Goths are so back

In this newfangled world of cores and aesthetics, it appears that goths – the original alt subculture – are back from beyond the grave. Admittedly, the term has lazily been used to signify a fashion trend’s edginess in recent years (see: ‘pastel goth’, ‘health goth’, ‘goth core’) but it now seems actual, genuine goths are stomping back into our hearts.

This week, Dance Moms’ alumni Jojo Siwa disturbed the internet with her Kiss-esque red carpet rebrand, complete with jet-black lips and extreme face paint (Kiss frontman Gene Simmons approved the look himself, deeming it both “cool” and “extraordinary”). Last week, cosmetics brand e.l.f also released a corpse paint collaboration with canned water brand Liquid Death, and the coffin-shaped vault containing the full range sold out in a flash. Part of the launch featured Julia Fox, who was shot walking a Saint Bernard while decked out in head-to-toe goth get-up and a face of expertly applied corpse paint. On her Instagram, she posted a BTS image, where you can see the exaggerated eyeliner wing leaking out through her hair to create a demonic halo effect, thanks to NYC hair artist John Novotny.

According to data pulled from Google Trends, interest around the term ‘goth’ has also been steadily increasing over the last five years in the UK. The realm of entertainment is always a good signifier of the wider cultural climate, and the film industry alone has been teasing remakes and sequels for cult classics on goth mood boards everywhere, including Beetlejuice, The Crow and Nosferatu. This is presumably following the success of the Netflix Addams Family reboot, Wednesday.

Diablo Cody’s new horror Lisa Frankenstein, where a teen girl falls in love with a reanimated Victorian corpse, is also undeniably gothic. When asked to give each character an anthem for Spotify, Cody explained that “Lisa is a person who is very quiet but has the stirrings of rage inside of her”, before assigning her Bela Lugosi’s “Dead” by Bauhaus.

Even a prime-time show like Coronation Street now has a token goth character (Nina, played by Mollie Gallagher). A mainstream soap choosing to reflect youth culture in this way hasn’t really been seen since Hollyoaks had a pair of onscreen emos (aptly named Newt and Rae) at the height of the subculture’s popularity in 2006.

Of course, with each new generation of goth-affiliated icons comes the tragic wails of snobbery from an army of sad-sack gatekeepers hell-bent on dictating the rules of how to be a goth. A hill I would personally be hung, drawn and quartered on is that goth culture is just pop culture in a different and slightly more morose form. You still have to buy into it, opting for Demonias and New Rocks rather than Uggs and Birkenstocks, and purchase tickets for Download Festival and Bloodstock rather than Glastonbury and Coachella. It’s all capitalism at the end of the day. And this is coming from a goth-adjacent agéd greebo with an office job. I will forever love goths, but have never been able to tolerate the victim complex – if Finnish masked metallers Lordi want to be in Vogue Scandinavia holding Prada tote bags, that’s on them.

There was a similar backlash when Wednesday launched in 2022, and just like clockwork, the same happened when the trailer for The Crow remake was released, as the original had such a monumental impact on the subculture’s clothing and music. The Bill Skarsgärd rendition was criticised for its aesthetic choices, which came across more Soundcloud rapper than 90s, Brandon Lee-esque goth (though that’s genuinely how a lot of alternative men look nowadays). But goth has seen endless offshoots since the original film’s release in 1994, and should be allowed to move along with the times as with everything else. 

Last week, TikToker and podcaster Clios World posited that Hollywood loves to promote these fake edgy aesthetics to depoliticise the youth and distract from their lack of intellectual substance. Maybe there’s something in that – maybe this is simply a Big Goth conspiracy, a way to distract us all from violent right-wing governments, a cost of living crisis and impending planetary destruction. Or maybe it’s just another rapidly recycled trend which means absolutely nothing. One thing is for sure: the great return of the ‘what counts as a poser’ discourse, which never fails to lure goths from out of their crypts and onto the messageboards, proves that – at least for now – goths are so back.