Music fans love a good subgenre. They like being able to specify quite particularly what they are into, what they stand for, and conversely, what they are against.
A year or so ago, I wrote an article on the Greatest Goth Albums of All Time. As much as goths are pretty easy to spot in a crowd, their music isn’t always quite so obvious. This becomes only clearer when you start to understand the amount of goth subgenres that exist today.
It seems high time that somebody waded into the murk to sort it all out and attach labels to everything.
Adopt your best ‘I’m not impressed’ expression and follow me into the desolate and yet charmed woodland that is Goth Subgenres!
The Goth Subgenres at a Glance
Trad Goth
The typical dark, romantic goth look, but not taken to a particular conclusion like Victorian or whatever. A Trad Goth will likely look somewhat vampiric. Females will have Siouxsie Sioux and Morticia Addams as inspiration, and males stray between Lord Byron and Eric Draven. Trad Goths aren’t too far from Victorian Goths in lots of ways, but they’ll allow themselves to wear black band t-shirts (selected bands only) and Doc Martens.
Victorian Goth
Somewhat self-explanatory, this one. Victorian Goths like to dress in a sort of paradoxical, slightly sexier version of Victorian garb. The big puff skirts, petticoats and corsets are there for the girls, whilst the boys like longline frock jackets, top hats and twirly moustaches. Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula movie is the touchstone here. Musically, anything goth goes, but don’t expect too much dancing with those skirts!
Steampunk
Steampunk is goth? Yes, definitely. I suppose it should be called ‘Steamgoth’ but that’s hardly going to catch on now, is it? Steampunk is very similar to Victorian Goth, except the concept - which comes from the William Gibson & Bruce Sterling novel The Difference Engine - posits that computers showed up about a century sooner than in ‘real life’ (why did I put that in quotes? It IS real life!), and sent the Industrial Revolution off in a different direction.
In practice, Steampunk is ‘brown goth’, and includes lots of clockwork paraphernalia and wind-up doodads as accessories, all of which is designed to look handy and practical but in fact does nothing.
Industrial Goth
Skinny Puppy, Front 242, 3Teeth, Ministry…industrial metal bands who have computer-created sounds in the music and at least a nod to electronic dance music. That’s what industrial goths are into, and they prefer the term ‘rivetheads’ but that doesn’t mean I’ll be using that term.
To be clear, not all industrial music is ‘goth’: I’d personally not put the likes of Throbbing Gristle or Test Dpt in a goth basket, even if they do play well in such sandpits. Industrial Goth is what film directors think plays in all edgy nightclubs, filled with Matrix extras who either dance too hard or not at all.
Cybergoth
You know that famous video of those people dancing underneath that bridge? I mean, if you don’t, I’ve put it right below this paragraph, so have a look. Anyway, that lot? Cybergoths. If the Industrial goths are Matrix extras, then Cybergoths are Matrix baddies who took the ‘rave’ pill and have dedicated their lifestyle to sombre expressions and hyperactive dance moves.
Musically, there’s less of the guitar riffs and more of the ‘Euro-synths’ going on here, but still with a wash of moody antisociality.
Goth Metal
Goth Metal people are a mix between Industrial Goths and Trad Goths. Lots of metal bands who stray into ‘graveyard imagery’ could fit in here. Paradise Lost are a good example: their music is dark and goth-adjacent, though not strictly ‘goth’ like Bauhaus or whomever. Most goth music isn’t as hard as metal, so when moshers go semi-vampire, they are goth metallers. Type O Negative are another touchstone here.
Soft Goth
Goths are notoriously unaccepting of fairweather fans. They see anything less than full absorption into their ways are intolerable, and so Soft Goths have a hard time from more hardcore goths. Soft goths will enjoy Tim Burtonesque aesthetics and will listen to music that has a dark twist, but will not be able to answer obscure questions from cross goths at parties about Sex Gang Children sounddesk bootlegs. They may also have the shame and audacity to like other genres of music!
Dark Cabaret
I expect this is pretty self-evident, too. Carnivalesque, vaudeville-referencing but emphasising ‘jaunty darkness’ and ‘self-conscious hotness’ in roughly equal measure. The Dark Cabaret aesthetic brings in a punk sensibility and is perhaps a subsection of the Victorian goth style. An example of Dark Cabaret might be The Dresden Dolls, or indeed Emilie Autumn to a degree.
Ethereal Wave
My take in Ethereal Wave is basically this: showgaze with a dark romantic twist and an aesthetic that looks towards goth more than anything else. This Ascension and Scarlett Leaves are effective proponents of this scene.
Southern Goth
This is coming back in a big way, thanks to artists such as Ethel Cain. Southern Goth is related to the literary subgenre Southern Gothic, which includes writers like Flannery O’Connor and Donna Tartt. In terms of music, there’s a nod towards synth gothic darkness, but only in the context of semi-Americana guitar music, with a distinct ‘Alt rock’ edge. Visually, it’s sepia pics of farmhouses, dirt yards, serious men and sad women wearing bustles and corsets. Evocative? Hugely.
Cheer Up, Goth
There you go: a guide to the subsections of goth that are currently, in some form or another, wriggling around out there in the dark. Goth is simultaneously a very simple cliche and a very varied network of subcultures, so how you see things and how it all fits in together are enormously dependent on your own position and experience.
What’s true is that most people who are into the “goth” aesthetic will appreciate most of these subgenres (with the exception of Soft Goths, the poor souls) to one degree or another. Goth is a rich tapestry of expression; a fun way of gazing into the darkness with a smile, whether that smile is inner or outer!
Embrace the darkness. Just don’t go in half-baked: they want full immersion!
