Spyglass Blue - Allan Aguirre on Goth

First things first. The term “goth” has been used to incorrectly describe the scene allegedly spawned by the 1979 ground-breaking single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by the band Bauhaus. This term was actually coined by journalists years after the song was released. In an interview earlier this year, Daniel Ash, guitarist for Bauhaus, was quoted as saying, “We never called ourselves or our music ‘goth.'(1)” In reality, this genre was originally known as post punk in England, and death rock in New York and Los Angeles. This was a scene created by punks who no longer felt that punk rock represented what they originally intended it to be.

This new platform would borrow the androgynous elements of glam (David Bowie, T. Rex, Velvet Underground), pre-neo Nazi Berlin, Frankenstein, even the Addams Family and the Munsters. The expressions of vampirism and the occult were predominantly introduced to the genre in America. The same roots that launched punk rock were to launch this new scene, called post-punk/death rock. This was a scene smaller and more underground than the original wave of punk rock. The post punk scene was more interested in dressing with style. Hair went from crop cuts to spiky shags, orange and green to raven blue-black. Instead of sloppy suits with buttons and safety pins, the boys and girls wore fishnet and stockings, velvet and lace, capes and cloaks, dramatic-melancholy make up, and gaudy European jewelry from centuries past. This scene represented style, and class. It was somber, beautiful and very fetishistic. Bauhaus was the forerunner of post punk: musically and fashionably. In the early days, their audience was predominantly punk. Within the first year their fan base had adopted the all black and makeup worn by the band. Other bands that helped to establish this genre were Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, some would even say the Cure, even though both Siouxsie and Robert deny vehemently ever being goth. Why? Once again, because “goth” never existed when these bands were supposedly starting “goth”. Most of these bands don’t want to be mistaken for some cheap horror show shtick.

Enter: Marilyn Manson. I like the song “Beautiful People.” It has an Adam Ant flavor to it. (Adam was also a Bauhaus influence.) The video for “Beautiful People” is also very cool and though it may have gothic imagery, Marilyn Manson is not goth. They fall more under the cheap horror show shtick. So what is goth? Webster’s dictionary defines it in this way: goth’ic a. of goths; barbarous; in architecture, of the pointed arch style common in Europe 12th-16th century; a printing type. [l. Gothi, goths] Gothic defines a style of architecture and type. Why it has been used to erroneously describe a form of music known as post punk/death rock is just as confusing as the terms “power pop punk” or “old school punk”... but that’s another article. Today, “gothic” can be used to describe more then just music. There is “gothic” literature, film, artwork and jewelry. Cher had a catalog of beautiful “gothic” accessories for you and your home. So by today’s standards, Cher would also be “gothic.” I know that this article will never change the universal view that this or that band is “goth.” Society insists on placing catch terms and labels such as “goth” on artists even when these very artists deny the genre association. The same is true even as believers. We have “Christian punk,” “Christian gangsta rap,” and some would even say “Christian goth.” This is a direct conflict of terms. Our identity must be in Christ, not we play or listen to.
(1 Details July 1997)

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