This isolation of Goth in the 1990s, is arguably the responsible factor for this sense of ‘elitism’ many goths have today. Of course, we also have to look at the other side of the coin in all of this and that is to acknowledge that Goth is a subculture and throughout its years of existence it is bound to grow, evolve, and expand beyond the boundaries of just Goth music.

But to what extent can the genre expand before it becomes something entirely different or new? Goth itself is a by-product of the 1970’s Punk movement; in particular, it is a product of Punk’s declining state in the late 70’s and early 80’s when artists began to find alternative ways to express themselves. It so happened that Goth’s musical ‘ancestor’ – Post-Punk – is characterized by experimentation with more avant-garde elements and became a primordial soup of alternative genres during the 80’s. Post-Punk spawned not just Goth, but also New Wave, Darkwave, Synthpop, Shoegaze, Indie Pop/Rock, EBM, Industrial and many more 80s alternative genres and styles.

To be a goth in the early days was tough; from getting ridiculed by the other more popular cliques or scenes at the time, or to being called a goth itself, which was actually a derogatory term for people who like that dark, introspective Post-Punk music that eventually became Goth, to having musical taste as rare and as strange as a red moon, to having to scrape every single corner of a record store to find the music you liked, to having to find out where in the hell these people who shared your music taste gathered so you could share ideas with them and ask the DJ for new bands. Goths also had to keep an eye out for rare compilations and mail order obscure labels to find out more about new artists, not to mention all of the counter-culture backlash a goth had to endure in its first 20 years.

Changing Tides

Fast forward to the Goth scene today, and it’s apparent that the Goth/Wave Revival seems more publicly accessible and has better exposure and media coverage than Goth probably ever had since possibly the late 1980s.

It may seem that history is also repeating itself as we are seeing some goths begin to reject this new wave of Goth music. But, why? This type of music was what many goths were craving for when the whole Industrial, Dark Electro, and Aggrotech/EBM invasion took over anything dark and underground in the club scene in the 2000s. Remember when goths themselves were saying that not enough goth music was being played in clubs anymore?

40 years after Goth’s beginnings, Goth music is more accessible than ever. And for the goths of old, this has positives and negatives. In certain cases, a goth in the 1990’s who had a hard time finding out about music in underground genres may be creating some type of envy towards some of the new aspiring goths who are growing into the current Goth/Wave revival, in a time where being a goth today seems to be completely the opposite of what being a goth was in the 80’s and 90’s. Today’s goths are (to a certain degree) way more socially acceptable in the public eye and we now have Youtube, Bandcamp, social media, etc. to find and download music. You want to know where your next club night is? Google it or search goth events in your area in Facebook. You don’t have to ask your local goth DJ anymore; hell, you can become your own Goth DJ if you have a laptop (I’m guilty of this one). Goths today don’t have to necessarily go through all the socio-cultural issues that goths had to deal with decades ago.

To some of the goths of old, being a goth today under this Revival has become a type of fad, as the music and aesthetic are popular among the younger alternative crowd, and was made by putting modern ideas into old sounds and musical ideas that old goths were already intimately familiar with.

The Crux