GOTHIC CULTURE: HISTORY AND MAIN CHARACTERISTICS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The gothic culture is a subculture or urban tribe that adopts dark elements of fashion as black clothes, black hair, dark eyeliner, black fingernails and old clothes. It is also related to the gothic rock music genre and to a range of artistic genres.

The Gothic subculture has tastes associated with music, aesthetics, and fashion. The music of the gothic subculture involves a number of different styles, including gothic rock, industrial rock, post punk, and neoclassical.

Goth teens

Dress styles within this subculture range from Victorian, punk, and deathrock styles, or even combinations of these branches.

The aesthetics of this subculture are associated with dark outfits (often black), pale facial makeup, and black hair.

The goth subculture began in England in the mid-1980s, where it developed from the gothic rock scene, in turn a variation on the post-punk genre and movement.

This subculture has survived for much longer than others of its time and has continued to diversify and spread throughout the world. Its imagery and cultural trends indicate an influence from 19th century Gothic literature and Gothic horror films.

Gothic People Traits

Followers of the Gothic subculture can be defined as those who love Gothic rock, Gothic literature, Victorian and medieval history, and contemporary horror movies.

Members of this subculture are often quite accepting and non-violent intellectual individuals who are sometimes a bit cynical about the evils of society and have a fascination with death.

Its members take pride in being distinct from the dominant culture and their dark style of dress indicates a choice to depart from conventional norms and standards. Today this subculture involves a mix of music, literature, art, and clothing.

A goth listens to gothic music, wears black clothes and unusual jewelry. Both men and women often use particular makeup.

The goths want to represent death and decomposition with their look; black and dark red colors are of great importance.

History

Background

The Gothic subculture, especially previous generations, were heavily influenced by Romanticism, or a style of art and literature that emerged in the late 1700s to early 1800s.

This style of art and literature emphasized the expression of emotions, feelings, and imagination. Romanticism also took an affinity for unhappiness and the use of ancient poetry lines to express this melancholy.

The Gothic subculture also took on an affinity for medieval, Edwardian, Victorian, and Gothic architecture, literature, music, and art.

First songs

The first inspirational song for the gothic movement could be 'Bela Lugosi's Dead', released in August 1979 by the English band Bauhaus.

This song has cryptic sounds and ominous piano notes; a song that would be appropriate music for a horror movie or a Halloween party.

However, the first person to use the term 'goth' was Siouxsie Sioux, lead singer of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees. She used this term in reference to the direction her band was taking in relation to their musical genre.

The gothic rock genre, a variant of punk rock, gained much traction from 1979 through the early 1980s; It started in England and spread to other countries. A second generation of Gothic bands originated in the late 1980s.

Some researchers have proposed that the gothic movement can be seen as a rebellious response to the polished fashion of the disco era of the 70s.

It suggests that it started as a proposition against colorful pastel colors and '80s flamboyance.

Characteristics of Gothic culture

Icons and examples of this movement

Notable examples of musical Gothic icons include Siouxsie Sioux, Robert Smith (leader of The Cure), Peter Murhpy (leader of Bashaus), Ian Curtis (leader of Joy Division), Nick Cave, Marilyn Manson, and Nico.

In literature, the influence of Mary Shelley's work is notable in this subculture. Her book Frankestein is one of the most popular and well-known novels classified as Gothic literature.

Another highly influential Gothic writer was Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote on dark and gloomy subjects such as being buried alive, death, murder, and torture.

In terms of architecture, windows with large arches, grouped columns, pointed towers and statues with many details are characteristic of this movement.

fashion

Gothic fashion is often dark, mysterious, complex, and exotic, and can be recognized by its all-black clothing.

Typical gothic fashions include dyed black hair, black eyeliner, black painted nails, and old-fashioned black clothing; Goths can have piercings too. Silver jewelry is also popularly used.

The styles are influenced by the medieval, Elizabethan, and Victorian periods; they often express pagan imagery, the occult, and other religious imagery.

Gothic fashion can be described as a combination of black velvet, lace, fishnet stockings, gloves, heels, and jewelry that symbolizes religious and occult themes.

Black hair, dark clothing, and pale complexion provide the basic look of a follower of this culture.

It can be said that he tries a deliberate exaggeration with an emphasis on dark layers and ruffled cuffs; pale facial makeup and dark hair demonstrate a modern take on late Victorian period excess.

Gothic cinematography

Many of the early Gothic artists adapted traditional imagery from horror movies and took inspiration from horror movie musical scores for inspiration.

The use of standard horror movie items such as smoke, plastic bats, and cobwebs are characterized and used in this subculture. The supernatural and occult themes are quite serious for this movement.

These influences can be seen in the 1983 film 'The Hunger'; Tim Burton's films 'Beetlejuice', 'Edward Scissorhands' and 'Nightmare before Christmas' are also examples of this movement.

References

1. Origins of Gothic. Recovered from gothicsubculture.com
2. Goth subculture. Recovered from simple.wikipedia.org
3. What is goth subculture ?. Recovered from study.com
4. Goth subculture. Recovered from wikipedia.org.