14/05/2022
Sunday 22nd May is World Goth Day. This date was chosen to co-incide with a 2009 subcultural day held on the BBC’s “alternative” music channel Radio 6-Music, and Goth Day is a chance for the culture of goths to be celebrated. Gothic music and its associated subculture developed out of the punk and new wave explosion of indie music and magazines at the end of the seventies. Some people consider the track “Bela Lugoi’s Dead” by Bauhaus as the original goth single, but other early influences include Joy Division, The Cure and the Damned. Gothic culture also revived nineteenth century goth literature, art and fashion and today the goth scene includes many subgenres. One thing is certain though, and that is that goth is broadly welcoming of allcomers. Women, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities and neurodiverse people are all explicitly welcome in the vast majority of goth clubs. BCFM’s Terry has worked with goths when involved in pirate radio in Aberystwyth many years ago and his friends Clarissa and William Spanker presented a goth programme featuring everything from underground dance goth to lighter music such as Dead can Dance and the Cocteau Twins. He notes that in many smaller towns, goth clubs also welcome punks, heavy metallers and gay people amongst many others. In many repressive cultures, goths are treated as subversive by the state and so World Goth Day is also a time to express joy in subcultural freedom and to advocate for equality and diversity. For ideas on what to do to mark Goth Day visit www.worldgothday.com
