Goth

June 8, 2018

Listen: There’s A Honey by Pale Waves

This song is so glittery, and behind the music, so goth. Google Pale Waves right now and try to understand how these sounds are coming out of that makeup. This band is so goth, in fact, that their lead guitarist Heather Baron-Gracie just did an interview with the Fader about how to stay goth in the summer (turns out, fishnets). Great tip, but clearly goth is back with us and I‘m trying to think about why. Last time it was in, Bill Clinton was president, so it’s not as cut-and-dry as ‘TRUMP SAD’. So what else could it be? Let’s look into some specifics to gain insights.

Grimes

Grimes is now known as Elon Musk’s ‘goth gf’, which apparently is a whole category that Nylon says is the cultural successor to the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl. Which, of course, posits woman as accessory. Which must mean that goth means that we perceive progress but nothing has actually changed? That IS dark.

Weddings?

Also in the news right now: Kat Von D’s goth wedding. A definite wholebrity (she’s been all over entertainment but now notably makes makeup), she and her now-husband (but who cares about him) recently themed their wedding “in life and in death,” decorating like the Nightmare Before Christmas and accepting donations, in lieu of gifts, for the fair treatment of animals. Which… is a natural fit for the color black? Help me out here.

Mozzarella

Yeah ok so now we have goth cheese? Sorry– ‘Venom Cheese’. No no, sorry, ‘activated charcoal mozzarella.’ Ohhhhhh. So take a thing you’re supposed to avoid* and infuse it with the thing that will clear what you’re avoiding right out of you. Gotcha.

*I endorse dairy

Soft serve.

Judging by these instagram photos, it’s just really attractive. Particularly when paired with color.

In conclusion, Activated Charcoal.

Margot

JK, actually read this totally serious article about a goth festival in Germany. Its conclusion: goth doesn’t change over time or respond to trends, and also it’s never about trying to out-cool other people in the community. It’s just about doing your thing; that’s timeless. (now me:) So naturally it has been co-opted by the lamestream as– yeah– a trend. The truth is always less fun, isn’t it?

+ some followups on Afrofuturism from the other day:
MoMA is exhibiting Bodys Isek Kingelez’ futuristic models of African cities, built from paper, card board, and soda cans. Tell me it’s not a trend.
And Milton had this to say: “My starting data points are always the Flintstones & the Jetsons. When you right those wrongs (& I love/d both), you get Afrofuturism”
++ if you want a thing to do in Brooklyn on June 16, there’s a party at Littlefield to benefit Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Bands, burlesque, tattoos. Maybe goths, who knows.