Category: rant (Page 4 of 6)

Gothgate; How I Got Permanently Banned From r/goth On Reddit

April 18, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

I have been permanently banned from commenting and participating in the r/goth community over on Reddit. You may well be asking what the hell did I do to piss off the moderators over on there so badly? Well, basically, I got banned for refusing to change who I am. Seriously. My personality was deemed inconvenient and I was told that if I didn’t change how I reacted to some of the idiots on there that I would be banned. I refused to change who I am as a person so here we are! This starts to get entertaining pretty early on so enjoy the ride!

The first hint that I may have been pissing off the r/goth mods was a message that I was sent by the head mod. I was only able to get one screenshot of those because they are only saved on their side of things and not on mine. Aggressive? More like I told people the truth and didn’t sugarcoat things. I can be brutally honest, but sometimes that is what is needed for people to ‘see the light’ so to speak. The people who made complaints couldn’t deal with being wrong so they cried to the mods. The mods didn’t really feel like being mods so they passed their responsibility onto me. Which is of course bullshit. Sign up to be a mod of a large online community? Expect to have to deal with people constantly crying because things aren’t going the way they want them to.

Below is the first and only message I saved from the short conversation with the lead mod. As you can see I am being called ‘aggressive’ and I automatically disagree with them. Telling people the truth bluntly is considered aggressive apparently. If people can’t handle being told the truth that is not a me problem. This is the way I have always acted online and I have never gotten such a message from a mod of an online community before concerning my behaviour.

In response to this I wrote a complaint about it on their weekly thread. Notice how I did not start my own thread about it in the community. I knew doing it this way would kind of startle them because they probably expected me to make an angry thread and bounce.

I make a very good point below. If people cannot deal with being told the truth of things online then they are going to be emotionally unable to deal with confrontation in the real world. That is an issue that is not my fault or my responsibility to have to deal with. Yet somehow he next calls me an aggressive douche. He says that not being as confrontational is not a big ask? He is basically trying to tell me to change how I am as a person so that their job is more easy. Telling somebody to change their personality within a community that tells others to be themselves all of the time? Wahahaha!!!! The stench of hypocrisy, there is nothing like it.

They actually did need me way more than I needed them. I constantly do DIY projects and have a whole lot of knowledge on that subject. I also know a whole lot about goth/punk/post-punk music that came out of the 80’s and 90’s. You can’t get all of this kind of information from books or websites, sometimes you need somebody who actually lived through the times to tell you what it was really like. Their loss.

This next part is very, very entertaining. I know for a fact that I was the oldest person who participated in that group on a daily basis. I’m too repetitive in my comments? When people ask the same damn questions just about every single day in the community am I just supposed to make up new things to say? I was not competing for the Nobel Prize in journalism or literature, I was only telling the truth to those who had no idea what they were on about. If people think that telling the truth is being aggressive then they are going to be among the first to go once society goes completely off the rails within the next few years.

Oh, and this bitch had the audacity to say all of that after I had sold her a pair of almost new pikes for very cheap last year. She is saying she doesn’t need me now, but by golly she needed me when she wanted those pikes last year.LOL

She then passively aggressively lies about me ripping her off. Luckily I saved a screenshot of when I told her how much it cost me to send them. Did I get an apology? Of course not! If you are a cowardly passive aggressive bitch that is completely on you and not on me.

Had to be? Wahahaha!!!!!!! Try to play the victim by stating that you were a broke college student? That’s funny but I didn’t know that broke college students could spend £200 on a new pair of pikes. Maybe she will share what bank she uses because I need in on some of that action. Mamma needs another pair of boots.

A few hours after this I commented on a random half naked chick’s ‘big tiddy goth girlfriend’ pic and didn’t report it because why the hell should I help them at this stage. I knew they were going to end up banning me so I wrote a final post on their bitching Sunday thread. I didn’t make it into a separate post of its own because I knew that they were just chomping at the bit for me to do that. Instead I went out on my own terms and stated exactly what I was thinking, as I always do.

Soon after this I got two different messages, as seen below. Not only did they permanently ban me from participating in the group they muted me from sending the mods messages for three days! I freaked them out so much that they had to hide behind muting me. Hypocritical cowards are going to be hypocritical cowards.

There you have it folks. I got kicked off of r/goth because of being myself and not agreeing to change who I am as a person. I actually feel a sense of pride. Instead of giving in to peer pressure I stood up for myself and didn’t back down. If I could survive Donald Trump illegally blocking me on Facebook when he was President of the United States then I can easily survive this.

A Goth Band Is Calling Their New Album American Gothicc And I Am So Confused

March 15, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

This morning I was innocently browsing Facebook when a post about this band came up in a Deathrock group that I am a member of. I listened to the song and they sound like they are going for a cross of modern post-punk and ethereal goth. The song isn’t bad but it doesn’t stand out from the crowd; it’s going over territory that has been done many times before. Just this time it’s being done with some Autotune.

The thing that stood out more than their music for me was the title of their album; American Gothicc. This confuses the hell out of me because the term ‘gothicc’ is commonly used to describe curvy goth women and it is heavily used by those who love to objectify goth women. I’ve witnessed a countless number of goth women who have complained about this term being used to describe them. It is not a positive term used within the community and its use can actually mentally hurt younger goth women.

With all of this being the case who the heck is the audience that this band is catering to? Are they trying to cater to goth music fans, or to those who just lust after them? Do they think that using the term ‘Gothicc’ is going to garner them a lot of attention? Probably, but I think they may be surprised to find out that women in the goth community don’t really look at the term favourably.

When it comes down to it the band can call their music and albums anything they want, but this has got to be one of the most ill conceived album titles that I have ever seen. Seriously. EDIT: I’ve just noticed that I haven’t named or linked the band. They are kind of ringing my alarm bells so I won’t be giving them any clicks.

Gothix Is A Poseur Of The Highest Order

February 14, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Today I made a horrifying discovery; Gothix. When I was innocently browsing YouTube one of her videos was suggested to me, the subject of it being that she doesn’t support Black Lives Matter. I thought maybe she just didn’t like some people in the group or something really petty like that, but nope this chick just full out doesn’t want black people to protest and be organized. Yep, you read that right. Here is a list of the titles of some of her videos:

Women Don’t ”Need” Abortions
”Non-Binary” Is Bullshit
Hate Speech Does Not Exist (Yes, I’m Serious)
The Culture War
Surviving Communism
7 Reasons Why I Voted Trump

You get the idea. She is also so gosh darn clever that she actually promotes herself as a grifter. I guess she thought that by trying to own the moniker rightly given to her that it would make her seem genuine and not an actual grifter. I feel saddened to tell her that it’s not working. The moment I saw her Nirvana shirt, spiked collar, shaved hair and Siouxsie eyeliner I knew something was off about her. It’s like she picked off of a list of what the mainstream think is ‘alternative’ and made herself fit into a neat little package of pre-packaged rebellion.

If this isn’t bad enough she actually sells cheap looking spiked collars on her ‘official’ website. Are they dropped shit crap out of China? More than likely. She also makes some really crap music, but I didn’t let myself listen to much of it because I’d suffered enough already.

I learned a few days back that she actually used to have a gamer type channel, which makes sense. Some wealthy conservative ‘think tank’ with a whole lot of cash more than likely told her that if she recited right wing talking points that they would pay her more money than she would ever earn just talking about gaming. She is a total unicorn; a woman of colour who looks ‘alternative’ and that has agreed to repeat conservative garbage. I don’t know who is more repulsive in this whole situation, the racist white men that thought this would actually fool people in the alternative community and people of colour, or the woman of colour who is making videos that openly attack other people of colour and the left.

When you sell your soul to the devil you pay a price. When her handlers drop her, after they realise that nobody is buying her fake persona, she is probably going to make videos saying she was conned…and nobody is really going to give a shit. She will probably change her name, change her appearance, and change her persona in order to distance herself from a disaster of her own making. Hon, the internet will always remember.

Gothix is about as goth and alternative as a stained Marilyn Manson shirt on a clearance rack at Hot Topic. Meaning not at all. She is an infected herpes sore on the the lips of humanity; something that will always fester and never heal.

The Kardashianization Of The Goth Subculture Needs To Stop

January 26, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Society’s wannabe ‘goth’ couple of the moment.

Kardashianization is a mighty long word, but I think it describes perfectly what has been happening within the last few years in the goth subculture. Unreal beauty standards, that are normal in ‘mainstream’ society, have wormed their way into the goth subculture. I think that has always been on the back burner, but lately it really feels like things have ramped up since everybody wants to call themselves a ‘goth’ these days.

Before the advent of the internet taking photos of yourself wasn’t really a thing. Friends would take photos of you, clubs would take photos of you, but would you take photos of yourself? Not really. Don’t get me wrong, there would be attention seekers in goth/alternative clubs who would always get their photos taken, but they were in the minority and usually thought of as uber goobers. I only have a few photos of myself from the 80’s and 90’s because I personally avoided people with cameras and I am okay with that. My hair was a mess most of the time and nobody needs to see that.

I have nothing against taking selfies of yourself, but what I do have a problem with are the people who manipulate their selfies to such a degree that it pushes an unrealistic standard of beauty. That is why I call this phenomenon the Kardashianization of the subculture, because younglings are doing the exact same thing as the Kardashians; posting photos of themselves that depict a fantasy rather than a reality. They create a ‘goth’ image of themselves that they think others will approve of, a judgement that will make them a ‘true goth’. I wish I was kidding about this, but I’m not.

Notice how this has nothing to do with the music of the goth subculture? They are basing their whole identity off of a dark aesthetic while listening to bands that are in no way goth at all. There is nothing the matter with loving different genres of music, but if you don’t like or listen to any actual goth music you aren’t a goth. An aesthetic does not a goth make.

The look that the modern wannabe ‘trad goths’ aspire to. How original.

For whatever reason many of these younglings are calling themselves ‘trad goths’. In their selfies they will have backcombed hair, Siouxsie clone make-up and at least one article of clothing that is fishnet in nature. To be included in their ranks you have to look like one another because that is how goths looked in the 80’s/90’s of course! Yes, I’m being sarcastic. Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s most of us didn’t look like that. I only ever saw that look at clubs, and it wasn’t done by a large amount of people. The most onerous aspect to all of this is that they will quite frequently lighten their face and blur it so much that their skin looks unreal, not a pore or realistic shadow to be seen. Again, how is this any different than what the Kardashians do on a regular basis?

Where do these younglings get these ideas from? The mainstream reporting of certain celebrities being goth because of them wearing black lipstick certainly doesn’t help at all. Many younglings think that they are automatically goth if they dress in black, not understanding that the subculture has always been centred upon the music. Material consumption is something that is encouraged in our society in general and these people buy into it and spend a ton of money to look like something that they really are not; a goth.

Don’t like being compared to the Kardashians? Then stop basing your identity on manipulated photos and how others perceive you. What you are doing is in no way original and the only people who will take you at all seriously will be the other people who also don’t know what they are on about. It’s a huge perpetuating circle jerk. This behaviour is in no way unique, in no way different as to how ‘normal’ society behaves and yet they will endlessly bitch and moan about how society sucks and how ‘normies’ are boring. All the while exhibiting the same exact behaviour as the people they supposedly dislike. What they are doing is not any different just because they are dressed in black and are wearing black lipstick.

When I see heavily manipulated photos in online goth communities I call them out because the only way this is ever going to change is if people speak out about it and challenge this behaviour. There are younglings out there that love goth music and yet they think they can’t be goth because they don’t look like said photos; they don’t have perfect white skin and they don’t have the money to buy clothes from a dark clothing site. I find this sad as all hell because the poseurs and wannabes who perpetuate this crap are stopping actual goth music fans from joining the subculture; blocking their way into it by means of selfie blurring tools and mum and dad’s money.

Instead of spending countless hours retouching and blurring the crap out of your selfies why not sit down and listen to some actual goth music. Don’t like being compared to vacuous ‘celebrities’ who have no discernable talent? Then be yourself instead of jumping on the goth train without paying your fare.

Joy Division Is Not A Goth Band

January 17, 2022 / dystopiagal / 1 Comment

If you have been online for any amount of time in the goth community you will witness younglings who insist that Joy Division is a goth band. When you tell them that they were in a fact a post-punk band they squirm and squeal like a piglet and will call you an elitist or a gatekeeper for telling them the truth.

Why are Joy Division being pushed as a goth band by those who have no idea what they are on about? Because Joy Division quite often had sad lyrics. The younglings insist, and believe, that sadness = goth. If there was any truth to that then wouldn’t tons of country bands be considered goth? Or even Blues musicians? Both genres of music quite often have sad lyrics. It makes absolutely no sense. Seriously.

Joy Division is a very influential band who paved the way for a whole lot of post-punk and goth bands, but they themselves are not a goth band. But how can that be I can hear younglings asking. They quite often will site how producer Martin Hannett in 1979 called them a band with gothic overtones, without realizing that the terms goth and gothic actually mean two different things. The term gothic describes a dark style of architecture and literature, while the term goth is a descriptor for a form of music and subculture. Hannett was basically saying that their music had a darkness to it. Also, the goth subculture didn’t really start going till the early 80’s so he definitely wasn’t referencing that.

What can we learn from this lesson? That misinformation spreads like wildfire online. The internet is both a curse and a blessing for the goth subculture as a whole right now. On the one hand you have people wanting to learn about goth music which is a very cool thing. On the other hand you have people who have no idea what goth music is pushing unrelated genres such as Soundcloud rap as goth, which of course confuses the younglings.

Why do I care so much about this? Because I am sick and tired of seeing them being pushed into a genre that they were never a part of. All of this also raises an important question; why the hell are younglings so hellbent on calling everything goth these days? If they like something they will call it goth because they think that everything they like has to be goth or they aren’t a ‘true goth’. I’m not even joking about that. Instead of being themselves they want to fit inside a self imposed goth box that contains half truths and lies. In the 80’s and 90’s they were never considered goth, and no amount of tantrums by poseurs and wannabes is going to change that.

Don’t Listen To Actual Goth Bands And Call Yourself A Goth? That Would Make You A Poseur, Not A Goth.

October 1, 2021 / dystopiagal / 1 Comment

How to pronounce the word poseur in case you don’t know already.

For years I have really disliked using the word ‘poseur’ because it would always end up being used against people who in no way deserved derision. However, given the climate that the goth subculture finds itself in right now, I really feel that the word needs to be used more often and with some intentional force.

There are many people right now who are calling themselves ‘goth’ even though they do not listen to the actual music at all. Most of the time they listen to rap/trap or metal music and think that just because they dress in black clothes that they are goth as hell. Nothing could be further from the truth. Angela Benedict put out a video the other day outlining why the overt sexualization and fetishization of goths is very bad and needs to be put to a stop. It is largely being perpetuated by sex workers, who are not in the subculture at all, playing goth dress-up and advertising their Only Fans accounts in actual goth spaces. She isn’t saying that sex workers are bad, just that they need to stop advertising their work within the actual goth community, because leg humpers then think that all goths are kinky and like rough sex. I totally agree with her.

In the comment section of Angela’s video somebody named Shino Tenshi took it upon themselves to state that goth is changing and that the subculture has got to accept it. I screen-saved all of their posts for posterity, so join me on a fun journey to poseurville. All aboard!

No, kids who don’t actually listen to goth music do not get a say when it comes to what is and is not accepted in the goth subculture. Why? Because they are not goth. Plus, these ‘sub-sub cultures’ that they are mentioning are the misused terms such as ‘trad’, ‘fairy’, ‘Victorian’, ‘vampire’, and ‘street’. Descriptors that were originally used as a joke in the 90’s. That’s right, if you use those terms you aren’t in on the joke and can be officially called a poseur. Trying to become a certain ‘type’ of goth to fit into the subculture instead of simply being yourself is sad and shows a lack of understanding as to what the subculture is about. It’s not all about how you dress, rather it is about actual goth music; goth rock, deathrock, ethereal, darkwave, and coldwave bands. Notice how rap/hip-hop, emo and metal are not on that list? It’s because those are not goth genres of music.

They respect the roots of the culture? Like hell they do. If they did then they would listen to actual goth music and not ’emo/goth/dark trap’ music. Hell, they don’t even know what music they are actually listening to! Those types of music are totally different from one another and are not related at all. Again, there is no such thing as ‘street goth’. Basically this person is wearing urban street wear, but because the items are black they think they can call themselves goth. That must mean nuns are goth because they also dress in black. No, we don’t not have to accept ‘deviations’ when they are not goth at all. Also, we don’t have to accept these poseurs into the subculture because they don’t listen to actual goth bands. This person has to deal with social stigmas because of the way they dress? Boo fucking hoo. Cry me a river. Some of us have been having to deal with it for thirty or forty years.

I thought they respected the roots of the culture? I guess not. If it is so terrible why the hell would they call themselves a goth then? Seriously, they are identifying with a subculture whose music they hate. To them goth is about fashion first, and the music is secondary. Music that is not goth at all. I would love to see this person go to an actual goth club and request their favourite ‘goth’ songs. I used to DJ and if somebody requested something like Lil Peep I would totally have a laugh about it because hell to the fucking no. It would be the type of thing I would share on social media the next day. Way to fucking go…poseur.

No, hun, you are also not ‘gothic’. That is unless you are a cathedral in Europe, so please correct me if I am wrong. No, goth is not just a ‘fashion statement’. See, this is what the person clearly doesn’t understand. They think that being goth is all about dressing in black and that the music is secondary. A person can be a goth if they don’t dress in black at all but listen to the actual music. If a person dresses in black, calls themselves a goth but doesn’t listen to goth rock, deathrock, ethereal, darkwave or coldwave music then they are a poseur. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it because it it simply the truth. It is not ‘gatekeeping’ to tell the truth. Listening to actual goth music is a very small hurdle to get over, and if people don’t want to do it then they deserve the poseur tag.

No, kid, you are not about to transform what goth is. Mostly because you have absolutely no say in the matter since you don’t listen to any actual goth music. Goth music sounds like ‘grandma’ music? Wow. This person is certainly out to win hearts and minds. So, everybody in the goth subculture dresses alike? Um…they would only think that if they only paid attention to the social media accounts of those who only dress in clothes made by dark alternative brands. These fashion victims think that dressing like a nu-goth witch automatically makes them a member of the goth subculture, when in fact it doesn’t. If they don’t listen to actual goth bands then that would make them poseurs. Again, it is not ‘gatekeeping’ to tell the truth.

As I stated above in my response to them it is perfectly okay to listen to other forms of music besides goth if you are a member of the goth subculture. However, that gets thrown out the window if you don’t listen to any actual goth bands at all. To call yourself a goth means that you listen to at least some goth music. You don’t even have to like all forms of it. You may just like deathrock or darkwave and that is perfectly okay. The people who think that they have to listen to only goth music are boring as hell and will probably drop out of the subculture sooner rather than later.

So, what can we learn from all of this? If you want to be a part of the goth subculture you have to listen to at least some actual goth bands. Metal, emo and rap/trap are not goth. Period. If you don’t listen to any goth bands and insist on calling yourself a goth then you are a poseur. Don’t want to be called a poseur? Then don’t call yourself a goth. The end.

‘Grunge’ Never Had A Connection To The Goth Subculture

September 20, 2021 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

This man did not make goth music, did not invent wearing thrift clothes and has been dead for almost 30 years.

I wrote this rant elsewhere out of frustration when it comes to younglings claiming that they are ‘grunge-goth’, because in truth grunge was never a subculture and has never had anything to do with the goth subculture. Enjoy!

The amount of people who think grunge was an actual subculture is disappointing and yet doesn’t surprise me. Just because some dark fashion retailer is trying to sell you something that they label ‘grunge’ doesn’t mean that it was a damn subculture. You know what grunge was? It was a marketing label used by mainstream record execs to sell pre-packaged ‘safe’ rebellion. Those bands that they labeled ‘grunge’ were playing punk meets garage music and their original audience was made up of mostly punks.

All of that changed when the label ‘grunge’ was pushed into the mainstream and the new audience was mostly made up of trend whores who thought they were now at the peak of being alternative. They were the same people who would give punks and goths massive amounts of shit for looking too different or for listening to music that was too strange. The lyrics for Nazi Punks Fuck Off say it perfectly:

‘You ain’t hardcore ’cause you spike your hair when a jock still lives inside your head’

THIS! Needless to say grunge had nothing to do with the goth subculture. Did some goths like grunge? Of course, but that didn’t mean that the two were connected. Punks, metalheads, and everybody generally alternative wore flannel, military surplus gear and thrift store clothing way before ‘grunge’ made its appearance. The bands labeled ‘grunge’ were just wearing what other weirdos wore, they didn’t invent a style. The mainstream took that style and marketed it to the masses.

Now there are a bunch of people who are using the term grunge-goth, which makes zero sense because of the reasons I talked about up above. It is a term made up by dark fashion companies to sell nostalgia to kids, as if grunge was also a subculture equal to goth. ‘If you buy this grunge-goth top you are going to be double cool and ultra rebellious!’ No, no you are not because grunge was never a subculture and if you buy into those marketing tactics you are nothing but a fashion victim, the same as those mainstream trend whores from 30 years ago.

Goth is not grunge, grunge is not goth. The end.

Early U2 Albums Are Post-Punk? YES

September 2, 2021 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

You might be wondering why I am stating something that is very obvious. The reason is because there is a pretty large swathe of younger post-punk fans who throw a fit when you post early U2 songs in online post-punk communities. In fact I have had posts taken down in such communities when I have shared early U2 songs or videos, or my posts have been downvoted to oblivion.

Boy(1980), October(1981), War(1983), and The Unforgettable Fire(1984) are all solidly great 80’s post-punk albums. To think otherwise is just living in a state of ignorance, because most of these said people have never actually listened to these albums. They are judging their opinion on what the more modern U2 albums sound like and consider them to be a ‘dad rock’ band. I personally only like their post-punk albums because I don’t like the direction they started to take with The Joshua Tree. I like some of the songs off of that album, but it was their transition from post-punk to a different sounding kind of band. In fact they have completely changed their sound multiple times through the years, but in my opinion those early post-punk albums contain their best songs.

New Year’s Day, a song off of their album War, is very haunting and used to be played at the alternative clubs I went to in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Some goth and post-punk DJs include it in their sets because of its melancholic tone.

The really sad thing about this whole state of affairs are the bands that these same people will post and praise; the Smiths and PiL being the most controversial. I actually was a fan of The Smiths before they broke up, but after that happened I totally stopped supporting the band and Morrissey because he treated other musicians like crap and was a raging piece of shit. Through the years it has been shown time and time again that he is a racist and classist twat burger and yet these people still happily support him time and time again. John Lydon within the past few years has shown himself to be a Trump supporting right wing moron who believes that he is still a part of the working class even though he owns multiple homes and is married to a wealthy heiress. Yes his wife has alzheimers, but that is no excuse. I was a HUGE PiL fan in the 80’s right up until recently when that whole shitshow happened. Some people claim that you have to separate the art from the artist, but when racism and right wing crap is put into the equation that train of thought should be thrown out of the window like a pot of piss.

This song, Gloria, from their album October(1981) has a prominent bassline, echoing guitars and a driving drum beat, all characteristics of post-punk.

I think part of the issue as to why all of this is happening is that the term ‘post-punk’ has become a very trendy and popular music genre. It all started with hipsters popularizing Joy Division and it is currently being used by bands today because they know it will bring them a larger audience than just calling themselves goth or alternative. As I said in my last post there were many post-punk bands back in the 80’s that didn’t sound exactly like The Cure or Joy Division; U2 was one of those bands and they had their own unique style that didn’t sound exactly like other post-punk bands of the time. U2 had the common characteristics of the genre but made it their own. In fact they were copied by some other bands at the time such as Skeletal Family, who are now considered to be goth in nature. Listen to the song below. It is very obvious that the guitar player was heavily influenced by Edge’s playing style. In fact if Bono’s vocals were on it you would think it was a song by U2.

If you like Skeletal Family you should give early U2 a listen because the guitar playing is very similar.

Hating on a band without actually listening to them is never a good look. The only positive thing to come out of all of this is that you can still buy 80’s U2 albums and singles for fairly cheap. I have actually purchased some lately that are cheaper now than they were in the US during the 80’s due to the heavy import costs back then. Below are some more early U2 songs that are my personal favourites. Give them a listen because you might actually like them and find out that your assumptions about their early 80’s albums have been wrong.

Is That All, a song off of their second album October.

Another Time Another Place off of their first album Boy.

The Unforgettable Fire a song off of the fourth album of the same name.

Like A Song off of their third album War.

No, Post-Punk Is Not A Subgenre Of Goth Music

August 27, 2021 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Boy(1980), October(1981), War(1983), and The Unforgettable Fire(1984) were all solid post-punk albums made by U2. Does that mean U2’s music is goth? Of course not.

Before I begin it would like it to be known that both the terms post-punk and goth were not used during the 80’s in the SF Bay Area. If they were I never heard them. I used to buy an 80’s music magazine called Star Hits back then that would feature a whole lot of alternative(post-punk) bands and they never used the terms ‘post-punk’ or ‘goth’ so take that for what you will.

You read that right, post-punk is not a subgenre of goth music. I can’t believe that I even have to write this post, but over the last few weeks I’ve seen younger people insist that all post-punk music is goth and that it has a place under the goth umbrella. NO.

The term post-punk is pretty new and wasn’t even used back in the 80’s. I was a teen then and never heard the term. In fact I don’t ever remember hearing it until the internet came about. The 80’s bands currently being given this name were called ‘alternative’ or ‘modern rock’ in the 80’s. Alternative in the 80’s meant that you were a band whose influence came from punk, glam, electronic or any other earlier genre of music. That is why so many bands sounded different from one another; bands would often have multiple genre influences and create their own sound. They did not sound like all of the pop and rock bands being played on mainstream radio stations during that time, and that is why they were all lumped together. The term ‘goth’ wasn’t widely used until the early 90’s. I personally didn’t hear it until 90-91. So all of the 80’s bands that are now considered goth were originally considered alternative(post-punk). Goth music came directly out of post-punk(alternative) music and morphed into its own separate genre. However, not all bands under the goth banner sounded exactly the same. So, goth is a subgenre of post-punk(alternative) that now has its own subgenres of music. The larger alternative(post-punk) bands, that are now considered goth, such as The Cure and Siouxsie And The Banshees, rode the line that divided alternative(post-punk) and mainstream type music. I saw The Cure in a big arena in 1987, so they have never been a lesser known band. Other alternative(post-punk) bands, such as U2 and INXS, morphed into totally mainstream bands by the late 80’s.

In the early 90’s record execs started to call bands such as Nirvana alternative in order to sell more records since the term exuded a rebellious mystique among mainstream music listeners. You too can be ‘different’ if you listen to these bands! There really isn’t anything ‘different’ about people though if they follow a trend that the mainstream record industry created out of nothing. Grunge wasn’t an actual subculture, it was pre-packaged rebellion. With all of that being said ‘grunge’ and goth never had anything to do with one another. So all of the people running around right now, and the clothing brands, calling themselves ‘grunge goth’ have no idea what they are on about. One is an actual subculture while the other is pre-packaged rebellion. By the time the internet became a ‘thing’ the term ‘alternative’ had lost its original meaning, so people started to call 80’s alternative bands ‘post-punk’ to fill the void that the loss of the tag ‘alternative’ created. Personally I find the term ‘post-punk’ to be kind of strange since punk music never went away, but that is a rant for another day!

So, what have we learned so far?

· The 80’s bands now termed post-punk used to be called alternative.

· These alternative(post-punk) bands did not all sound the same.

· The term goth wasn’t widely used everywhere until the very early 90’s.

· Not all 80’s alternative(post-punk) bands fit into the goth genre of music.

· Goth music evolved into its own subgenre, but is still considered alternative(post-punk).

Right now there are many newer bands labelling themselves post-punk who outright try to sound like Joy Division or The Cure. This comes from the belief that all 80’s alternative (post-punk) bands had a similar sound. As you have read above that assumption is false. Since a lot of younger people seem to think that Joy Division is goth they automatically give these similar sounding newer bands the goth tag. Make sure you are sitting down before you read the next sentence. Even when the term ‘goth’ started to be widely used in the early 90’s Joy Division was not considered a goth band. Yes, they made some really dark music; however, just because a band makes dark sounding music doesn’t mean they are automatically a goth band. Danzig, Metallica, Slayer, and a countless number of other metal and thrash bands make dark sounding music. Are these bands goth? Of course not. Joy Division inspired a whole lot of 80’s post-punk(alternative) bands, some of which would later be labelled goth. David Bowie also inspired a bunch of these bands. Is David Bowie’s music considered goth? That would be a no.

All goth music, be it from the 80’s or now, can be considered post-punk (alternative). However, not all post-punk(alternative) music, be it from the 80’s or now, can be considered goth. Since the term ‘post-punk’ has become a very trend oriented tag to use the line between the truth and false assumptions about its meaning have been blurred. When this modern post-punk trend slows down, which is inevitable, the most positive thing to come out of it will be that it inspired some bands to create some original sounding music. Sure, you have to dig a little but that is part of the fun of discovering new bands.

Red Scare Propaganda Is Making A Comeback

August 20, 2021 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Reagan busted an entertainment trade union and participated in the blacklisting of Hollywood communists/socialists after WW2.

Having been a teen in the 1980’s I remember all of the ‘red scare’ propaganda that would bombard me on almost a daily basis. From the rhetoric of Reagan’s ‘The U.S.S.R. is an evil empire’ propaganda to not being taught a single thing about the Cold War in highschool. If you were a leftist in the 80’s you were seen as the enemy, not only by the US Government, but also by most of society.

I heavily disliked Reagan in high school in the 80’s; even now I think he was an evil son of a bitch who made the poor more destitute and whose racist dog whistles satisfied his white racist supporters. My high school was in a conservative suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area called Fremont. Back in the 80’s I would say that it was probably around 80-90% white. As of the 2019 census it is now only 28% white, which I know makes some of the white people I went to high school with angry of course. I follow maybe only four or five people I went to high school with, including one who turned left after school. Proud of you Brent! Needless to say I have not been to a single class reunion, but I find joy in the fact that I look about 20 years younger than they do. Being a weirdo in the 80’s and staying out of sun has its perks!

Needless to say I was a leftist, and I knew about the political climate of the United States. I listened to a lot of albums by The Dead Kennedys and Jello’s music definitely helped me realise that I wasn’t alone even though I was surrounded by brainwashed Reagan worshippers. My mom took me out of my school one time to go to a Dukakis rally in San Francisco. I was 3 months too young to vote in the 88 election which really bummed me out, and when Bush Sr. won I was totally devastated and I remember crying a lot about it because it made me so angry. Bush Sr. used a huge racist dog whistle in the form of Willie Horton, and made it out like all African Americans were either welfare queens or dangerous thugs. Don’t believe me? Google Willie Horton and be prepared to be disgusted. Of course those Reagan worshippers in school gave me shit since I was very vocal about being a leftist and would constantly argue with them.

This song helped get me through highschool.

I never gave into the peer pressure to be right wing, and to this day I am very proud of that. Right now I see the same type of crap again; anybody who is a leftist is being called a communist as an insult. Sometimes they will call you a socialist but they usually will just jump onto the right wing train and start in on the anti-communist rhetoric. Hell, they even call people such as Biden, who is really not leftist at all, a communist. Anybody to the left of them is an evil commie who wants to destroy either the US, the UK, or all of Europe. In the US a commie is somebody who dares to want a fully socialised healthcare system and worker rights. These right wing morons lick the boots of their corporate masters gladly and are perfectly okay with people having to go bankrupt after being hospitalized because if they haven’t pulled themselves up enough by their bootstraps then that’s their own fault . Yep, they think people deserve shit healthcare because they are poor even when they are poor themselves. It’s a total mindfuck.

It’s not only people on the right who call leftists communists. The Democratic Party is owned by corporate oligarchs just like the GOP and if a leftist, be they a progressive or a communist, fights for free healthcare or worker rights they are told that they are taking things too far and to sit down, shut up and stop behaving like a child who has been caught stealing cookies out of a cookie jar. In the UK the press, which is predominantly far right-winged, will call any leftist politician a communist and smear them with obvious lies. The Labour Party kicks out members who they deem to be too far left and instead promotes weak middle of the road leaders who answer to, you guess it, corporate oligarchs. See a pattern?

All of this pisses me off, because once again you are being attacked for wanting a better world; one in which all people are treated equally, and have the right to free healthcare and a roof over their head. If you are a young leftist reading this rant please know that you are not, and never will be, alone. There are many others out there who feel the same as you do, who want a better future instead of one in which only the wealthy are allowed to exist comfortably while everybody else has to fight over affordable food and housing. If somebody calls you a commie or a socialist answer ‘So, what’s wrong with that?’. Stand up for yourself and don’t let others bully you into submission.