Subject: Goth (various styles)

Culture: Goth

Setting: America, Europe

Event Photos

* Voltaire 2004 p2

"Gothic music is a subgenre of rock and roll that came out of the punk scene in the late 1970s. The aesthetics that accompany the Goth scene are also of equal -- if not more -- importance to defining a Goth. Most people who consider themselves Goths dress the part, which generally entails wearing lots of black clothing, whiteface, and black lipstick. As Goths have a great love for pageantry, fantasy and drama, period costumes (whether taken from the distant past or distant future) are often worn as well.

"Themes that appeal to Goths tend to pertain to the dark aspects of human existence -- such as death, romance, and feelings of loneliness and isolation. Not so surprisingly, many Goths are drawn to the scene due to experiences of abuse, discrimination, or systematic ridicule at the hands of 'normal' people (or 'mundanes,' as they are called in the scene)."

* Bacon-Smith 2000 p156

"[W]hile fans in general look strange to them, most hotel staff find goths terrifying. The goths wear leather and chains and black jeans. They often sport hair dyed bright unnatural colors like acid green or purple, and display tattoos and some piercing. ...

"[...] They would appear, en masse, dressed in leather and chains -- chains on boots and jackets, as jewelry, including the occasional chain linking pierced hoops in lips, noses, ears, or eyebrows -- long hair, black tee shirts touting death bands on the men, leather bustiers on the women, tattoos, and in-your-face jewelry of religious inversion. They would land somewhere in the lobby, mix little, greet tentative approaches with suspicion, and generally spread a smoke-sharp pall of the apocalypse on the event."

* South Park season 7 episode 14 "Raisins" (Goth kid explaining to Stan how to become a non-conformist Goth)

"To be a non-conformist, all you have to do is wear black, and listen to the same music we do."

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Secondary Sources

Field Notes