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Product Description
Product Description
This is the first book to look at the impact of the goth scene worldwide, from its origins right through to the present day. From the UK's sprawling post-punk scene, Japan's highly visual movement, the USA's deathrock explosion and Germany's extremely popular Schwarze Szene, Worldwide Gothic explores how they all came about and the influence they've had on contemporary music and fashion. Spat out of punk at the tail end of the 1970s, goth became a major subculture in the UK with bands like Siouxsie And The Banshees and The Sisters Of Mercy scoring Top Ten hits and its fashion inspiring catwalk collections. After the scene died down in the early 1990s, it spread out to Europe where it attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and became assimilated with other muscial genres. This book also looks at how goth is now returning to its roots now with the emergence of dark rock and indie bands who pay homage to gothic greats like Bauhaus and Joy Division.
About the Author
Natasha Scharf is a music journalist who specialised in alternative and gothic music. She was the editor of underground gothic publication Meltdown and has subsequently written for Metal Hammer, Prog, Classic Rock and Terrorizer magazines. She co-produced a documentary on the goth scene for BBC Radio 1 called Beyond The Pale and has been interviewed about the scene many times in the media, including on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. She frequently DJs at gothic events across the globe.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Somehow this book successfully manages to concisely and entertainingly capture the origins and evolution of Goth throughout the world.
Of particular interest is the origins section which neatly sidesteps the more controversial aspects of the beginnings of Goth through the use of interviews with the various influential people, promoters and bands who were actually there at the time and their own views on this issue.
Written in an entertaining and easy-to-follow style, this book is also full of fascinating information, history and opinions as well as featuring beautiful full colour photographs throughout.
A "must have" book for anyone interested in the subject and a worthy accompanyment to Mick Mercer's "Gothic Rock" series.
Of particular interest is the origins section which neatly sidesteps the more controversial aspects of the beginnings of Goth through the use of interviews with the various influential people, promoters and bands who were actually there at the time and their own views on this issue.
Written in an entertaining and easy-to-follow style, this book is also full of fascinating information, history and opinions as well as featuring beautiful full colour photographs throughout.
A "must have" book for anyone interested in the subject and a worthy accompanyment to Mick Mercer's "Gothic Rock" series.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Modern Goth emerged first in Britain, and of course long before that Britain was the land of ruins and Horace Walpole. Almost everything written about the Goth movement is UK-focused and English-language; and yet the biggest festivals are European (I gather there were about 25,000 souls at Leipzig this year as opposed to the fifth-to-a-quarter of that who find their way to Whitby). In "Worldwide Gothic" Natasha Scharf sets out to tell a broader story than anyone has attempted hitherto. The real triumph of her book is to assemble accounts of the emergence of Goth scenes in Europe and beyond, and how, in Germany and Japan particularly, Goth shook free of British influence and generated something different. The list of international interviewees shows how Ms Scharf has worked hard to build up a convincing picture of the global spread and generic sprawl of Goth by speaking to people who might actually know what they're talking about, and I don't believe anyone has put this all down on paper before - at least not in one place. The sections on the tiny and courageous Goth scenes of the Middle East (pp.86-9) are particularly revealing and there are some insightful passages on the role of the Internet spreading Gothic style in the 1990s (p.63), and on the way Goths (at least in the UK) now interact in more socially complex ways than merely thinking of themselves as adherents of sorts of music (pp.95-6).
That leads into my one main criticism, which is that with its kaleidoscopic cataloguing of bands and musical genres, "Worldwide Gothic" depicts Goth musicians as subultural 'producers' with everyone else appearing only as consumers; I don't think this is what actually happens. As the Appendix points out, once the G-word made its appearance at some point in the early '80s it immediately bolted the nascent musical genre onto something bigger and older, meaning that the music would be continually contaminated by the 'Gothic' culture beyond as people discovered that for themselves; bands and their fans don't just come out of nowhere, after all. The most historically interesting bit of the book is the account of the pagan scene's role in the revival of British Goth (pp.51-2), which neatly shows the complex interaction of bands, promoters, and essentially non-Goth events (there isn't any necessary connection between Goth and paganism). The growing elision between Goth, Steampunk and Vintage scenes is similar: it certainly isn't bands leading that. "Worldwide Gothic" is very sumptuous visually with lots of good photographs; it would have benefited from closer editing, and if any book ever cried out for an index, it's this, but sadly indexing is a distant luxury these days.
Reservations aside, this is a very worthwhile and creditable addition to writing about Gothic, and gathering all this abstruse material together is a huge achievement. Hopefully it will mark a starting-point rather than a full stop.
That leads into my one main criticism, which is that with its kaleidoscopic cataloguing of bands and musical genres, "Worldwide Gothic" depicts Goth musicians as subultural 'producers' with everyone else appearing only as consumers; I don't think this is what actually happens. As the Appendix points out, once the G-word made its appearance at some point in the early '80s it immediately bolted the nascent musical genre onto something bigger and older, meaning that the music would be continually contaminated by the 'Gothic' culture beyond as people discovered that for themselves; bands and their fans don't just come out of nowhere, after all. The most historically interesting bit of the book is the account of the pagan scene's role in the revival of British Goth (pp.51-2), which neatly shows the complex interaction of bands, promoters, and essentially non-Goth events (there isn't any necessary connection between Goth and paganism). The growing elision between Goth, Steampunk and Vintage scenes is similar: it certainly isn't bands leading that. "Worldwide Gothic" is very sumptuous visually with lots of good photographs; it would have benefited from closer editing, and if any book ever cried out for an index, it's this, but sadly indexing is a distant luxury these days.
Reservations aside, this is a very worthwhile and creditable addition to writing about Gothic, and gathering all this abstruse material together is a huge achievement. Hopefully it will mark a starting-point rather than a full stop.
Format:Paperback
Just finished the book & highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in a comprehensive & incisive look at the evolution of gothic music & culture.
It can't have been easy to wrangle the 30 years of bands, countries & sub styles but Natasha has covered pretty much everything.
Must dig out my old Meltdown magazines now for a bit of nostalgia...
It can't have been easy to wrangle the 30 years of bands, countries & sub styles but Natasha has covered pretty much everything.
Must dig out my old Meltdown magazines now for a bit of nostalgia...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
amazing source for gothic music!
It is what the title says...gothic in all over the world!Nice pictures and lot of information about the gothic music except the traditional English wave!
Published 10 months ago by doomedinsorrow
Ruddy Good
I have not stopped reading this book since I bought it. Its a fascinating read from start to finish. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. R. J. Macleod
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