In comments, Eldritch and I were discussing why some bands seem reluctant to call themselves “goth” even though they seem to have that style.

Eldritch gave the example of Dr Arthur Krause who said “Some people call it goth and we are fine with that.”

I note that the TRAITRS song I just posted sounds a lot like early Cure, but their bandcamp page labels it as “punk / coldwave / post-punk”.

Is that kinda thing common? If so why?

Look Siouxsie straight in the eye and tell her why.

  • gid@lemmy.blahaj.zoneMEnglish
    31·
    14 days ago

    From what I understand, “gothic” was used initially as a kind of insult when describing art or an aesthetic style. It meant “uncivilized” and “barbaric”.

    Then there’s the apocryphal story of Bauhaus describing their music as “gothic” when compared to other contemporary bands, deliberately embracing that meaning of barbaric and uncultured.

    From then on the music press ran with the term, but as with most genres it’s a blunt tool for describing a sound or a style. A lot of bands from the same era who had some crossover or shared elements with goth bands were pigeon-holed as goth themselves, which they felt was restrictive and didn’t accurately describe their sound.

    For example, listen to The Cure’s “Hanging Garden” and Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. Both songs share a similar claustrophobic atmosphere but beyond that they sound very different.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      3·
      14 days ago

      I think it stems more from the Victorian Gothic than it does the Visigoths. A lot of specific goth fashion and steam punk are Victorian remixes. Frocks, frills, frills, waistcoats, and ruffles all in black. Victorian times also marked a particular obsession with death and the occult. Which should set your goth sensors tingling. Victorian traditions and rituals, surrounding death along with their embrace of death. It was something else. Something eschewed by more squeamish so called proper cultures that came after.

      Also didn’t you hear? Bella Lugosi’s Back. Heh

      • gid@lemmy.blahaj.zoneMEnglish
        4·
        14 days ago

        The use of the term “gothic” in the Victorian era initially meant “barbaric”, but people ran with the description and it came to define what you mentioned: the interest in death and the occult, tragedy and darkness.