AMERICAN GOTHIC Despite its title and the prominent presence of a pitchfork, this iconic 1930 painting of rural America by Grant Wood is not Goth. The production company for Chicago DJ SCARY LADY SARAH is though.
ANDROGYNY Blame it on BOWIE and BAUHAUS, but boys have been donning make-up and ladies’ FISHNETS since before Goth was even called Goth. So common a sight is males pinching feminine style that nobody would bat a heavily mascaraed eyelash at boys in black EYELINER, nailpolish or even a CORSET at a Goth bar. Furthermore, few would assume anything about their sexual orientation as a result. Academics muse on how guys in skirts form part of Goth’s overall gender transgressions while those in question simply enjoy the ritual of dressing up with friends of any gender and pissing off most jocks and parents.
ANKH Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for eternal life, displayed as a cross with an oval head. Ever since DAVID BOWIE’s character whipped out a gold ankh pendant especially designed with a blade to slice into necks in the horror flick THE HUNGER, it’s been especially associated with VAMPIRES. A must-have in every wannabe vamp’s chest of jewels.
ANNE RICE VAMPIRE LESTAT FAN CLUB As it sounds, a fan club for author ANNE RICE and her vampire chronicles. Formed in 1988 in New Orleans, the ARVLFC’s greatest contribution to Gothdom was producing the annual Vampires Ball, a lavishly themed costume party which gave you an excuse to buy that $1,000 velvet cloak you’ve always wanted.
ANT, ADAM British singer (né Stuart Leslie Goddard, b. November 3, 1954). Leader of punk band Adam and the Ants (1977–1982) and best known for 1982’s #1 hit song “Goody Two Shoes.” Ant personified the NEW ROMANTIC era of ANDROGYNOUS, glammed-up pop music. His pirate costumes, a suggestion of manager Malcolm McLaren, were probably responsible for the spread of POET SHIRTs to America.
APOPTYGMA BERZERK Norwegian INDUSTRIAL band formed by Stephan Groth in 1991, sometimes abbreviated as Apop. Alongside VNV NATION, part of the first wave of European acts mixing EBM with melodic SYNTHPOP that conquered North America’s club playlists in the early 2000s, mostly through re-releases on METROPOLIS RECORDS. Peaked with 2002 album Harmonizer, but continue to enjoy heavy rotation at CYBERGOTH events.
AQUA NET Brand of American aerosol hairspray favoured by those wanting exceptionally strong hold at a budget price. Popularized during the 1980s for use on mohawks, DEATHHAWKS and other extreme styles requiring its tortoise-like shellac.
ASH, DANIEL British guitarist and singer (b. July 31, 1957), founder of Original Goth band BAUHAUS and its offshoots TONES ON TAIL and LOVE AND ROCKETS. Atmosphere and aggression are his musical trademarks, plus spiked hair and a penchant for psychedelia. His solo albums never quite hit the charts, but with the royalties from his bands’ “BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD” and “Go!” he can enjoy a life of leisure and occasional stints as a special guest DJ. His latest release is the 2009 solo EP It’s a Burn Out.
ASTBURY, IAN British singer (b. May 14, 1962) best known as leader of THE CULT. Wolf child, howler of hymns, shaker of hips and tambourines, Astbury is one of many credited with the first use of the word Goth in a musical context, although by the time he called singer Andi Sex Gang and his followers “Goth” in 1982, the term was already in use so it’s probably a bit revisionist on his part. His contributions instead came from writing classic songs like “She Sells Sanctuary” and making it acceptable to wear aviator sunglasses and fur hats to a Goth show. Less influential: his post-Cult project Holy Barbarians and a stint fronting The Doors (“of the 21st Century”). Still, the man’s got attitude, soul and a vocal style that’s unmatched. Don’t count him out for a resurrection.
AUTUMN, EMILIE American singer and violinist (née Emilie Autumn Liddell, b. September 22, 1979). A self-proclaimed Wayward Victorian Girl, her vaudevillian performances and songs about asylums have attracted a rabid fanbase of young girls into striped tights, brightly coloured hair and heavy metal–type vocal screeching over INDUSTRIAL beats. Her debut CD, Enchant, was released in 2002 and has become a kind of classic for the kids. She has performed with rock stars like Courtney Love and Billy Corgan, not that her legions would be particularly impressed by that. No, they like her for being a Goth Girl for their generation, not so much related to HAMMER HORROR and punk rock as to anime and cabaret. She’s very cute.
BABYBAT A newcomer to the scene exhibiting limited knowledge, particularly one of a young age; sometimes used derogatorily. Alternatively, a term of endearment for underage Goths. Compare: Kindergoth
BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT Japanese fashion label created by Akinori and Fumiyo Isobe, credited with kickstarting the GOTHIC LOLITA style in 1988. Think babydolls and PARASOLs, with lots of lace. TRAD GOTHs may find it difficult to imagine how a powder blue outfit could appeal to anyone, but for enthusiasts of Loli lifestyle, Baby is the best. Retail outlets in Paris and San Francisco satisfy the foreign fans; the HQ is in Shibuya, Tokyo.
BACKCOMBING Hairstyling technique also known as teasing where you grab a chunk of hair and aggressively comb backwards until it hurts too much or the hair stands high up on its own, whichever comes first. Add illogical amounts of AQUA NET hairspray and — voila! — instant ROBERT SMITH or SIOUXSIE SIOUX ’do.
BADDELEY, GAVIN British journalist (b. 1966), author of books on Goths, Satanism and Satanic Goths, including Goth Chic: A Connoisseur’s Guide to Dark Culture; Lucifer Rising: A Book of Sin, Devil Worship and Rock ’n’ Roll; and Goths: Vamps and Dandies, as well as biographies of MARILYN MANSON and CRADLE OF FILTH. An ordained minister of the CHURCH OF SATAN, he’s the go-to guy whenever U.K. television producers need someone to talk about the dark side who actually has a clue.
BAD SEEDS See: Cave, Nick
BAL DES VAMPIRES, LE Fancy costume ball produced by San Francisco’s Period Events and Entertainments Recreation Society, held annually around HALLOWEEN. An elegant affair featuring formal dancing to baroque and waltz music, attracting ROMANTIGOTHs, STEAMPUNKS and others who like to party like it’s 1899.
BALK, FAIRUZA American actress (née Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse, b. May 21, 1974) best known for her starring role in the 1996 film The Craft, in which she played a teen witch with rather Goth style. She projected a dark, rock ’n’ roll image in her real life as well — tattoed and pierced with black hair and copious EYELINER — and Goths were thrilled to learn she once owned an actual occult shop in Hollywood. In 2010, Balk announced a new music project, Armed Love Militia; first single “Stormwinds” featured guest DAVID J.
BANSHEES, THE See: Siouxsie and the Banshees
BARA, THEDA American silent film star (née Theodise Burr Goodman, 1885–1955). Nicknamed “The Vamp” for her femme fatale performances, she wore provocative costumes and posed for occult-themed promotional photos with skulls and snakes. If that wasn’t enough to secure her honorary Goth Girl status, her 1917 role as Cleopatra set the template for the Egyptian eye make-up popularized by SIOUXSIE SIOUX some sixty years later. Ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park columbarium in Glendale, California. See also: Brooks, Louise
BARELY EVIL Adult website offering porn pictorials of TATTOOED Goth Girls — pierced, bound, penetrated by machines. See also: Blue Blood, Gothic Sluts
BARGELD, BLIXA German singer and musician (né Hans Christian Emmerich, b. January 12, 1959). Co-founded seminal INDUSTRIAL noise group Einstürzende Neubauten in 1980. From 1983 to 2003, member of NICK CAVE’s band, The Bad Seeds. Says he’s not Goth, but ample photographic evidence of him in leather pants, BACKCOMBED hair or funereal suits crumpled like he just crawled out of a coffin proves otherwise.
BARKER, CLIVE British author, filmmaker and visual artist (b. October 5, 1952). The leading voice in contemporary horror fiction, revered for his gory and imaginative explorations of sexuality and the supernatural. His debut collection, The Books of Blood (1984–1985), so impressed STEPHEN KING, he called Barker “the future of horror.” Novella The Hellbound Heart (adapted into film as HELLRAISER) introduced the CENOBITES — a gang of interdimensional sadomasochistic demons with bod
y piercings and mutilations.
BAT Flying mammal, patron animal of Goths. Maybe it’s because they’re nocturnal and live in caves. Or maybe it’s because some of them drink blood for dinner or, as film legend has it, turn into VAMPIRES. But these tiny webbed and wingèd creatures have come to symbolize us, and in turn we’ve adopted them as our fantasy pets, designing purses in their shape, TATTOOING their image on our bodies, channelling their spirit while dancing. Guano aside, if we could live in a batcave, we probably would. See also: I’m So Goth, Vampire bats
BATCAVE 1. Nightclub operating in London, ENGLAND, from 1982 to 1986. Famed as the world’s first Goth bar, although originally dedicated to NEW WAVE and glam rock and other fashion-conscious offshoots of punk. Before the term “Goth” was used to describe its death-obsessed crowd or their music, regulars were referred to as “Batcavers.” Soon-to-be-Goth luminaries such as SIOUXSIE SIOUX, ROBERT SMITH and NICK CAVE regularly attended for live performances by SPECIMEN or ALIEN SEX FIEND, or to just watch scary art movies. 2. Contemporary GOTHIC ROCK groups that look and sound like Alien Sex Fiend, mostly from Europe. 3. Lair of comic book superhero Batman, coveted by many. 4. An actual cave of BATs; great spot for a first date.
BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL Charitable organization based in Austin, Texas, that protects BATs and their habitats all around the world and provides tips for attracting bats to your very own bat house! Many individual Goths participate in their adopt-a-bat program, and it’s common for businesses and events to donate funds to the org.
BÁTHORY, ELIZABETH Hungarian countess (1560–1614) and serial killer also known as the Blood Countess. Accused of torturing and murdering hundreds of young females, she was imprisoned in her own castle until her death. Stories of her bathing in the blood of virgins as a fountain of youth are legendary and have given rise to the myth of Báthory as a VAMPIRE, exploited in such horror films as Countess Dracula (1971). Despite the gruesomeness of her alleged crimes (or perhaps because of it), her influence on Goth types is unabated: the Báthory name has been used by a Swedish black metal band, a Goth clothing shop in Belgium and as a pseudonym for countless teen girl bloggers worldwide.
BATS DAY Gathering of gothy types at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, held annually since 1999. Attracts up to 2,000 spookily clad kids of all ages; activities include posing for group photos with Sleeping Beauty’s castle, hogging the HAUNTED MANSION ride, stalking the Evil Queen and otherwise painting the Happiest Place on Earth black and red. Needless to say, not an official Disney-sanctioned event.
BATWING Type of sleeve used in Gothic blouses or dresses in which the arms, when outstretched, look like webbed BAT wings. Not to be confused with the traditional batwing sleeve of the disco era, in which a large armhole and tapered wrists provide a handglider look.
BAUDELAIRE, CHARLES French poet and critic (1821–1867) whose writings were as decadent as his lifestyle. The poetry collection Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) caused a scandal with its blasphemous musings on sex and death, drawn perhaps from his own dalliances with prostitutes, drunks and other scoundrels. A fan of Gothic texts and EDGAR ALLAN POE in particular, he is credited for introducing Poe to Europe by way of his French translations, and Baudelaire remains an inspiration to wannabe dark poets and DANDIES everywhere. Buried at Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, which also houses a cenotaph monument to him.
BAUHAUS British GOTHIC ROCK band formed in 1978 by horror and art aficionados PETER MURPHY (vocals), DANIEL ASH (guitars), KEVIN HASKINS (drums) and DAVID J. (bass). Considered the first pure Goth band, thanks to its combination of ghastly image, Murphy’s baritone vocals, macabre and dramatic live performances and a debut single about horror icon BELA LUGOSI. After three albums that were underappreciated by the press and a Top 20 single in Britain with a cover of DAVID BOWIE’s “Ziggy Stardust,” group disbanded in 1983 to pursue solo and side-projects. Reunited in 1998 and again in 2005; released alleged final album in 2008. One of the most influential musical acts to emerge from the POST-PUNK era of any genre, Bauhaus is primarily upheld alongside THE SISTERS OF MERCY and THE CURE as the most revered acts in all of English Gothdom (despite members’ insistence that they are not Goth, which of course is a sure sign that they are). See also: Bela Lugosi’s Dead; Love and Rockets; Tones on Tail
BAUHEARSEMOBILE Hearse purchased by members of BAUHAUS as a touring vehicle from an undertaker during the recording sessions for The Sky’s Gone Out in 1981. Despite its obvious visual appeal, couldn’t really handle the job, and after pushing it up a hill one too many times they sold it off.
BDSM Abbreviation for bondage, domination, sadomasochism, a complex variety of sexual practices and fetishes exploring pleasure and pain, of particular interest to many Goths as lifestyle and/or fashion. Since VIVIENNE WESTWOOD designed BONDAGE PANTS for punk rockers in 1970s London, typical dungeon equipment such as handcuffs, straps and chains have been incorporated into Goth/Industrial clothing designs. Nightclubs commonly hold special events catering to this scene; BDSM may be listed as acceptable apparel in the strict dress code. Not all Goths participate, and even those dressed in whips and chains may have little knowledge of or interest in actual BDSM. See also: Fetish night
BEGGARS BANQUET British record label founded by Martin Mills and Nick Austin in 1977, originally to release punk rock vinyl but later home to THE CULT, Gary Numan, BAUHAUS and many others.
B.E. GOTH See: Bleeding edge Goth
BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD First and most famous GOTHIC ROCK song, written and recorded by BAUHAUS and released as the band’s debut single as a white vinyl 12” limited to 5,000 copies in August 1979. A nine-minute, experimental, minimalist howl dedicated to the man who played the most famous DRACULA in all of cinema, anchored by the chorus “undead, undead, undead.” Used to great effect in Tony Scott’s 1983 VAMPIRE film THE HUNGER (in which the band — well, mostly singer PETER MURPHY — appears performing in a cage). It did not hit the charts at the time but has become a club, party and HALLOWEEN-wedding standard, the perfect soundtrack for fog-filled dance floors everywhere.
BELLA GOTH Virtual Goth Girl character in the SimCity universe. Not to be confused with Bella Swan of the TWILIGHT universe.
BELLA MORTE American DARKWAVE band, formed in 1996 in Charlottesville, Virginia, by singer Andy Deane and bassist Gopal Metro. Originally independent, they signed to CLEOPATRA RECORDS and then METROPOLIS RECORDS and have enjoyed some underground success alongside the new crop of gothic rockers, with an accessible mix of DEATH ROCK guitars and SYNTHPOP, HORROR PUNK stylings and tortured romantic lyrics that would probably be on alternative radio if they had a bigger production budget. Deane is also a DJ and author who has published several horror novels.
BERGER, FRED H. American fetish photographer and magazine publisher, founder of influential 1980s magazine PROPAGANDA, for which he supplied a steady stream of black-and-white images of ANDROGYNOUS Goth Boys languishing prettily in graveyards or flirting with fascist fashion iconography. More recently, published photography books Pulp Fetish and Desperados: A Homographic Portfolio, but otherwise seems to have fallen off the grid.
BIRTHDAY MASSACRE, THE Canadian synthrock band formed in 1999 in London, Ontario, and lead by the PERKY GOTH singer Chibi. The band’s colourful pop sensibilities and fairytale-like narratives caught on quickly with a young audience, who discovered the band on social networks such as MySpace and VAMPIREFREAKS. With a global fanbase, record deal with METROPOLIS RECORDS and a new harder-edged sound, the band is poised to weather its growing pains into adulthood quite well. Key tracks: “Red Stars” and “Looking Glass” from the 2007 album Walking with Strangers.
BIRTHDAY PARTY Australian POST-PUNK band formed in 1980 by singer NICK CAVE and guitarist Mick Harvey, later relocating to London and Berlin. Legendary purveyors of menacing noise and shrieking vocals drawing inspiration from shock rock, blues, NO WAVE and hard drugs. Often considered early torchbearers of GOTHIC ROCK, their brand of sonic terror directly influenced the early BATCAV
E bands and DEATH ROCKERs before the band self-destructed in 1983. Nick Cave went on to great success with The Bad Seeds. Essential tracks include “Release the Bats,” “Dead Joe” and a cover of “Jack the Ripper.”
BITE ME Scottish magazine devoted to all things vampiric, launched by Arlene Russo in 1999. The full-size, glossy publication covers supernatural lore, modern movies, spooky events around the world, Goth babes and more. Russo has also authored an exposé of “real” VAMPIRES, Vampire Nation.
BLACK The colour of night, the absence of light, the heart of a Goth. All of our lives, we are asked, “Why do you wear all black?” Maybe we’re in mourning for the world. Maybe, like Einstein, we like a wardrobe that’s easy to match. It’s kind of like asking a unicorn why it has a horn. Some things just are.
BLACKLIGHT Type of ultraviolet lighting commonly used in nightclubs to show off specially designed glow-in-the-dark or reflective CYBERGOTH clothing, special effects make-up, white cat hairs and dandruff.
BLACK NO. 1 Song by Brooklyn GOTHIC METAL band TYPE O NEGATIVE, from the album Bloody Kisses (1993) and titled in full “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare All).” A sarcastic ode to Goth Girls based on a narcissist ex-girlfriend of singer PETER STEELE, cheekily referencing Lily MUNSTER and NOSFERATU and featuring a refrain about loving the dead. Title references a common product number for black hair dye.
BLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB Brand of perfumes and essential oils created by Elizabeth Moriaty Barrial and Brian Constantine, often called BPAL. Their online apothecary offers concoctions named Bewitched, Voodoo, Ode on Melancholy and the like, with ingredients such as “black rose, olibanum, dark musk, myrrh, blackcurrant, lavender buds, bourbon geranium and amber incense.” Lines have been created based on the works of NEIL GAIMAN and Gris Grimly. Their packaging is romantic and VICTORIAN, perfect for collecting or trading.
Encyclopedia Gothica Page 2