I think Goth used to be something cool, and it all went to hell. Basically.

When it started out, my impression was that it was evolved from the punk movement, like a welling of emotion and intelligent expression blistered up and finally broke free, identified itself as a separate entity and established itself as a subculture. That was the musical aspect of it. The aesthetic aspect of course drew from many myriad sources: orthodox Western Judeo/Christianity, Egyptian motifs, European architecture after which the movement named itself, British romanticism and literature, etc. The movement was populated by art studetns and emotionally-sensitive types. That's not to say they were a bunch of simpering, effeminate hothouse flowers poncing around in velvet smoking jackets, but one of the definitive traits of the movement was its reconciliation with the darker aspects of life. Yes, they were morbid and depressive, and many of them turned to deathly motifs for the shock value, but also they represented the polar opposite of behavioral traits most people embodied and enforced. Where everyone else was all sublimation and denial, forcing smiles on their faces and refusing to talk about depressing topics, the Goths embraced these topics, explored them deeply. They refused to smile if they felt sad, they could not pretend to emotions that weren't theirs. That's of course from their punk roots in a mondified form: demanding to be accepted for who they were, and societal approval would not dictate their identity.

Where exactly did it go wrong? I can't even imagine. You can call up a dozen indicators of everything going to shit, and you can even understand how they came about and call them perhaps inevitable, but I don't think there's one clear point on the calendar you can indicate as The Turning Point.

In some cities, Goth's doing very well for itself. Dedicated clubs have been open for years, event nights are swapped out between series of clubs like in Los Angeles, bands are in heavy circulation, and it can even be turned into a profitable or sustainable enterprise. I don't mean selling out and going corporate, I mean individuals who make gothic wardrobes with their own hands and sell them to people within the community. People who make jewelry or household accoutrement, take pictures of bands and form impressive portfolios and résumés, gather in local communities to produce websites, 'zines, and formal published literature. But then there are cities like mine where homogeny is enforced considerably stronger than on the coasts. While Minneapolis is a liberal cultural melting pot compared to, say, Iowa or the Dakotas, there still is an undefeatable atmosphere of mundanity and xenophobia. Goth is seen as something frightening and exotic, when when pitifully borrwed in whatever watered-down form. I swear, the state is populated by wee tim'rous mousies, if terror can be caused by an illiterate teen in a black t-shirt and phat pants. How fucking sad is that. It's like these hicks sense they're not getting enough drama in their lives so they need to create some. That kind of overly-simplistic black-and-white stratification of politics would explain the Republicans we elected into power...

In my city no dedicated Goth club has ever survived for very long. Some might point to Ground Zero, and those some would find themselves bitch-slapped fairly expeditiously by anyone possessed of two clues to rub together. A softcore BDSM bar questionably run by a cokehead lawyer... I really don't think so. At best GOth event nights have to be begged out of other establishments, usually within the gay community - can you imagine a bunch of Goths trying to ask for a time slot at, say, Tropix (Top 40 bimbo bullshit so hardcore you can scrape it off the walls) or Chez Bananas (sports bar where women are routinely gangbanged in the bathrooms - funny, you'd think "all ladies drink free" drink specials would be a recipe for success...)? So it has to turn to the most accepting outlet, and being that Goth has stocked itself with effeminate crossdressing guys (who may not actually be gay), I guess that's where it had to go. Now there is no portion of Gothdom in Minneapolis that is not bonded on the molecular level with BDSM, homoeroticism, latex/PVC... sperm in general. It's all crusted in semen. You can't go out and listen to Siouxsie without some guy trying to rub his bare ass on you, or some spherical female cramming herself into her gerbil's latex corset. You just can't. There's no public place to just hang out, dance, listen to the music, without someone's political agenda or alternative lifestyle being thrust upon you and staining your clothes. The alternative scenes of Minneapolis have cultivated such a stigma against being seeing as closed-minded that it's become a witchhunt, and people will look for prejudices against minorities within other minorities, just to establish themselves as the Alpha Open Mind. With this came the idea that specialization and individuality were wrong, and that everything everywhere had to be embraced all at once, all crammed under the same umbrella, to make sure that we were intelligent and caring and supportive and bullshit. It's bullshit. Individual communities should be able to live in peace amongst each other without losing their definitions and bleeding amorphically into each other to become one inbred genetic aberration. Accepting others' differences does not necessitate subjugating your identity and assimilating them into some wishy-washy synthesis. Minneapolis does not realize this. Man, what would they do if someone were to comment upon their "conquering tribe" tendency to flaunt and exploit the art and culture of lesser societies for their own amusement?

Goth. It wasn't always this stupid. When it wasn't very well known at all it was a delicious and intimate thing, it was almost spiritual. You could feel your spirit reaching out like an arm from your chest and melding with a kindred spirit. It's like you came from another universe and only consented to be here. There was a sense of "home" to it... Now it's been corrupted and whored out. On the street level, Goth is a joke. The appearance of Goth can be purchased at chain outlets from mass producers, so it would seem. Who cares if you can't draw a straight line or form a complete sentence? Just buy some Lip Service jacket or some bullshit! And if someone points out in your CD collection the overpopulation of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Korn, and other bullshit, and how remarkably bereft it is of 45 Grave, Kommunity FK, Skeletal Family, Danielle Dax, the Slits, My Bloody Valentine... have mommy drive you down to the mall and lend you a few dollars for an injection-molded gravestone marker that says "undead only" for your bedroom door. Maybe buy some machine-embroidered "punk patches" of your favorite pop-alternative bands at Hot Topic in the Mall of America. Oh, and holy gods, do not read what passes for Goth poetry these days.

Look, gods bless Mick Mercer for annotating it all, tracking down the comprehensive history, but Goth isn't evolving. Goth is dead. This bullshit we have now... I don't know what it is, but stop calling it Goth.