lovely ugly brutal world
Well, here I am. And this would be my little opinion column. I don't really
have any absolute topic as I plan on changing depending on what is on my mind.
I was looking through some writings and found a fragment concerning the demise
of the Gothic subculture. A number of folks contend that "Goth" will go the
way of various other scenes and movements: die out, destroyed by media rape.
On one hand I will be realistic and say all subcultures, scenes, art movements
die off. What lasts are ideas and images, not the particulars anyway. I for
one don't believe that the goth scene will be destroyed by media whoring,
at least not any time soon.
Popular culture has undoubtedly borrowed elements
from the gothic and dark scenes within recent years. Runways exhibit various
accouterments of the scene, especially in the work of Mugler or even Gautier.
However, I would argue that for the general populous, such things have no deeper
meaning. They merely serve as the next new trend in the world of fashion.
Besides that, much of the dark media that came around the time of the Crow,
have been replaced with more glamorous or less dark media. Marilyn Manson
is no longer ripping off gothic and industrial bands. All the kids are listening
to Korn, Limp Biskit and a whole slew of new sugar teenybopper pop to whet
the sense. The raver look, most decidedly bright and frvolous, has become
the latest trend. The Crow/Interview with a Vampire wave has ended. The truth
is no one wants dark, moody, depressing media anymore. They want to forget
their pain and put a big fat yellow smiley face over it. It almost seems once
Cobain put that bullet through his head, it brought an end to popularized
depression every where. Or maybe it was Bush. Well, the truth is no one really
wants to put effort into dark things because it's too damned dangerous. Who
wants to end up with a bullet through the head, a rope around the neck, or
an overdose. I suppose there is plenty good reason for that. But that is simplifying
all involved in the gothic and dark subculture anyway. Personally, if we all
forgot about the darker parts of life and pasted up bright masks, it only
makes the rot beneath stink worse. If Goth becomes immensely popular, it will
indeed lose momentum and fall into the same pit as punk, alternative, etc.
BUT, the gothic subculture is based more in a long tradition of bohemian Art.
Even if the version we see before us dies out, you can be sure other forms
will spring up. There will always be an undergound of some sort because there
always going to be people who don't agree with the mass culture of whatever
time they live in. It is as much human nature as the old group think. One
must admit that the gothic subculture has done and awfully good job for the
past 25 years of staying, not only that but growing and strengthening. One
simply can't go into a large metropolitan area without running into a goth
night of some sort and meeting up with at least a few goths.
So, no, I don't
think our doom is sealed. Hell, the trendsetters have already deemed us uncool
now, so I suppose that debate has been closed. Till next month, aufwiedersehn--AR
vol.1 no.3 Fall 1999
Lovely Ugly Brutal World
New regular column by AR
Neuralgia Survey
Poetry:
Entombed--Alix Caldwell
Heartland Film Noir Classic Starring Peter
Lorre --Fetters
Retinal Fetish--AR
Salvador Dalai Lama--David Goth
Untitled--Regina
Transfuse Me--Tom Hamilton
Prose/Short Stories:
Cradle--David Canada
An Episode--A.M. Olsson