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One man's opinion of the current state
of affairs in the gothic and
industrial culture, what is
killing us and why—and
what we can do to overcome the
modern scene to pave the way
for future music. |
The other week I attended a "gothic and industrial"
convention for the midwest in Sandusky,
Ohio to promote DarkSonus.com. Allegedly
the purpose of this event was to gather
scene members from Chicago, Detroit,
and Cleveland together to breed an
open exchange of ideas, make contacts,
and promote the general gothic and
industrial music and culture. However,
as with many things in the goth/industrial
world now, this convention was more
about fashion and posing rather than
a semi-professional meeting of minds.
In
fact, it was pure shit.
But
I feel that this event encapsulates
precisely what has gone wrong
with the gothic and industrial world
today, and what needs to change.
First let's dissect the major problem areas in
gothic and industrial music today,
the so-called "weak points":
1.) THE PEOPLE
2.) THE MUSIC
3.) THE MESSAGE
THE PEOPLE
First off, it seems that the people
now that fall under the goth/industrial
label are more concerned about fashion
than anything else—including
hygeine. I mean, at least scrub off
last week's powder white base before
putting on another layer. Christ people,
you aren't trees, and nobody is going
to count your makeup rings to determine
precisely how long you've been "true
goth." Nobody cares. Basically, everyone
behaved for the most part as if this
were another fashion show: try to
attract attention to yourself while
pretending not to notice if
you are getting any attention. Be
super-cool at all costs.
Now,
a typical degree of snobbery is to
be expected from anyone you don't
know at any club situation; however,
I've gotten warmer and more genuine
responses out of fraternity jocks
and sorority sluts than I got off
of these people; and to think that
I thought the purpose of this event
was to meet people to further the
scene. Nothing could be further from
the truth though... A majority of
the people I spoke with were more
interested in informing me how great
they were, how they know "so-and-so",
how they are a great DJ, or whatever
nonsense. While they did this, they
would snub you as well.
To
provide an example, I spoke with a
guitarist of the band that played
that night briefly. Well, this 22
year old whelp utterly blew me off
like he was some big fucking rock
star. As a fellow musician I wanted
some insight to how he approached
his guitar playing and all I got was
some shitty attitude like he was the
greatest fucking guitar player in
the world. Unfortunately for this
little fuck, because I didn't make
the fact known, I could play his stupid
poser ass into the dirt without concentrating—I've
played guitar for fifteen YEARS. Dickweed
was seven years old when I picked
the instrument up. The best this guy
could muster up were some riffs stolen
from Korn and root fifth powerchords.
Un-fucking-believable. To top things
off, their band was neither gothic
nor industrial, which makes me think
that whoever booked them was a fucking
moron; in general their band sound
could be described as what Limp Bizkit
would sound like if they did their
next album as a tribute to Dead Can
Dance on a Roland groovebox, while
ripping off Rage Against The Machine
at every turn.
The
shitty, fake, super-cool, elitist
attitudes of these people were simply
astounding. No wonder nothing gets
done!
Last
time I checked, I thought this scene
was about the music... which leads
me to:
THE MUSIC
The music played was infinitely fucking
terrible... not gothic... not industrial.
Shit, it sounded like goddamn London
house music that has had all of the
hooky parts surgically removed from
it. I didn't hear ONE—NOT ONE—classic
industrial or gothic song the entire
night. Whoever DJ'd that event should
have their anus sheared off one layer
of skin at a time with a razor blade
and forced to inhale the shavings.
If this is the "new gothic
industrial" music, it is time for
a renaissance even more than I could
have previously imagined. Literally,
I did not hear one good track the
entire night, which makes me wonder
whether all new goth/industrial music
that is coming out sucks colon grease,
or if the DJ's there were pretentious
assholes trying to play the most "elite"
obscure crap on the market?
Which brings me to the following observation:
GOTH AND INDUSTRIAL SHOULD NOT MIX WITH TECHNO
Now
all you musicians out there reading
this, remember that. Imbed it into
your brain RIGHT FUCKING NOW. Never
forget it. Throw away your 909 samples,
drum machines, and forget about anything
that hints of 303... don't do it.
It's
bad enough that droves of ravers,
upon the death of their scene, decided
that it would be "hip" to join the
goth/industrial crowd, but did they
have to bring their idiotic music
with them? I mean, I'm against DJ's
of any type and wish that goth/industrial
would focus more on live bands than
meat-market clubbing and DJ's spinning
whatever nonsense they think is popular
and/or elite. But this new techno-influenced
goth/industrial shit is terrible.
Hell... I may have even heard some
hip-hop influence in there as well.
Let
me tell you this: you will know when
goth or industrial is totally bankrupt
and dead when it starts taking on
a rap influence. Trust me.
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Burn down the disco! Hang the blessed
DJ, because the music they
constantly play says nothing
to me about my life.
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While we're on the subject of do's and don'ts,
here is another:
GOTH AND INDUSTRIAL SHOULD NOT MIX
Yeah
you heard me right. Goth and industrial
should not be combined, no matter
how "cool" you think it is. They are
like near opposites—fairly similar
but wholly and completely different.
In fact, I'm beginning to believe
that any self-respecting industrial
musician should avoid the modern gothic
scene altogether as a pointless, mindless
exercise in pomposity, pretentiousness,
and posery. As far as scenes go I'm
all for industrial moving as far away
from gothic culture as humanly possible.
Which brings me to:
THE MESSAGE
The content of goth/industrial music
nowadays is pathetic. The ideas and
lyrics that are fawned off on the
unsuspecting crowd are just meaningless
or contrived theft of other artists.
At best all I see now could best be
described as "shitty 14 year old whiny
girl poetry"... at worst, well...
does it get much worse? Well, if I
have to answer, at worst we are seeing
a lot of angst punk-pop sentiment
mixed with a load of self-pity. Nauseating.
If you rip off lyrics
from these guys, you just
suck ass.
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Whatever happened to political lyrics in industrial?
Or artsy lyrics in goth music? Whatever
happened to thought provoking subject
matter? I can understand why many
of these younger musicians may have
difficulty coming up with anything
of this ilk as I will admit it can
be difficult to provoke thoughts if
you have none of your own. But, I
thought that gothic and industrial
music tended to weed out these conformists
and sophists? The way it is now, it
seems that all I see or meet are these
types in droves being pushed by the
labels.
In
the good old days at the height of
the "majestic" gothic and industrial
scene of the late 80's almost everything
was political. You know, it is getting
to the point where I don't care if
I agree with your politics or activism
or not—just try to infuse your
songs with meaning! And if you preach
something don't do a Rage Against
the Machine and practice the exact
opposite; say it and fucking mean
it.
I
think people are too afraid to offend
people nowadays, too cowed by the
politically correct witchhunters,
to dare say anything intelligent anymore.
Let's face it: most intelligent thoughts
(or any thoughts) could potentially
piss someone off. Too fucking bad
for them, I say. (FUCK GOD IN HIS
MILBURY ANYBODY?)
As
far as goth and industrial musicians
pussyfooting around possibly dangerous
topics... what a joke. NOBODY LIKES
YOU! You are a goth, or rivethead
for Pete's sake! Why should you care
if you offend anyone? You are
offensive by not conforming to the
majority (even if you conform to a
minority). Face it, you may as well
take advantage of being an outsider
and offend people left and right.
Hell, it is fun to fuck with people
while expressing your honest opinions.
In fact, I would venture to say that
a thought isn't a thought unless someone
somewhere would kill you for it. Strive
to be an antichrist or something polemical.
We are in deep shit people, very
deep shit indeed. If these rancid
fake attitudes don't change we are
absolutely screwed for having any
type of scene that we would want to
be part of. In fact, things are so
corroded now that I don't think half
of these TRL Hot Topic goth-industrial
weenies would recognize true music
if they heard it. In fact, I think
most of them would try to entertain
their BD/S&M jerk-off fantasies
rather than listen to the music anymore.
People, as the musicians, we have
to raise the standard and settle for
nothing less than the best.
-James Meeker
