened to bands like Christian Death, Eyeless in Gaza, Jesus and the Mary Chain. They wore plain black clothes, black lipstick, eye liner, white face powder and silver jewelry. Their attitude was mostly let’s talk about death because it is going to get us anyway. Pain and suffering happens everywhere so it should be embraced. Of course, it was only really embraced in their minds. These were the goths you didn’t see very much because they were too busy being happily unhappy in their bedrooms with tinfoiled out windows.
Then there were the wave-o goth types that started popping up around 83 after the movie The Hunger came out. These were the “goths” that listened to the Cure, Smiths, and a bunch of other wave bands. Their attitude was mostly if they looked goth, they looked cool and their chance of getting laid improved. You’d see these kids at clubs dancing on MDA or puking in the back seat of their parents car (which they borrowed that night to drive all the other kids to the all ages night club)
The now classic goth look is pretty much what came from the last wave of goths. The death rocker goth types couldn’t afford the fancy velvet clothes so they mostly had the leather jacket, black jeans, black t-shirt and big black hair.
I went to an all-ages nightclub three times during my junior year of high school, and your description of the whole experience sounds pretty accurate. I’d never seen so many skanky fake -goth and punk- chicks in my whole life. It was like they came there from all over town.
