Teen Gothic

Hi everybody, was just wondering if Molchat Doma is goth music. I tried to search for any definitive answer online but i couldnt find anything really specifying if they were or not. Thanks!

What was/were the song/s that got you into the whole culture and made you explore it deeper and dive in it

Hi y’all! Lately I’ve seen some other people share their music collection, I’m really proud of it, so I thought I’d do that as well. The Head on the Door, Bauhaus Volume One, Victorialand, and Seventeen Seconds were found at a record store. I found the Join Hands album at a thrift store, because of that it is one of my favorite albums I own. The rest I found online.

Looking for more bands that are similar to sisters of mercy and moonspell!!

So, I enjoy industrial, ebm and goth music. I enjoy industrial and ebm way more and I don’t identify myself with goth subculture but I know plenty about it due to my interest in the music as well. Being surrounded by each crowd, I notice that a lot of goth people always label industrial and sometimes ebm bands (but I mostly just see people label industrial) that don’t fall under any goth genres as goth. I know that industrial and goth music were/still are two peas in a pod in clubs and stuff so I feel that has something to do with it buut. I’m just curious and want to know from a goth who considers industrial and/or ebm a part of goth, why?

Just genuinely curious and wanna know if I’m missing something!

I asked for her phone so i could get music (connected to her Alexa) and i looked up her goth mix on spotify (specific to each person) and she went “ew i don’t know any of thes- THE CURE WE LOVE THE CURE”

then i sent her my own playlist and she scrolled through it and went :((((( i don’t like this stuff are you sure it’s gonna help you work faster on my bookshelf? like yes mom lmao it’s MY music it gives me motivation

Hello! I have something to share that you might find interesting!

I'm here to talk about some results with y'all!!

I posted here (from a different account) a couple of years ago asking for people to participate in a research project investigating the emotional experiences of Goths, Emos, and Metalheads facilitated by their choice in music…

There were three parts to the study, so I'll summarise each.

This might be a long one, feel free to ask questions or discuss in the comments and I'll respond when I can. :^) Let me know what you think of this!! I'd love to hear it.

TL;DR: No difference found in emotional outcomes between alt subcultures and mainstream listeners on measures of before-after preferred music engagement and emotion regulation strategies, however, qualitative patterns were found!

1. Step One: Basic Emotions.

We measured each person's baseline emotions, then asked them to listen to a song of their choice from a list (that was related to their subcultural identity) and measured their emotions again afterwards. This list was built from a small prior engagement group in which people provided the names of songs and artists that best represented their subculture identity- so I didn't just pull the list out my arse basically!

When compared to some 'mainstream' music listeners, each subculture groups' emotions changed similarly in response to their music: All groups reported increased positive emotion and decreased negative emotions. On a basic level, in accordance with previous research, this implies that members of alternative subcultures are able to gain positive emotional outcomes from their music, despite the music itself often focusing on dark themes.

2) Step Two: Emotion Regulation Strategies.

Next, we investigated emotion regulation 'strategies', aka HOW someone uses music or a creative activity to regulate their own emotions. The framework we used defines three types: 'Avoidance', 'Approach', and 'Self-Development'. Somewhat surprisingly, we found no difference in the way that Goths, Emos, Metalheads, and Mainstream listeners employ emotion regulation strategies.

3) Step Three: Qualitative Engagement.

We finally decided to include a 'qualitative' element to the study, allowing participants to type answers and provide a broader and deeper explanation of their emotional experiences in response to music. This was included to further capture more detailed experiences. This is the most interesting part but I can't possibly include all of it! So I'll make some general points.

– All groups noted positive emotions as attractive when it comes to music, although the alt subculture groups seeking cathartic experiences and more complex (sometimes negative) emotional experiences, implied as a sort of musical empathy as part of an emotion regulation process rather than just absorbing the emotion directly from the music.

– The Emo group tended to speak strongly of a sense of introspective relatability, whereas the Goth group spoke of feelings of wistfulness, while the Metal group consistently referred to energy and intensity- these themes were not picked up on by the quantitative measures used in the previous 2 parts, probably because they are quite specific!

– Aesthetic emotions or experiences, often enjoyed 'in and of themselves' were heavily present for the alternative subculture groups here! For example, nostalgia was very prominent for Emos, Metalheads spoke of 'empowerment' and 'strength', and Goths reported very 'art-like' experiences.

– Emos also judged their music as 'sincere' and 'authentic', Goths tended to refer to the darkness embedded in their music as a 'beautiful atmospheric' description, and Metalheads interestingly tended to draw a separation between the perceived and experienced emotions- some would comment that though they could see an 'intensity or anger' in the music, it did not necessarily reflect their emergent emotions.

– Cultural and social elements were also discussed for the alt subculture groups. For example, being a part of a community was a feature that all subculture groups mentioned as an attractive part of the music. This implies that engaging with the music is a sort of social identity-related behaviour that can perhaps contribute to emotional experiences through an in-group enhancement process. The groups also stated that they experienced a reduction in loneliness when engaging with the music, and the mainstream group commented that they tended to use music as a way to connect to society as a whole- indicating some social benefits, with an interesting uniqueness for alt subcultures.

What does this mean together?

This challenges the blanket assumption that dark alternative music is emotionally harmful or contributes to higher rates of mental health difficulties in alternative subcultures. In addition, it raises questions about social identity, and how the sense of community and empathy can be experienced through music. Finally, the nature of aesthetic emotions are important to consider for future research, as they were very prominently discussed in the qualitative section and divided the groups more clearly.

What next?

Aside from the main findings, there were other things that stood out to me as potential avenues for future research:

1. Age. The academic literature often refers to these groups as 'youth subcultures'. Our study found that a decent proportion of people hold these identities into their 30s and beyond, so previous research is neglecting a valid proportion of these groups!
2. Other Cultures. There are many music-based subcultures all over the world, it would be interesting to see how they engage with their music especially through the lens of social identity. This study aimed at Goths, Emos, and Metalheads purely because of the dark or negative music themes and reported mental health difficulties, but upon finding the relevance of the social element of music here, this could be very relevant elsewhere.
3. Mental Conditions and Neurodivergents. When conducting this study, I collected data on mental health status, but let participants state their conditions with a free text box rather than a tick box. At first I thought I had f*cked up a bit by doing this, because it meant it would be difficult to decide what exactly to control for- we ended up with such a range of conditions, but one that stuck out to me was autism because it was very prevalent in our sample (along with ADHD, anxiety, depression, BPD). As an autistic person myself, I found this super interesting, as I can see how interest/sensory-based activities such as music listening could form social avenues for those with autism! This is something I would love to look into more in the future!! (Pls contact me if you want to work on this together because I'm feeling very inspired!)

I had tons of fun putting this together, and I spoke to loads of interesting people. In total, we ended up with 300 participants as so many people were eager to be a part of this!! Thanks again to everyone, very literally could not have done this without you. Shout out to the University of Plymouth for encouraging me to pursue this topic as well. On top of all of this, I was awarded a prize for this project and I couldn't be more proud this work.

It was my first ever research project and there are a LOT of things I would do differently now… We did try to get the manuscript published, but it has so far been rejected once- though we do intend on trying again. This is why I've waited until now to post this. If I ever get around to trying again, I'll share it with y'all.

If you've read this far, thank you! I hope this was interesting for you. Please don't hesitate to ask me questions, I think my reddit DMs are broken but I have Twitter and LinkedIN in my bio if you want to contact me, or simply email me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

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*Note: I asked mods for permission to post this but got no response; If you'd prefer me to post this in the discussion thread feel free to remove it and let me know! Thx*

Any recommendations similar to the album Pornography by The Cure or the songs Incubus Succubus by Xmal Deutschland, Thalia by Mephisto Walz, Allegedly Dancefloor Tragedy by Suspiria, Lost by Horror Vacui, Temptation by Violet Sky or Killdergarten by Plastique Noir? I really like the Deathrock genre of very dark songs with a raw guitar sound. One Hundred Years was the song that made me feel in love with goth music, but it seems harder to find others like this