How do you feel about it?

[KontanKarite]

Have you ever stopped to think about some of the things we do and such?

I've been thinking about how everything these days seems to be at our fingertips. Knowledge is not denied to at least the ones that post here and have free access to internet and the like.

But something is striking me as strange.

I don't know about you guys, but have you felt that maybe we have succumbed to some kind of quantification?

It's hard to pinpoint what I'm trying to say. Take Drop Dead Magazine for example. Apparently, they're the "best" thing to keep you generally updated on the going ons of deathrock and goth rock.

It really makes you wonder, doesn't it? I mean, really. It's so damned simple these days. If you REALLY wanted to BE a goth/deathrocker, all you'd really have to do is emulate the fashions you'd see in magz like that and listen to the bands they push on you as goth and death rock.

Maybe I'm being harsh and I'm not denouncing communication, but I've been feeling that lately, things are just so easy anymore.

Even yet, how can it be so empowering to be a part of something when it's so simple to be it?

I guess what I'm saying is that the underground really isn't so underground anymore. In fact, I think that the mainstream big music companies isn't what "killed" or removed the very thing of underground anything, I think it was an advancement in communication.

These days, I think about what it actually means to be a goth or a punk or a rivithead or what have you and honestly, I don't think it means a damned thing these days. Hell, you can find all the underground music you want and then some.

What do you guys think? Do you think advancements in communication empowers underground cultures and events or do you think it's just made these things more accessible at the cost of losing that novelty of actually doing something different or making some sort of change or movement?

I guess what bugs me is that technically, the underground stuff is becoming more big business these days. It has become a product moreso than a way of life. I think in some way, even people who indulge in counter culture has fallen victim to the IKEA and Walmart mentality of... whatever.

What does your identity mean when it's as easy as knowing what words to look up on the internet and finding the appropriate big business that sells your fishnet shirts and new rocks?

You do realize that the best that we really have is our tendencies to be DIY oriented and a better knowing of one's self.

So what's your feelings on it?

[Delkaetre]

I think it can be very unfortunate when people just latch onto things for the sake of fashion or fad. But those who do then tend to drop away fairly quickly as well. You don't often get life-long poseurs.
The increase in communication means that great bands who deserve attention sometimes really do get it within the scene, and don't just fade away and die. It would be great if small bands could do what they do for free, but they're people and they need to pay bills- they need people to know about them and buy their CDs.
I don't like the way there are so many mass-produced cookie cutter kids out there, but they only have two paths in the end- they either learn about the culture they've been trying to emulate and finally manage to 'get' it and join in rather than lurking looking silly on the peripherals, or they grow out of it and go away.
Communication has led to the creation of spookykids. But it's also meant that people who live in isolated areas, who'd never have otherwise had a chance, can now find music, aesthetic and dare I say culture that appeals to them and fits them better than anything else.
Double edged sword, really.

[KontanKarite]

That's what I'm trying to say though.

Sure, you have the spookykids and mallgoths. But at the end of the day, even if we're investing in the "correct" or "real" anything, we're still succumbing to... I dunno... some kind of quantification. Some sort of simplification.

Drop Dead Festival? Come the fuck on. Convergence? Please. Though I would love to go to these things... a part of me just kinda feels like there's no artistic drive or people are sticking so much to formula and what is correct that well... it strikes me as odd.

[Methadrine]

One thing that strikes me is that the "Internet generation" of Goths are so bloody depressed and teeming with mental conditions. The goths I knew in Ye Old Days (that is, before and during the spread of the internet) was more of a "wow, life's fun! We might dress black, but do we rock or what!". I think the net is to blame for this, since it has tendencies to spread trends.

As Delkaetre said, it's a double edged sword. You gain some, and you lose some.

Mentioning a good thing about readily available information is that we probably wouldn't have heard Address Unknown if it weren't for the easy share of information.

[KontanKarite]

That is entirely true. I think in some way, the Internet kinda amplified or streamlined the world.

But Festivals? Huge events? Sure, they're fun. But it doesn't strike me as what being goth or just... I dunno, an individual is all about. Obviously these things are nothing more than a huge attempt to capitalize on the underground. These people... basically, are selling YOU to yourself. It just strikes me as so damned weird.

[Valerius]

What you're trying to say is a bit vague, but I think I get the gist of it. Everything's at our fingertips now, and we need only type in a few things on our computer to get more than we need, and then some. It does make things easier for us as a subculture, but yeah, you get those bad apples in a crate along with the good ones.

These magazines and whatnot are just the product of someone's ambition, marketing something new and strange to people hungry for newer and ever-uncommon things. Thanks to media, nothing much shocks people anymore, but there are people who are just gullible, shallow and desperate enough to sink their fingers into anything that makes them feel special, not because they want to be for its own self-evident reason.