As the Goth turns..

[Chris Rapier]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 3:08 PM,  <manny at garfieldartworks.com> wrote:

> So, in that late 90s period, alternative culture took one step further and
> not only became mainstream but totally commodified, like Brian noted.
> Which means that now, younger Gen-Y kids don't have to be creative at all
> - they have their subcultures (and the strictures of creativity within
> each) completely designed for them, in stores, in the media, and on the
> Internet. The only thing they can do is shatter these subcultures into
> ever more tiny subcultures, recombining and dissecting them in a
> postmodern cutup style. The steampunk/neo-cabaret movement is good
> evidence of that. As is the crazy patchwork of stuff on sites like
> Youtube.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing - revitalization of any artistic
field usually comes with the integration of outside influences. You
are completely correct in your implied critique though - which is that
instead of integration we find a splintering. An ever increasing
niching of styles which, due to the numerous factors, generally ends
up cannibalizing itself before it has the opportunity to make any
significant impact on the larger culture.

> Western culture itself is pretty much at an impasse and the decline of
> this music reflects it, We went through the periods of Romanticism,
> Modernism and Post-Modernism (all of which are reflected in various
> strains of the goth-industrial scene, as well) and came out the other side
> at Nakayama's "End of History". But it's not really the End of History,
> just the end of the West's history as it proceeds towards creative death.

You mean Fukuyama not Nakayama. Not a major thing but its important to
understand that the premise of 'The End of History' had more to do
with the overwhelming ascendency of western civilization and American
power sweeping away the old historical conflict paradigms of east v.
west, class struggle, democracy v. autocracy, the cold war, and so
forth ushering in a new era. So the analogy your trying to make is a
little strained. I'd have actually tried to draw an analogy to the
Mexican PRI - whenever you try to institutionalize the revolution you
end up with the form at the expense of the spirit. Which is, as you
pointed, pretty much what happened to both Goth and most of the punk
sub-genres.

I do understand the point you are making. I'm not quite sure we are
there yet. Especially being that we have clear examples of this
happening in previous generations. Just like some of use always
gravitate to 80s music, our parents (depending on their age of course)
would always turn the dial to the 50's dowop station, their parents
never abandoned the Big Bands, and their parent stuck by the crooners
of the 20s. What bothers me, and bothers me to no end, is that the
current generation of teens and twenty somethings seem compelled to
listen to the same drivel that we do. Its just weird and unseemly.
Find your own damn music, and get off of my lawn!

Overall though, as you know, I agree with you.

> Goth chicks are becoming bellydancers,
> are they not?

Some but its not what I would call a given. It seems to be more common
in this geographical area that others but thats not necessarily true
on a wider scale. The west coast seems to have a stronger hip hop
influence in some of their leading belly dancers.