What are goths? Fashion, music and more examined in Goth: A History, book by The Cures Lol Tolhur

Publish date: 2024-03-20

It follows his first book, the 2016 memoir Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys.

Over the phone from the deserts of southern California in the US, Tolhurst says inspiration for this second book came from a lack of understanding.

“People had [goth] confused. They saw the outward signs, the dark clothing, and they thought that was what it was all about: gloom and doom. And it’s actually a lot more subtle than that,” he explains.

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Ask for a definition, however, and that misses crucial nuance.

“It’s not really a fashion,” he says. “It’s more of a philosophy in a way of being, a way of approaching the world. And I think that ensures its longevity. It’s malleable, but its sort of basic premise is always the same.”

In Goth: A History, Tolhurst says he was inspired by the writings of Joan Didion – and so he weaves in first-person accounts while exploring goth music’s origins from punk’s anarchy.

The main difference between the two genres, as well as goth’s idiosyncrasies from other rock music, is that goth is about “love and death” in the same song, and “that the ideas are generally about the invisible and internal in life more than the external and visible”, he said.

From there, the book dives into gothic literature and the French existentialists, whom Tolhurst considers formative to the subculture. That leads to an abridged music history from the progenitors: musicians such as The Doors, Suicide, Nico, David Bowie.

The book then looks at goth icons including Joy Division, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. It also explores the goth scene through famed goth clubs like the Batcave in London, havens for the LGBTQ community.

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That leads to a look at modern goth groups such as Nine Inch Nails, the Belarusian post-punks Molchat Doma and beyond.

Throughout Goth: A History, Tolhurst shares charming anecdotes, like a scene where Bauhaus members enter a New York bar for the first time, find singer Iggy Pop sitting there, and become so excited to see their hero that frontman Peter Murphy starts tickling him.

There is humour in goth, after all – another misconception Tolhurst works to correct.

At the end, Tolhurst returns to the philosophical questions surrounding “goth” – what it means that “goths” tend to stay that way through adulthood and what can be learned from the nonconformist communities it creates.

Certain trends emerge within that exploration – and certain geographies. The musical story largely takes place in England and Los Angeles, the latter of which Tolhurst has called home for a few decades now.

LA was also home to the psych-rock band The Doors, who were the first group described as “gothic rock” – by critic John Stickney in 1967.

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Tolhurst theorises that England became ground zero for the movement because of many factors, but the grey skies, rainy weather and Gothic architecture cannot be discounted.

Elsewhere, he draws connections between goths and Catholicism, a relationship Tolhurst believes goes beyond a shared iconography and morbidity.

“Catholicism is brimstone, hellfire,” he says. “Good music tends not to surface when things are going along great and everything’s tickety-boo.”

If there is a single takeaway, it is that Tolhurst views goth as interdisciplinary – an ideology that spans different art forms, mediums and generations, one that shape-shifts with whoever finds interest in it.

“I’m showing people that I’m grateful to something, a way of being, a way of life, and a way of responding to the world,” he says of the book. “Which, in the end, is pretty much the whole point of being alive.”

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