How do we keep goth scenes from becoming a dying breed?
Q:
Hello there! I am new to the goth subculture and still consider myself a baby bat. I live far away from goth scenes and can’t help but feel that I am a little late to a party I really wanted to attend. ☹ Do you feel that goth is dying, or do you have any tips to help revive it and make sure it lasts?
A:
It warms my heart to know that you have discovered something you love and that you want to see it continue! The following thoughts are mine and mine alone, and I understand how, being far away, perhaps, from a lively city scene, you would feel isolated. I currently live in a city where there are virtually no other goths, except for the occasional goth tourist that sweeps through on a weekend adventure. This is much more of a hippie town than anything else, so I understand how it feels to have a long drive in between you and any major scene events.
Even so, in my opinion, goth is far from dying out. If anything, I have seen a huge revival of interest in goth music and in gothic things in the past few years. We know that goth is often misdefined or reduced to a mere caricature of its foundation, but many non-goths are willing to receive the corrections in stride and become interested in what it really is! I have had distant relatives, old classmates, and even an old high school administrator ask me what goth is, and become interested in the music culture, even if they still do not identify as goths themselves.
There is an interesting progression for dark alt people I have noticed in the last decade, where they will get into old school punk music and flow into the goth pipeline shortly thereafter… just like in the “old” days. =) With more goths establishing podcasts, YouTube channels, websites, and other platforms, they are creating myriad online monoliths for non-goths to interface with and discover something they might have missed out on otherwise. I am still over a decade away from being considered an elder goth, but I created my website to have something to “pass on” to others in the meantime and to invest in another space that can validate and encourage goths whose primary source of community is found online. There are still big goth scenes all over North America, and from what I hear, they are thriving in many other countries as well. For small-town goths, though, we must be a little more inventive in the local sphere…
A misconception about goth scenes and spaces is that they can only exist in formal clubs or be structured as pre-planned public events. One of the best ways to create a subcultural connection is to be proactive and creative in how you imagine “goth spaces.” You can plan meet-up groups in cemeteries, local coffee shops, restaurants, or even in someone’s living room or basement. If you do not have a goth scene, it can be created, and it does not have to have a large budget to come to fruition. I have been to many goth clubs and goth nights in my life, but some of the best experiences I have had were in private quarters. You can still play music, dance, have snacks, and set the mood with what you have instead of traveling for hours to the nearest goth event.
I grew up in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and even though we had some elder goths and DJs who would sometimes create goth events or darkly inclined music nights at different venues, it wasn’t exactly the Bat Cave experience I was looking for at the time. The first college I attended was in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the city held goth nights at some of its cafes and social venues. It was a pleasant introduction to public music events, and I met a few good friends in those spaces. Since it was a university town, though, it was always in a state of transition and change, and according to the locals, the scene would manifest differently from year to year.
After I left that university and city and transitioned to one(s) that suited my constitution better, my life partner and I took a trip to Michigan together to visit some friends. We were gone for a few months and were solidifying our relationship and future plans (we were only 19/20 years old!). While I was there, I encountered the massive goth scene that Michigan has, while studying wild wolf packs and UFO “hunting” on the side. =) Though there were clubs and dark music nights I would easily deem to be “goth”, I was stunned by how many people at these events met outside of them in more casual places first. I soaked up the ambiance of the formal goth evenings, but I took many notes from the elders and realized that most of them met at basement-based darkwave nights or by creating group luncheons in their local parks or cemeteries.
I went back to my hometown, inspired to create something more readily accessible on a weekly basis. First, I had to find the “venue,” which ended up being a friend’s father’s abandoned music studio next to their house. It was nice and didn’t require much dressing up to be workable… some velvet curtains, a thrift store chandelier (a great find!), and a secondhand sound system later… and we were ready to go! I started by joining some Facebook groups and forums for goths in the local area and invited them to come check it out. Within a matter of a couple of months, we had over 50 regulars(elder goths AND millennial baby bats) frequenting the space! Needless to say, it was a little crowded, but we made it work. People were so giving with their time and resources. One goth recreated the scent of a late 80s goth club with clove, leather, and rosin (she used violin rosin, yes!) and diffused it throughout the studio to set the stage. We had great setlists and volunteers who would take rounds, DJing, and make sure the sound system ran smoothly. My partner and a couple of friends and I found a gothic-presenting sofa at a thrift store and reupholstered it with red velvet to complement the sitting area… which had a donated literature section for everyone to sift through and read if they wanted to explore the 80s and 90s gothic works. Everyone either came in black, full goth attire, or vampire-inspired aesthetics, and we did weekly goth nights until after I left in late 2013/early 2014. There were rules about drinking and etiquette, but issues rarely arose and were addressed quickly if they did.
A goth meetup does not have to be that extreme, but I used it as an example because it is possible! Ultimately, if we, goths, want to have local events that cater to our tastes, we usually have to create them. You could also host virtual nights so that venue isn’t an issue, or you could join one to get a feel for what you want to design! I love virtual goth nights because you can participate in events from Scotland, England, France, and Australia (as a few examples) and integrate diverse community experiences from abroad.
Keep in mind that a distant cousin of goth culture…. the vampire underground… also has a lot of crossover and connection to the goth subculture, even though they are still separate things. We have vampire balls and masquerades a couple of hours away in Phoenix every year, and there are always other goths in attendance! You can meet people through those other darkly inclined communities as well! =)
Goth is in no danger of dying out—everyone seems to be quite mesmerized by its majesty and rich history, though it is in no way superior to any other personal preference or taste. Goth being appropriated by the mainstream is nothing new. I think it’s just extra scary right now, because we have never had online platforms try to twist the goth subculture’s definitions and history quite like this. It feels like a runaway freight train that’s impossible to catch up with, since the reach and spread of misinformation is much faster than it was in previous decades.
Goth already has a legacy through your love for it and the way that you choose to engage with it in your own life. I understand what it feels like to miss the supposed “good times” as someone who barely got in on the in-person goth scene starting in 2011, but the “good times” can still be facilitated! Use the internet to your advantage and look for those little local opportunities where you can infuse goth music and its other elements into your everyday experiences. Listening to goth music, supporting artists by bringing attention to their work online, talking to people about the subculture when they are open to it, and learning more about the subculture are all wonderful ways to start. Thank you for taking an interest in what the goth subculture leaves behind, and for all the inventive heirlooms you will create for other goths to appreciate!