It’s that time of year again when you get to dress in all black, when the peculiars come out of the woodwork, and when it’s fun to embrace everything spooky. Halloween is a holiday that allows for leeway to show one’s unique individual self. And everyone knows that no group does all things macabre like goths do.
Halloween has been around for much longer than any modern goth criteria has, but we can thank the aesthetics of October 31st and Goth for the same need in our hearts for everything dark and stormy. When discussing goth culture it is much simpler to talk of origin rather than opinion or what exactly it means. Even then, certain points of its timeline are debatable. Was it all started when the fictional novel Dracula was written or when the band Bauhaus came out with the hit song Bela Lugosi is Dead? We may never know.
Features of both the holiday and the subculture have deep roots in the supernatural world and the world of the dead. The mutual theme in Gothic writing/music and Halloween can be summed up as the elements of what is deemed scary. In both, topics such as horror, death, monsters, and such characters are strongly present.
What makes the gothic scene different from mainstream horror and your everyday Halloween enjoyers is the appreciation of the taboo and unsettling. Whether it is listening to bands like sisters of Mercy or Siouxsie and the Banshees, using white facepaint instead of foundation, or making head-turning fashion statements. Goth is about defying the stereotypes, even if it’s just what you are expected to look like, listen to through your earbuds, and what you are expected to wear to school.
Post-punk is more artistic and poetic, but it holds the same rebellion and passion for the expression of one’s own beliefs as the original punk scene with the battle jackets and tattered political patches. Goth and its outward expressions like music and fashion are all reflections of what it means to an individual person making it impossible to give an exact definition. At its core, it’s an artsy way of self-expression for the misfits of the world who refuse to listen to the top 40 hits on the radio.
Plenty if not most goth enjoyers don’t wear black every day, only listen to scary music, and are definitely not somber individuals. They probably won’t even recognize themselves as goth much like I do and I’m writing an article about it. But to anyone reading this, who shares this special love for this time of year because it gives them a chance to wear their black lipstick and be themselves in a way that makes them feel good, I hope you find a really cute black top the next time you go thrifting.
