Teen Gothic

Elder goth here, with an important public service announcement to all of you who are newer goths, or goth-curious.

Thirty something years ago I went to my first goth night. I had been listening to the basics for a couple years, not really aware that there was a scene. For the most part, I had just been an alt kid. I spent some time in the punk scene, and finally made some friends who were goth, and started hanging out with them more, and really finding that goth really clicked with me.

Anyway, some friends were going to an all ages goth night, and I wore my “Love will Tear us Apart” shirt, and some black jeans. We got there a bit early, and as people were filtering some girl who was wearing the same shirt looked and me and in a totally disgusted way rolled her eyes and said to friends something about how she couldn’t believe that some dickweed kid was wearing the same shirt.

That really sucked, but I didn’t let it phase me too much. I kept going and tried really hard to be the gawthiest person around. Fast forward two or three years and I am so well known in the scene (big scene in that city) that as an underage person I had no issues getting into 21+ clubs and drinking drinks at the bar to my heart’s delight.

I had a great time and had lots of friends. The reality though was that the people who ended up being real friends, would have just as cool to me the first time I ever walked into a club in my joy division shirt. The reason is that they are actually cool people. Many people are not. If someone is an ass to you because you are new, or asking questions that think you should know the answer to, pay no mind. Those people are truly not worth knowing. There are a ton of shitty people in the scene, and you DO NOT need their approval. Don’t worry about other people. Enjoy the music, and dance, even if you don’t know how. No one worth knowing will ever look down on you, because WE HAVE ALL BEEN NEW at one time or another.

Hope this helps at least one person. If it does it was worth it.

What US cities have the best goth and industrial communities?

I've seen an influx of posts on here of people who are struggling to find their local scene. To put it simply, goth scenes are hard to find for a variety of reasons– either they don't exist in your local area, or they're run by older people who primarily use Facebook to promote, or just in general, there is little to no promotion for the event happening at all because its a small, tight-knit group of people who have been doing scene-related things together for years.

Goth is a pretty niche subculture. You'll often find that goth scenes just don't exist in the city/town you're located in, or whatever scene there is, it's small. I'm a brand new promoter in DC, and so far, I haven't had a completely dead night where no one showed up, but it happens, because the scene is small, and it's hard to find if you aren't intentionally looking for it. As a promoter and an owner of a club night, we do our best to make ourselves visible and accessible, but the work we do can only go so far.

So, here's my advice to people who are struggling to find their local scene– make your own. It isn't as difficult as it sounds, but it is definitely intimidating if you've never been in charge of anything before.

Step number one is to learn how to DJ. By far, the most difficult step out of all I'm about to talk about because it can get expensive. You'll need a DJ table, a laptop, and a digital library of music. I got a cheap table for maybe only $ 150, but you could probably even thrift one. Some tables don't require laptops, but they get more expensive than standard tables.

Step number two is to find a venue. Most goth nights get hosted at bars because the venues are eager to make money off of patrons, so they're always willing to host an event. Find a local bar, talk to the bartender, tell them you're interested in setting up an event there, ask them how to get an event set up, etc.

Step number three: promote. Make flyers for the event. You can make these in something like Canva, which is a photo-editing app that lets you put text over pictures. Print them out, and post them up around local spots (libraries, cafés, anywhere that lets you advertise with paper flyers). Take the image and upload it to IG, or Twitter, upload it to Facebook, make a Facebook event for it, and use hashtags related to your local area. For example, if you live in DC like me, you would use the tags "#dcgoth" or "#dmvgoth".

All of these steps are way simpler if you have friends to help you out along the way. These steps are also incredibly simplified, but I am definitely 100% willing to give a more in-depth explanation to anyone who wants to start their own scene in their area.

I’m writing an article on this subject and wanted some voices from the goth community to weigh in on it.

Specifically from those who were there while it was happening.

Currently a student at GSU and was curious.