Chasing Cool

First article for 2020, though in truth I finished writing this in 2019 and delayed submission until after the new year. Plus I wanted to space it out from my last article a little too.

In a recent conversation on Reddit’s r/goth I have had a bit of a back and forth with another regular poster in a post in the latest Seething Sunday thread. It was regarding the usual complaints about elitists, I don’t like the music but I’m still goth and a bunch of us saying no, you are not. I read their description of themselves and they sounded dark romantic to me. The regular poster replied saying darkly inclined is what they are because dark romantic is a fan of literature. This made me think about how people want the dreaded G word so badly and how darkly inclined isn’t really the best thing if they want an actual label rather than an adjective.

So let’s go into it and see where this ends up looking at the various angles.

Why Do People Want The Word “Goth”?

In short, they think it is edgy and cool. This isn’t necessarily the fault of the people claiming the word when it doesn’t apply to them. This mainly comes from the mass of misinformation out there. We have the mainstream media telling people what they think goth is, musicians trying to force their music into goth, misunderstandings of how music genres work, misunderstandings of how music subcultures work, clothing brands appropriating goth to corner the pseudo-spooky market, clueless outsiders seeing someone dressed in black thus calling them goth and so on.

If I want a medical diagnosis, I go to a doctor. I want someone who knows what they are talking about to tell me what ailment I may have and to guide me through treatment. Then you have people who look up their symptoms on WebMD (or similar), list their symptoms and pick an ailment they think it is. But they are not a doctor, most people have no idea what they are doing.

We know what goth is about. They do not. We are the doctors who can diagnose you as suffering from goth. Yet we are called elitists and gatekeepers when we don’t validate their goth cards with confirmatory bias when we try to educate. Would you call your doctor a gatekeeper because they didn’t diagnose you with a rare cool-sounding illness instead of being merely constipated

That butt ain’t right, I tell you hwut

People can change their mind when better information is presented to them. However for many they are pretty set in their ways and having a go to label to stick on themselves is easy whether it applies or not. The more we educate, the more they dig their heels in and defend their position. People don’t take kindly to having their personal identities shattered even if they are based on misinformation.

So how do we get them to stop using goth? We either need to make it as uncool as possible (which will happen when the latest goth fad dies down but it will come back again in the future) and take the magic away or they need a better alternative that suits and is cool. We want a win/win situation where they are happy and we are happy.

Terms

I am going to talk about a few terms that could be used. Some already are but may not be cool enough or are too confusing

Gothic

Gothic seems to be the obvious one to differentiate goth from the other stuff and it has historical basis to back it up. But I think we need to avoid anything close to the dreaded G word as it confuses people. It is bad enough that people think gothic metal is goth among other things. Another factor to consider is how in man y languages the words goth and gothic are the same word.

Any variant of X Goth

Stuff like trad goth, nugoth, pastel goth, cybergoth, health goth, metal goth, emo goth… you know what I mean. We have all seen those darn chibis that get posted everywhere and occasionally added to with yet another new X goth thing. Again, we want to avoid the dreaded G word like the plague as it confuses people. At best these are more styles of clothing you see around, at worst people take them seriously and think they have to paint within the lines or they confirm personal bias.

Other music subculture terms

Usually it is best to simply call something what it really is. A metalhead, a rivethead, a country music fan, a hip hop head, a juggalo, a jazz fan, an emo, a classical music aficionado, a punk, a rocker - whatever. These define people by what they do rather than how they look. Goth is supposed to work like this too.

No, not that type of rivethead

Dark Alternative

This is a great descriptor for the broader music and its scene. It is more inclusive than goth as goth is a small part of the overall dark alternative. But it doesn’t really work to describe a person. There was also a lot of confusion in the past as goth was used as an umbrella term when it was really covering a wider area like dark alternative.

Black Scene

This term is used in Europe kind of like how dark alternative is used. It covers the music and the wider subculture like dark alternative does. In a way it feels appropriate but outside Europe (which is predominantly white people), it could be confused with being based on race. Say in a city where there is a hip hop scene that is mostly African-American and other hip hop scenes that one might be called the “black scene” as opposed to other races and ethnic groups. It could become problematic in the future and confuse people. Then again the term Hardcore is used for both a genre of punk and a genre of EDM so it could work. Seems to be working okay in Europe.

Darkly Inclined

This is a great descriptor for anyone into spooky stuff goth or not. But as a label it falls short. There is nothing cool about it and it kind of screams “I am a goth poseur”- something else that needs to be taken into account. We want it to be different to goth, not seen as lesser than goth.

Killstar

They already have a hashtag for “we are Killstar”, so why not go all the way? If the brand is what you love why not adopt it as a label? People into them already think Killstar is cool so we have that covered. Killstar fans are happy, goths are happy, everyone wins. Except for how it doesn’t really apply outside Killstar consumers.There could be something that can be derived to cover all the brand fans.

Graver

This is already a thing with links to goth music. Probably best not to confuse people.

Dark Romantic

Yes, it is already attached to old literature but that doesn’t mean the term can’t be re-purposed the same way goth has been. It has an air of class to it and it projects the “seeing beauty in darkness” thing many non-goths like to tout. It can be used as a noun or an adjective so that is a plus. Two words is a bit of a handful when a single syllable word is easier.

Spookie/Spooky/Spook

If I recall right spook has been used as a racist term in the past. Best to leave it alone. Spookie or Spooky doesn’t really work as a noun.

Or SPOOPY could work I guess?

Alternative

The broadest term possible while still remaining relevant. But being alternative isn’t as cool as it once was, not compared to using goth as a label. It leaves an air of mystery as to what someone is (if they are into that sort of thing) but we are talking about people who want that direct label in goth here. I don’t think it is narrow enough.

Gloomer

Kids love memes (a play on the Ok Boomer meme) so it could work. It is appropriate enough with dark themes. Though it does play into the depression angle a bit which may give the wrong idea. Plus the term’s links to the Doomer meme are currently relevant.

Doomer and Doomer Girl. They are the Derp and Derpina of the 2020s?

A synonym for dark/black/goth

A quick google yields a few ideas. Shadow, murk, shade, drab, ebon, aphotic, sable, onyx, obsidian, raven, crow, sombre, starless, eerie.

These aren’t all the ideas of course. Just what I can think of right now.

Well… Which Label?

If I had to pick one from the terms I listed above I would say Dark Romantic or Gloomer. They cover what needs to be covered. But there probably is something better. Goth was once known as positive punk and in the deathrock revival in the 2000s a lot of goths switched from identifying as a goth to a deathrocker. Goth is just the name that stuck from use in the media.

That is likely the way applying a new label needs to happen. If the media pushes something different instead of using goth people will adopt it if they think it is cool. Hey, it worked for “goth”.

So if we decide on something and start to push that, give them an identity, they won’t want to take ours. Better yet, if they could come up with one themselves it would be ideal. But since that isn’t happening maybe we need to push the issue and nudge them in the right direction.

No one should feel they have to talk on eggshells being careful if they drop the wrong word they will be lambasted for it. Clear definitions means no confusion and if we are lucky the mainstream media may even pick up on it too.

And keep pushing the goths like goth music thing. Push it until it makes them not want to be goth at all if they don’t dig the music. But give them an alternative label that works for everyone.

Are we feeling motivated yet?