The Vault: An Exploration of the Gothic

by Matt Patterson

Part 1 – Introduction

The bats have left the bell tower, the victims have been bled… - Bauhaus, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”

Goth is dead.

Well, OK, maybe not.  But if it is not dead, exactly, Goth certainly isn’t what it once was.  In this, Goth is rather like conservatism – with which it shares much (more on that later) – a glorious 1980’s heyday, followed by a confused 1990’s…and a disastrous 2000’s. 


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True, some elements of Goth limp along in the new millennium, having been cannibalized by, and absorbed into, mainstream culture.  In some instances, co-opted bits of Goth have been so deracinated as to seem entirely anomalous – witness the black hair, black eyeliner, and black nail polish of the latest American Idol runner up; like claws on a cow, once dangerous and distinct trappings draped on an entirely neutered and non threatening pop singer.

But this is really an ephemeral sort of existence.  If Goth lives now, it is more in the manner of those dearly departed who live on in the habits, mannerisms and memories of the loved ones who survive them, rather than the corporeal beings they once were.

Why?  What happened to this strange movement?  Where did it come from?  For that matter, what the hell is ‘Goth’ anyway?

In this column, we will examine these questions, and attempt to ascertain the causes of both Goth’s origin and its decline. We will analyze the major elements and investigate the major practitioners. We will probe, remember, and lament; we will celebrate and categorize. We will be anthropologists and nostalgists.  It will perhaps be a useful endeavor – at the very least, some of us will have something in the way of explanation when our future children discover our old and tattered capes in the back of the closet.

But our investigation will not end there.  We will examine and explore the Gothic in all of its permutations, from the tribes who swept down from the Nordic north to shake the mighty Roman Empire, to the architecture of the High Middle Ages which soared to touch the face of God, to the castle-strewn romance novels of early modern Europe.  We will try to determine what, if anything, these phenomena have in common besides the not entirely helpful label “Gothic,” and what, if any, connection they have to the modern movement.

For Goth is indeed a many splintered thing.  It is an aesthetic. It is a music. It is a style of dress and a manner of speech. Like all subcultures, it is a way for people to organize their lives, a guide to relating to the world and its evanescent and mercurial inhabitants. In this sense, it performs some of the functions of religion, philosophy, and a neighborhood bridge night. It is a coping mechanism, a crutch, and a glorious release.

And yet Goth, and especially the music, has seldom been given the sort of serious attention bequeathed on other genres, in part because so much of it descended into the kind of cheap theatricality which is easily mocked and dismissed.  But make no mistake – the best Goth is some of the best music, and we will here give it, as well as its performers and fans, the consideration it deserves.

Because this column will be a labor of love and, therefore (as most such labors) impecunious, it will appear when it will.  I will post a chapter weekly when I can; monthly when I must.  But I will post, if you will read.

So step this way. Watch your head as we descend this creaky staircase into the dark. Don’t worry. I’ll hold your hand. I’ll lead the way. I’ve been down here before, you see.

Don’t mind the flitter and flutter about your head, the scurry and screeching about your feet. Close your nostrils to the must and dust. Let the cobwebs caress your face, as we approach the first vault, which opens onto Greenwich Village in the mid 1960’s, and a band that is about to be fired for playing a forbidden and luciferous tune…

They call themselves The Velvet Underground.

Next Time:  In The Beginning


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Posted Aug 5th 2009 at 6:03 pm in Culture, Music | 60 Comments