MORRISON, PATRICIA American musician (b. January 14, 1962) best known as the bassist for THE SISTERS OF MERCY during The Sisterhood/Floodland era and member of the proto-Goth outfit THE GUN CLUB. Her seductive, vamp-like appearance — red lips, black EYELINER, huge, huge BACKCOMBED hair and a penchant for slick, tight-fitting fetish wear and stiletto boots — made her a Goth Girl style icon, probably only second to SIOUXSIE, in the 1990s. Her Sisters stint was short-lived but in 1996 she joined THE DAMNED, later marrying singer DAVE VANIAN and, in 2004, had what might possibly be the world’s most beautiful Goth child, Emily Vanian. Currently retired from music.
MORTICIA Fictional character created by cartoonist Charles Addams in the 1930s, matriarch of the Addams Family. She’s become the archetypical Goth woman for a reason: her PALE skin and extra long black hair is bewitching; her tight-fitting, HOBBLESKIRTED black gown with octopus tendril tails is sexy; and her penchant for carnivorous plants (or cutting the heads off roses) displays both domesticity and wickedness. Most famously brought to life by Carolyn Jones for the 1960s TV series, but also by Anjelica Huston in the 1990 feature films. Alongside ELVIRA, probably the #1 image in the public mind when they think “Goth” — judging by how often we all get cat-called “Hey, Morticia!” No matter how annoying the heckler, most of us consider this a compliment.
MOSHER 1. Someone who is moshing, i.e., aggressively slamming his/her body into other moshers or pushing each other around in the front “pit” at a punk or metal show. In use since the early 1980s and attributed to D.C. hardcore act Bad Brains. Not something Goths do, which is why the following is confusing. 2. In ENGLAND in the 2000s, became a derogatory term for young misfits — sometimes Goth, sometimes EMO, sometimes metal — who dress in black baggy pants and band Tshirts and hang about in public squares with not much to do except hate-on “chavs” (working class delinquent types who wear a different type of baggy pants). Goths are sometimes erroneously referred to as “moshers” by the lazy English media.
MUGLER, THIERRY Austrian fashion designer (b. December 21, 1948) who brings fetish to the runway: CORSET gowns, LATEX dresses (for girls and boys), even plastic and chrome, in exaggerated geometric shapes that celebrate, punish and re-imagine the body. At times gloriously combining stern Victoriana with high-tech sci-fi, Mugler is dramatic, decadent, deviant. So what if he uses bright colours? Still belongs in our (fantasy) closets.
MUNDANE A normal person, not belonging to any particular alternative subculture, as seen by a Goth or other FREAK. Assumed to live a rather boring life. Not widely used amongst adults.
MUNSTERS, THE Fictional TV family of monsters, headed by Lily Munster, a VAMPIRE with long black hair with a shocking white stripe, and Herman Munster, a lumbering, lovable FRANKENSTEIN-type creature, who live in a Gothic mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. The Munsters sitcom was a spoof of stereotypical American family values, broadcast from 1964 to 1966; in syndication it developed a cult following. Lily Munster, like VAMPIRA before her, became a Goth matriarch. Herman is just a cool ghoul. See also: Addams Family
MURPHY, PETER British singer (b. July 11, 1957), widely considered the Godfather of Goth for fronting BAUHAUS, and rightly so. His appearance singing “BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD” in the opening sequence of the film THE HUNGER — seductive, cadaverous, caged, enshrouded in fog, the baritone voice a siren song to the dark side — has probably done more to turn people on to that band, that sound, that look than anything else that came crawling out of the BATCAVE club. He is also Lord of the Goth Dance, a student of the artform who has always used the body as part of his show. His biggest hit in North America came on his 1990 solo album Deep, with the acoustic guitar modern rock radio hit “Cuts You Up,” after which he gradually slunk back into the shadows — moving to Turkey, converting to Islam, releasing more solo albums that defied expectations. And if he can never quite escape the Goth tag at least he’s having fun with it: when Trent Reznor asked him to make a special appearance at one of NINE INCH NAILS’ farewell concerts in 2009, he emerged on stage from the ceiling, suspended upside down like a BAT! And oh, those cheekbones. Here’s hoping his cameo in 2010’s The TWILIGHT Saga: Eclipse movie will bring the next gen into the fold.
MUTE RECORDS British record company, founded by Daniel Miller in 1978 and most famous for signing Depeche Mode but also home to NICK CAVE, Nitzer Ebb, CABARET VOLTAIRE, DIAMANDA GALÁS, Laibach, DAF, Einstürzende Neubauten, MIRANDA SEX GARDEN, etc., etc. Truly, titans of the industry, with a dedication to synth-based music in particular (a sublabel, NovaMute, handles more experimental electronics), and the ability to take dark souls with unconventional artistic visions and make them as close to mainstream stars as this genre gets. Even better: they continue to release new innovative acts as exciting in this day as THE CURE and THE SISTERS were back in theirs — Goldfrapp, FEVER RAY, A Place to Bury Strangers and more. May they never go silent.
NDH Neue Deutsche Härte, musical subgenre, translates to “new German hardness.” Coined to describe Rammstein’s mix of metal and electronic music and applied to several heavy German acts with strong male vocals and repetitive lyrics, most notably Oomph! Not widely used in North America.
NECK CORSET Stylized brace or collar worn around the neck for decorative or bondage purposes. Can be made from any material but most effective when includes boning and tight lacing that constricts wearer’s head mobility; popular in leather. In its most extreme form, covers the bottom half of the face to restrict speech as well. Most commonly worn by females.
NECROMANCE Natural history store and cabinet of curiosities opened in Los Angeles in 1991 specializing in dead things: beetles and bones and BAT skeletons. Expanded to a second location in 2006, offering more VICTORIAN mourning wear, antique medical instruments, etc., as well as the typical SILVER jewelry and skull knic-knacks. A one-stop crypt furnishing shop.
NECROPOLIS Large cemetery or burial ground, originally specific to an ancient civilization but now applied to everything from Egyptian tombs to the Parisian Panthéon to the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington. For Goths, a perfect place for a late night stroll, or a name for your club night, as has been done around the world from Florida to Tokyo.
NEFFS Nickname for FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, used affectionately, mostly by the British press.
NEMI Norwegian comic strip created by Lise Myhre in 1997, starring wisecracking Goth Girl Nemi Montoya. Nemi is PALE skinned and raven haired, listens to heavy metal and Goth music, hangs out in pubs with her blue-haired best friend and swears alot. Her father likes :wumpscut:. No wonder it’s been translated for the British market, as well as newspapers all across Europe. Three graphic novel books are available in English. She could kick EMILY THE STRANGE’s ass.
NEOCLASSICAL Subgenre of DARKWAVE describing bands with classical influence, often featuring female vocals, acoustic/orchestral instruments or arrangement and flair for the MEDIEVAL. A bit of a dubious term really, seemingly created to define DEAD CAN DANCE and now applied to a bunch of underground bands to which the term new age surely would suffice, by folks who know little about actual classical music. Nothing to do with legit neoclassicism in art and music studies.
NET.GOTH Most simply, a Goth who spends time on the internet. Originally coined for users of the ALT.GOTHIC.NET Usenet group by member SEXBAT, then expanding to describe users of all gothy Usenet groups, then ultimately all net users at large. Since that would now describe pretty much every Goth in existence (even those literally living in caves under rocks) it’s pretty much out of use.
NETTWERK Canadian record company based in Vancouver, B.C., founded in 1984 and best known as the label that launched SKINNY PUPPY into the world, as well as signing or distributing other significant underground Goth/INDUSTRIAL acts of the day including Tear Garden, Rose Chronicles, Consolidated, Bel Canto, etc. Consistent art direction from Steven Gilmore made Nettwerk a North American 4AD of sorts for a while. Oh, then their new signing Sarah McLachlan sold a gazillion records and they turned their attention to finding
other female singer-songwriters who would do the same. Still has Delerium and Conjure One and released Peter Murphy’s 2011 solo disc Ninth, but otherwise off the Goth radar.
NEUROMANCER Science fiction novel by Canadian author William Gibson published in 1984. Gothic themes throughout its dystopian world, plus coined the term “cyberpunk,” launching it as a literary genre. CYBERGOTHs: meet your maker.
NEWGRAVE American magazine devoted to the California DEATH ROCK scene, edited by Matt Riser and published from 2000 to 2003. Distributed free in the L.A. area and sold across America through HOT TOPIC and Tower Records. One of the few North American publications to pay attention the rising Jrock/VISUAL KEI scene.
NEW ROCK Footwear company founded in Spain in 1978, famous for its heavy metal boots. Like, literally metal-plated. The thick rubber soles and platforms, adorned with spikes, flames, skulls and other biker-worthy fixins help the RIVETHEAD boys and girls get their Mad Max on.
NEW ROMANTIC Music and fashion movement of the late 1970s in the U.K. that gave way to NEW WAVE in the ’80s and, ultimately, ROMANTIGOTHs in the ’90s. A colourful, flamboyant and ANDROGYNOUS response to punk, born in the clubs, not the streets — where costuming and dancing was more important than rabble rousing. Most New Romantic bands were too straight-up pop to be Goth (e.g., Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet) although ADAM ANT straddled the line. Its legacy is stronger on the fashion side: the origins of the English frilly POET SHIRT revival are found here.
NEW WAVE Musical genre originating in the U.K. in the late 1970s, initially synonymous with punk then used to describe acts either more experimental or more pop, then used in North America for all new bands from Britain, then used synonymously with SYNTHPOP. Almost everyone with a funky hairdo and a radio hit was tagged as new wave in the ’80s but when Goths speak of it they’re usually talking about acts like ABC, The Human League and Yazoo, whose music continues to be spun, not totally without irony, at clubs today.
NICE BOOTS … As in “Nice boots. Wanna fuck?” The Goth pick-up line of choice. Started as a joke on ALT.GOTHIC, now so standard you can buy the T-shirt. (In case you’re too shy to actually say it aloud.) CORP GOTHS reinvented this joke as “Nice stock options …”
NICE HAIR Webcomic created by Vancouver artist A. Mauchline in which NEIL GAIMAN, ROBERT SMITH and TIM BURTON are roommates! They all have nice hair, get it?
NIGHTBREED 1. British record label, founded in Nottingham by Trevor Bamford in 1990 initially to put out one compilation of new underground Goth bands, grew to a full-blown label and distributor. Its compilation series, The Gothic Sounds of Nightbreed, remains a nice audio snapshot of the scene of the 1990s, featuring otherwise forgotten bands like Suspiria and Midnight Configuration. In August 2010, Bamford helped launch Nightbreed Radio, an online station streaming Goth/INDUSTRIAL/alternative music. 2. 1990 horror film by CLIVE BARKER based on his novella Cabal.
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THE Stop-motion animated musical film co-written by TIM BURTON and directed by Henry Selick, released 1993. The dreams of every Goth Girl and Boy come to life: HALLOWEEN Town!! Macabre musical numbers!! VAMPIRES, ghouls, ghost dogs! Basically, the It’s a Wonderful Life of Gothdom, dusted off each Halloween, Christmas and many nights in between to relive the story of sensitive, striped-suited Pumpkin King JACK SKELLINGTON opening a portal to Christmas Town. Knowing every word of the theme song, “This Is Halloween,” by Danny Elfman is a given. No amount of NBX merchandise is too much: not the pillowcases or socks or nightlights or lunchboxes or cookie jars. Who cares that it’s Disney? Their money gave us the Nightmare-themed HAUNTED MANSION Halloween event, and a 3-D version in 2006. Dare I say, romantic interests who do not enjoy this film should be tactfully reconsidered.
NIGHTWISH Finnish symphonic GOTHIC METAL band formed by keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen in 1996. That an act mixing metal, opera, weepy power ballads, keyboard solos and fantasy lyrics about Tolkien and STEPHEN KING could be a global commercial success probably has something to do with the fact that former singer Tarja Turunen is one of the most attractive women in rock. Despite the metal guitars, a little lightweight. Still, your preteen niece could do worse.
NIN See: Nine Inch Nails
NINE INCH NAILS American INDUSTRIAL music project led by multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/composer Trent Reznor since 1988, commonly abbreviated as NIN. Half the people reading this book worship the guy; the other half strongly believe he’s not at all Goth and would sword-fight you about it. Count me Team Reznor: as the most commercially successful industrial music artist of all time, he’s done more to put that genre out into the universe than everyone else combined. He’s genuinely emotionally tortured (or was, when he wrote hits like the universal ballad of despair “Hurt”) and bleeds his self-deprication, his depression, his social anxieties into violent, noisy, eerie, erotic sonic experiments that you can sing and dance along to. If JOY DIVISION is Goth, so is NIN. There’s also the visual presentation, from high tech stadium wizardry to the rocking of LATEX outfits at Woodstock ’94. And re-introducing PETER MURPHY to a whole new generation by booking him as opening act on the NIN farewell tour. Sure, Reznor is kind of humourless when he’s screaming out, “Head like a hole! Black as your soul!” but his canon is vast and will play on at every Goth disco long after he’s gone. I’d find it hard to believe you’re reading this book without a copy of 1994’s The Downward Spiral in your music library. (May I also suggest the 1999 double-disc masterpiece The Fragile?)
NINNY A fan of NINE INCH NAILS, used derogatively by those who don’t believe NIN to be Goth, and therefore their followers the ultimate POSEURs. Compare: Mansonite
NME New Musical Express, British music newspaper founded in 1952 (yes, really!), which covered the Goth movement since before it even had a name. For example, NME reviewed the first JOY DIVISION gig in 1979, and published an article declaring bands like SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES and SEX GANG CHILDREN to be “positive punk” in 1983. Plenty of snarky yet supportive ink on the scene followed for years. But in a 2004 special issue, they also declared Goth died in 1992. Pity.
NOIR LEATHER Retailer of fetish clothing specializing in leather, in Detroit area since 1981. Long before bondage wear and punk accessories were available at every mall in the world, Noir was catering to the BDSM and Goth crowd with provocative ads featuring its distinctive skull and crossbones logo. It maintains a strong presence in the Detroit community with its regular FETISH NIGHT, Hellbound. Loss of GOTH POINTS for sponsoring the bikini car wash though.
NORMAL, THE Recording project for Brit Daniel Miller, better known as the founder of MUTE RECORDS. A one-hit wonder known for its 1978 track “Warm Leatherette,” a provocative, pulsing minimalist electronic number about fetishizing car crashes based on the J.G. Ballard novel Crash. Covered by NIN’s Trent Reznor and PETER MURPHY on their 2006 tour.
NOSE CHAIN Jewelry chain connecting a nose ring to an earring along one side of the face. Traditionally worn by women in India, adopted by some Goths and punks in the 1980s. Rarely seen today, although singer Anna-Varney Cantodea of the German band SOPOR AETERNUS AND THE ENSEMBLE OF SHADOWS has popularized it somewhat in the modern DARKWAVE scene.
NOSFERATU 1. Romanian word for “VAMPIRE,” at least according to BRAM STOKER’s DRACULA; actual etymology is in dispute. Generally used as a synonym for vampire. 2. EXPRESSIONIST German silent film from 1922, a.k.a. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, a.k.a. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, a.k.a. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror, a.k.a. the go-to video projection for your HALLOWEEN party or club night. Directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the sinister, rat-like Count Orlok — the studio’s way of shooting what is essentially Stoker’s story without having the rights to do so. A glorious black-and-white production that, in its final scene, created the notion that vamps are killed by sunlight. Seminal. 3. Nosferatu the Vampyre, 1979 remake of the 1922 film by German director Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski. 4. English GOTHIC ROCK band formed 1988 by guitarist Damien DeVille. Carried the t
orch for unabashed SISTERS-styled sonics and spookshow concert theatrics throughout the ’90s, becoming one of the most successful second generation bands to break through in the U.S., with releases on DANCING FERRET and CLEOPATRA, and ex-DAMNED drummer Rat Scabies guesting on 1998’s Lord of the Flies. Imagine: a Goth band that actually enjoyed being Goth! Recording output has slowed and current influence is negligible but band continues to tour festivals; DeVille’s autobiography, Vampyre’s Cry: The History of a Gothic Rock Band, is forthcoming.
NO WAVE Music and art movement emanating from the New York underground in the late 1970s, a nihilistic, noisy kick at the darkness that had little to do with Goth proper but is cited by plenty of art school students as inspiration for their nonsensical film projects. See also: Lunch, Lydia
NURMI, MAILA See: Vampira
OGRE, NIVEK Canadian singer/actor (né Kevin Ogilvie, b. December 5, 1962) generally referred to as Ogre. Best known as the vocalist for SKINNY PUPPY, although the type of vocalizing he’s famous for would hardly be called “singing” by most people’s parents: guttural, heavily distorted, scream-of-conscience howling that suits his stage moniker. His live performance style is a horror film made flesh: MASKS, fake blood, throwing himself into terrifying set pieces about vivisection and other gruesome delights. Distinguished guest on albums from KMFDM, Pigface, Revolting Cocks, etc.; released solo and side-projects under the names W.E.L.T., Rx and ohGr. Recently stepped into acting, notably in the REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA musical. A prankster, a recovered drug addict, an animal rights activist, an icon.
OONTZ! The sound of a repetitive heavy dance beat, used to describe a particularly generic style of INDUSTRIAL music often heard at clubs, much to the dismay of the GOTHIC ROCK fans. Referring to something as “oontz-oontz music” is generally derogatory.
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