Goth subculture
Borgman, D. (1999, August). Goth subculture. S. Hamilton, MA: Center for Youth Studies.
OVERVIEW
Suddenly, after the terrible April 20, 1999 killing at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, everyone was hearing about Goths or blaming the violence on Gothic subculture. As shock and numbness turned to anger, it was easy to point to Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, "Matrix," or "Doom" (as others pointed to schools, families, or guns) as the one thing to blame.
It is difficult to tell if the Columbine clique known as the "Trenchcoat Mafia"—besides picking up on some characteristics of Gothic culture—actually considered themselves genuine Goths...or to have created for themselves something more original. Certainly many or most Goths wanted to distance themselves from the perpetrators of that terrible killing. One message posted after the killing (at: www.gothmafia.com) read:
The ‘gothic influence’ does not kill. White supremacy, violence, and stupididty are not part of the ‘gothic culture.’ I am angry and saddened by what those idiots (the student killers)...did. I am outraged at the scapegoating of the goth and industrial scenes...The universal truth that individuals can be complete losers on their own without a clique to blame has obviously not occurred to some people.
In his book (South of Heaven: Welcome to High School at the End of the Twentieth Century, 1993), Thomas French describes the morbid obsessions with death in an alternative school at Largo High School in the Pinellas School System of the St. Petersburg, FL area:
Death is always in the Top 40 here in the (alternative school). It surfaces constantly in the kids’ conversations, floating through so many of their favorite songs, swirling silently in the overwhelming grimness of their wardrobes. Black is the color du jour every jour.
Many teenagers—indeed, many adults—are interested in death, but not to the pervasive degree found with so many kids (in this alternative school). It’s not just the gruesome songs and the black clothes, either. They wear necklaces and rings and earrings adorned with skulls and skeletons. They draw ghouls and monsters on their folders. They carve pentagrams and other satanic symbols on the tops and bottoms and even legs of the wooden tables in their classes. When they’re bored, they have been known to sketch portraits of the Grim Reaper.
Maybe it has something to do with their feelings of powerlessness. Or maybe they’re just young and especially eager to shock their teachers and parents. But they are fascinated when they hear something macabre that hits close to home... (pp. 125-126)
French is no student of youthful subcultures. He’s an award-winning reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, who took a year off to hang around a high school and write up his observations. His report doesn’t deal with Goth culture but with what he saw.
Several factors should be remembered when considering any youthful subculture:
- Subcultures arise when the identity, status, values, and affiliation needs of any group are not met by the dominant adult or youth cultures.
- Subcultures may retreat from a culture or set itself to make war on the dominant culture.
- Music, entertainment or recreation, fashion, language, means of obtaining money, means of handling conflicts, sometimes drugs and general interests serve to identify subcultures and to mark them off from surrounding cultures.
- Subcultures provide relationships within which a young person works out his or her identity.
Goth culture came from England of the 1970s, perhaps out of disillusionment after punk culture had passed its zenith. By the early 1980s its influence had spread to Europe and the U.S.
Goth is primarily a subculture of music and fashion—the most critical ingredients of most youthful subcultures. Goth fashions are black, hair dyed jet black, black make-u, and adornment contrasting to a complexion a chalky pallor.
Goth music favors somberness of minor chords with lyrics decrying the world situation. Groups like the Banshees, Bauhaus, Cure, Depeche Mode, and singer Siouxie Sioux are popular among Goths.
Darker goth music is found in the music of more industrial bands such as—among many others: Deicide, KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Rob Zombie. Some of this is called heavy metal death music—and even here there are degrees of darkness.
Rammstein and KMFDM are political rock that some have described as neo-Nazi—though the bands themselves object. KMFDM began in Paris around 1984. Though it has never gotten to the top of the charts, it has had considerable influence, on bands such as U2 and on fans worldwide. "Leatherclad warriors/Fighting tolerant fools/Mutilation of values/Where ignorance rules" comes from its song, "Blitzkrieg." Such music can be taken in different ways.
Rammstein’s "Jealousy," from the album "Longing," includes brutal lyrics: "Am I pretty/Then cut me in the face/Am I stronger/Break my neck in disgrace/Am I smarter/Kill me and eat my brain." Rammstein’s defense of this German hate metal: "We only show violence during our gigs and we make it the subject of our lyrics. But we definitely refuse to practice violence."
Industrial band KMFDM objects to the Nazi label:
KMDFM are an art form, not a political party. From the beginning our music has been a statement against war, oppression, fascism, and violence against each other.
Marilyn Manson has attracted a large following in the U.S. and elsewhere among Goths and others. His lyrics include the following: from his 1996 album, "Antichrist Superstar": ...let’s kill everyone and let God sort ‘em out." And his "Irresponsible Hate Anthem": "I hate it all and I have no choice but to/I’ll make everyone pay and you’ll see" (from "Man That You Fear").
Manson says: (These words are) " ‘how I define the more nihilistic, hopeless elements of my personality. It’s when you’ve finally given up on the world and only want to see its destruction.’ " He seems to be expressing the feelings of many, especially white, teenagers in the 1990s. The extent to which he has encouraged some of them to kill is difficult to assess.
Texas-based id Software were pioneers in 3-D shoot-’em-ups. In 1991, it was Wofenstein 3-D, a first with body count and corpses, along with swastikas and pictures of Hitler. Doom followed in 1993 and Doom II: Hell on Earth in 1994 with further sophistication and special effects. Quake, in 1996, and 1997 Quake 2 provided even more objects for killing. The killing could be done with brass knuckles, nail guns, shotguns, and grenade launchers. Not all fans of violent video games are Goths by any means, and it would be false to imply that all Goths are into video games. Still, there is an association. And critics, led by a Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman, retired Army Ranger as well as psychologist, see correlation between the most vulnerable of violent video fans and the training to kill developed by the military.
Alienated youth obsessed with death and killing have made cult movies out of "Natural Born Killers," "The Basketball Diaries," "The Matrix," and other films. Copycat suicides and killings have been traced back to movies that have inspired troubled teenagers. Again, this is not to be taken as a specific feature of Gothic culture. The popularity of these films among those, who use them for inspiration rather than mere release, is a danger signal.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
- How is it helpful—and how may it be unhelpful—to talk about subcultures among the high school crowd?
- How would you distinguish among the terms: clique, a "certain group," and a subculture? Would you agree there is a surfers’ subculture? Are there subcultures of skateboarders, punks, and jocks?
- When do the different groups of a high school or community need reconciliation? How much taunting and harassment is to be tolerated?
- To what extent do groups who seem to stand on the outside of the mainstream need to be recognized and respected?
- What might be added or left out of this article to make it more helpful?
IMPLICATIONS
- It is clear, not only at Columbine, but in many high schools today, that there are loners and groups who feel marginalized by others. High school students and teachers may get used to kids speaking rebellion and receiving taunts, but such situations can spawn tragedy and lasting pain.
- Internal pain can be fed by many external factors. Such pain may be individual or it may be shared by a group. Hopefully the rejection and pain some young people are feeling can be attended to and factors that enflame inner rage be reduced.
- Youth workers and teachers must pay more attention to subcultural factors. Alienated subcultures need to be entered by caring adults.
Dean Borgman cCYS
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