The Uncomfortable Truth About Being A Tradgoth Purist
The global pandemic resulted in a resurgence of online goth communities as DJs and bands alike clamored for ways to interact with each other and fans without weekly club nights or nationwide tours. Twitch streams, Facebook groups, Discord servers, and Zoom calls saw membership explode and, even with live venues open again, online communities still boast a greater vibrancy than their pre-pandemic days. Unfortunately, the usual social upheavals magnify when participants need not fear in-person reprisals, leading to a greater influx of debates, arguments, and clout-measuring competitions, and none of those is more tired nor overtread than the “What is goth, anyway?” debate.
Siouxsie. There are, supposedly, Banshees as well.
I’m sick to death of this argument for many reasons, but the one I want to focus on today involves the (often self-proclaimed) Tradgoth, who believes that if it doesn’t sound like something made in the Batcave, Andrew Eldritch’s basement, or 1995 at the latest, it’s not goth. Even this splinter group has its splinters—no band is safe from the No True Scotsman Fallacy—but in general this group resembles my favorite SMBC comic, thinking goth peaked right when it mattered to them the most. This sadly ignores my favorite realization about the genre, but to explain, we need to discuss genres in general.
Inevitably as I get older, I think of what my parents were like at my age. We didn’t have a functioning radio in the car until 1989, and once we did, Mom ruled over it with an iron fist. Various eras of rock thus dominate all of my teenage road trip memories. She especially preferred the “oldies” station, playing rock and pop from the 1950s, 60s, and occasionally 70s. Most 70s rock, however, joined the 80s on the “classic rock” station. While she enjoyed the “modern” and “alternative” rock I was hungry for, this was her least favorite because it was the least like the rock she grew up on. You see where this is going, right?
The original Batcave, were it still running, would turn 41 this July. By comparison, if 1993 Pat wanted to hear something that old, they’d have found tracks from 1952 on Mom’s favorite oldies station. The entirety of the Tradgoth catalog is as far away from today as the vast majority of the oldies stations were from 1993; only Tradgoths who are in to mid-2000s goth have any chance of qualifying as “classic goth” lovers by this metric. Saying a new album isn’t goth because it doesn’t sound like Floodland is like Mom saying Soundgarden wasn’t rock because Superunknown didn’t sound like Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be The Day.
The last great American Rock ‘n’ Roller, according to Tradgoths.
I could boil this down to an “old people aren’t with it anymore,” argument, but it’s so much more magnificent than that. The clubs we spent our 20s going to weekly, feeling like some endangered species because we liked something off-mainstream that had to fight for its right to be heard? They (or some club like them) still stand in a lot of places. I still see small towns having weekly or monthly goth nights featuring dark music from yesteryear and today, and I went to my first one 28 years ago, before a lot of patrons I see at current events were even born. Not a lot of subgenres can say that, because—and here’s the awesome part—we’re not a subgenre of punk, rock, alternative, or whatever timeline you want to believe anymore. The goths of the 70s and 80s inspired a whole host of new artists, who then inspired in turn until we had subgenres spawning subgenres. Suddenly goth has the weight of history behind it, having inspired multiple splinters and still going to this day. Folks, we are a genre now.
Sure, goth will never have the plays or influence of rock, pop, rap, or country, but it’s not going anywhere. Tradgoths could recognize this massive achievement if they weren’t trying to shit on newer artists in an attempt to feel important. But what is cooler: seeing Siouxsie, Specimen, Joy Division, etc. as some zenith of music we haven’t been able to hit again in decades, or recognizing them as the Chuck Berry of their genre, revolutionizing us all into new eras of thought that each generation wants to reinvent? People are pining for a “lost age” when they could be seeing how its spores have been planted, harvested, and replanted into a healthy, ever-changing ecosystem that refuses to die. Contrarianism isn’t a badge of honor, especially when all you have to do to be a part of this amazing community is coexist.
No, no one could actually BE Chuck Berry. This is just how metaphors work.
Oh, and my mother loved Soundgarden. Don’t be more opposed to change than my mom.
