Part 1

   Looking at a community full of people makes you realize that they are probably involved in many cultures they identify as. As I walked up the streets of Manhattan on a bright sunny day, I came across a store that seemed very unique to me. It was a gothic fashion store called “Shop Untitled NYC” on 27 West 8th street. It’s a small shop near a neighborhood of people living nearby. When I walked in, there were many different pieces of clothing on display. Black, the only color you would see ranging from the long pants on the shelves to the leather crop tops and t-shirts that were hung up on racks. I walked in with no intention of buying their clothing at all but mostly trying to get to know what shoppers love about this place and what they affiliate themselves as. I see a young lady at the cash register and she greets me as I am coming in. She had long red hair and very bright blue eyes that caught my attention. I simply stated my name, the college that I currently go to, and mentioned that I am writing a paper on the goth subculture. She told me her name is Elizabeth but everyone calls her Beth. She was instantly thrilled and agreed to communicate through email so that I can interview with her. A few days later, Beth updated me with a schedule to meet on zoom for the interview. I was very nervous but it was also kind of interesting to me at the same time because I had never interviewed anyone other than students. 

     We gave our introductions and began with the questions that I had thought of before the interview. I simply wanted to get to know Beth so I started with the question “Where are you from? ”. She says “ I am from Michigan but I recently just moved to New York almost 2 years ago”. I then asked “what do you do in your everyday life” and she simply replied with “ I work at the shop on weekdays but in my free time, I hang out with my friends and do other stuff,” she says. She mentions that she and her friends usually hang out anywhere such as the mall, sometimes restaurants, and even rock concerts which she enjoys doing the most. I then go to my next question and ask “Is there anything you would want to change about yourself and why? ”. I was deeply amazed by her answer. She replied, “Not really because I kinda like my appearance”. She explains how she feels comfortable with the way she is now and seems happy about it. She says she wouldn’t want to change herself no matter what. Her response made me smile because I kind of wished I felt that way about myself too. “What is your favorite color?” I then asked with curiosity. “I have many favorites but the main ones that I like are black, green, and red,” she answered. I instantly noticed that she mentioned the color black which is a color that is mainly associated with the goth community. She brings up that she loves wearing the color black even though it’s a very dark color. This all brings me to my next question which was  “Would you say that you are a part of the goth community ? ” I say. She gave a simple answer and said “yes”. I then used a follow-up question and asked “Do you like being goth”. “Yes and I would like to say it embraces what I like and dislike as well. I simply don’t see anything wrong or bad about being goth. It’s a community of people who are seen as “incompatible” than others” she responded with sincerity. I was very intrigued by how she answered the question. It was like she noticed how people in this community are treated differently from other people in a different subculture other than goth. I then asked “How is being goth connected to your everyday life? ” and she replies “It’s a big part of my life that I enjoy very much. It’s connected to things I usually do every day such as the kinds of music I listen to, what I wear in my everyday life, and even the people I associate myself with as well”. I had finally come down to my final question for Beth. “What is something you do in the goth community that is considered a tradition in that community ?” I say with enthusiasm. “A tradition we do, at least amongst my friends and I, is that we try to go to concerts of different rock or punk bands that we each like because it’s very diverse amongst us”. She explains that they do this occasionally and it’s something not everyone does as much as them but most goth people in the community do it too. I also found the concert idea to be interesting because I’ve never been to one before and it seems like fun from her perspective. 

  As we close out the interview, my perspective on the goth community changed a lot in a good way. This interview gave me insight into what the goth subculture is really all about. People mislead themselves into thinking that they are weird people and that they’re so much different than other people when it’s the total opposite. I learned more about the goth subculture and that we shouldn’t judge a subculture by its color if you get what I mean. We associate things like the color black to think that these kinds of people are dangerous or maybe even harmful to others as well. They are different in their kind of way to emphasize the fact that everyone isn’t the same. I learned a lot about this subculture even though I am not a part of it.

Part 2

A documentary that I have chosen that is related to my subculture is a short film called “Before Bauhaus: How Goth Became Goth”. It was mostly about the origin of goth and how it came about during most of the 1900s. It started with music and how it was at first romantic and soft to then be dark and loud. This film showed the changes between many different punk rock artists and how their music has thrived over time. As I was watching the documentary, I grew curious about this subculture even more. I realized how apparent the music changes are from different artists and how they tend to develop their sense of style as well. One of the artists named Jay Hawkins wrote a song called “ I Put A Spell On You” with a soft and melodic tone. Over time, different artists wrote a remix towards the song with different tones but it was until then he decided to change the way he sang the song. He screamed in a loud tone of voice for a min in his song which is how his songs became more punk. It had changed the way viewers think about the song and they enjoyed it too. Another artist, who was seen as a “blonde bombshell” because of her blonde hair, was also someone who became a part of the goth subculture just by the change of her appearance. She had thought that she wasn’t gaining any viewers and thought her looks were not as serious as she wants to be for her music career. She had decided to change her hair color to black so that she can show people how serious she is about her music and also appear as more than just a blonde bombshell as everyone may seem. A quote from the documentary that stood out to me was “sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate…That doesn’t make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain” After researching this subculture, I can say that I agree with this quote a lot. People would think goth music is mostly about death or something dark but it doesn’t make the person evil. They include pain in their songs which is mostly what a lot of artists do. This shows me more of their reasoning behind their behavior and how they act towards people. It’s mostly out of pain that goth people express their feelings in the way that they do. This brings up issues with stereotypes against goth people and how they are viewed by them as well. From this documentary, I know that goth can be many things. It’s a german tribe, an artistic form, a literary genre, and a film genre. It’s “a young people’s campaign” as they would call it. A sense of dark romanticism unites the majority of these people. They dress in black and wearing obvious make-up which is mostly referred to as “goths,” although this does not imply that they listen to goth music. That’s a separate thing with its sound design. we discover how we got to the point where goth became a distinct genre.

Citation: YouTube. (2019). Before Bauhaus: How Goth Became Goth. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GbgQBjBfPA.

Part 3 (Collage)

Picture Citations

• Twitter: Dark fantasy art, Dark gothic art, Gothic fantasy art. Pinterest. (2021, March 24). https://www.pinterest.com/pin/849843392153287365/. 
• Punk rock. Particracy Wiki. (n.d.). https://particracy.fandom.com/wiki/Punk_rock. 
• BBC. (2017, May 15). The Why Factor, Goths. BBC World Service. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051m0c8. 
• Perky Goth. TV Tropes. (n.d.). https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PerkyGoth. 
• This article is about Gothic Clothing: Fashion: Subculture. This article is about Gothic Clothing | Fashion | Subculture. (2017, June 17). https://mohanind.com/index.php?route=magikblog%2Farticle%2Fview&mgkblogarticle_id=5. 
• Post-Punk.com, post-punk.comF. the E. at, Post-Punk.com, Madden, J. G. and S., & Harriman, A. (2018, December 20). Dark Entries: A Gallery of 80’s Goth and Deathrock Culture III. Post. https://post-punk.com/oldschool-gothic-a-gallery-of-80s-goth-and-deathrock-culture-3/.