Goth clubbing is a disappointment

For context, this is written with 7 years of experience in goth clubbing that is very specifically in Paris, France. 

Two weeks ago I went to a Twin Tribes concert after three years of being a huge fan. It was beyond perfect, and it motivated me to go to my first goth party in a year and a half. I really wanted to immerse myself a little more in my favourite music. I'm well aware that a concert and a nightclub don't have the same intensity, but still, it was nothing like I imagined.

The Darkling Tag

No wifi for several days means having plenty of time to answer to yet another goth tag! Yay! :D

After the goth tag, the ungoth confessions and the goth clichés, here I come with the darkling tag!

THE DARKLING TAG

Simple Questions

What is your favourite candle scent?

I don’t have any. I adore candles, but when it comes to scented things, I prefer perfumes and incense.

Do you have a favourite book?

Charles Baudelaire’s work is the book of my life, really. When it comes to fiction, my favourite novel is something never translated in English called Alexia (or Retrum, depending on your country) by Francesc Miralles. I also love the  classics that are Interview with the vampire and Dracula. And for non-fiction, I'm a huge fan of Caitlin Doughty's mortuary knowledge.

Are you a tea or coffee person? 

Tea, without a single hesitation! I love coffee-flavoured stuff and I can enjoy a cup of coffee when there’s half of milk and three spoons of sugar. Otherwise, I really dislike coffee.

What is your favourite brand and colour of lipstick?

Nyx’s black lipstick is the only black lipstick I have tried, but it’s so good!

What is your favourite perfume/cologne?

I have several of them. I’m very much of a perfume person. I love strong and weird scents, such as Parfume Noire’s and Adopt’s patchouli, Black Opium, or Yves Rocher’s So Elixir. But I also like delicate fruity scents like Céline Dion’s Sensational or A New World’s Gotha (something I found for 3€).

Do you have a celebrity crush?

How I discovered goth and metal

This is a biography-memoir about my discovery of goth and metal cultures. This is personal, quite long, and full of musical references. Nonetheless, my aim is not to tell you my entire evolution as a goth and a metalhead, but to tell you how I discovered these cultures and how I evolved in them in the first years.

The story of how I discovered goth and metal

In primary school, I used to barely listen to music. I was (and still am) a big fan of Indochine and t.A.T.u, and I loved a few songs by Priscilla (a French teen singer), as well as Shakira, Britney Spears or the Disney Channel trio, namely Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. But that was all. My generation grew up with MTV-like channels, but unlike the other schoolkids, the MTV-like music didn’t appeal to me. Thus I was barely listening to music. Until I found goth and metal.

It all began when I was in my last year of primary school. 

I was 10 years old (9 when the schoolyear began, being born in October). With my friends, we liked mangas. I don’t remember whether it was on the school’s bookshelves or whether a friend lended it to me (I somehow feel it was more probably the first option), but I read Death Note. I was in hypnotised by the cover of the 4th volume. And on this cover it's Misa Amane, a key character of this manga. I immediately felt attached to her and identified to her: we were both tiny blondes with blue eyes.

I am from these first generations to have IT class at school. I was learning very fast how to use a computer, so I always quickly finished the tasks we had to do. Thus I had some free time, which I killed by searching for Misa Amane wallpapers. One word was often linked to these wallpapers : ‘gothic’. What did it mean? I looked that up, and the results led me to a neverending love story.

Goth parties in Paris

Now that I have two years of experience in goth parties, I'd like to write a bit on this subject, present you a bit how it works here, in the French capital city.

This article has three sections: a general presentation of these parties, my personal opinion and a list of the parties I know.

GOTH PARTIES IN PARIS

Paris is quite clearly the capital city of the French goth community, and the offer in parties (and in concerts) isn't what's missing!

Practical infos

As the law requires it, one has to be over 18 to enter these parties. That being said, they never checked my identity, while they could have, since I appear to be younger than my age.

Just like any other party, they start at 11pm and finish at 6am, in the night from Saturday to Sunday.

These parties are either monthly, bi-monthly or yearly. Some of them are held since the 90's.

They're all easy of access (well, in Paris, basically everything is easy of access).
Some of them have night buses very close, so when you live in the suburbs you can easily leave the party before the end (and therefore before the first train).

When it comes to the price, a goth party varies between a free entry and 13€.

As far as drinks are concerned, I don't drink alcohol so I can't really say anything about it. But Red Bull / Monster prices at 3€, and water is free.

Most of parties have a left-luggage, where you can drop off your coats and bags for the price of 2-4€.

The decibels don't go beyond the limit, but to wear ear protections is never a bad idea.

Music, people, ambience

There are parties entirely dedicated to the tradgoth scene (goth rock, post-punk, coldwave, darkwave, minimal synthwave, batcave, deathrock), others are dedicated to the cybergoth scene (aggrotech, dark electro, industrial, EBM), while others are a mix of the two, generally on two different dancefloors, sometimes in an alternate DJ set.

I'd say that the average age is 35 - 40 years. I am one of the very, very rare people who are 21.

Study about goths' relationship to non-goth music

I've been goth for 11 years, and I'm very passionate about goth music. But I'm also as goth as metalhead, and I'm very passionate about many different music genres. For a long time, I wondered if it was the case for other goths too.

So a month ago, I launched a study concerning goth people's relashionship to non-goth music.

This is not done professionally, and I don't claim to be goth music expert - I believe no one can be. I am just passionate about the goth culture, and I'm a curious person (and I really enjoy doing surveys haha).

I did get a few negative comments, saying this was "silly", "not nuanced" or "unreliable", but overall response to this was clearly mainly positive, so thanks a lot! Once again, this is not meant to be profesionnal. Just pure curiosity on a small scale, made by a random goth and not by an employee at a statistics agency.

This study got 299 entries, thank you very much! I read all of them, one by one, and some of the answers were pretty much basic (which is obviously okay), while some of them were very detailed, which made it very interesting for me!

Now, let's check the results!

Study about goths' relationship to non-goth music

Results

→ In this study, "goth music" includes: post-punk, goth rock, coldwave, darkwave, minimal synthwave, dark electro / aggrotech and other music genres that might gravitate around or blend into the ones mentioned, within reason.

→ In this study, "non-goth music" includes: metal (any kind of it), rock, pop-rock, electro, dubstep, classical and neo-classical, pagan folk, visual kei, rap, pop, rnb, reggae...

- Countries: USA (48,1%), UK (15,3%), France (5,6%), Australie (4,6%), Canada (4,3%), Germany (4,5%). Western Europe : 6,3%. Northern Europe : 3%. Eastern Europe : 3,3%. Latin America : 2,6%. Asia : 1,3%. Oceania : 1,3%. Russia and South Africa : 0,3%.

- Gender: 58,9% female, 34,8% male, 6,4% other

- Average age: 32,5

- Average time being goth: 15,5 years

My 10 Goth Clichés

Hello there! Here is a tag I wanted to do for ages!


What are goth clihés?

It's a tag in which you list ten facts that make you a trve goth, especially when it comes to tastes, opinions or habits that are widely done within the goth community. This tag is completely humouristic, it's about laughing of yourself!

Goth clichés are the contrary of ungoth confessions.

Alright, let's go!

MY 10 GOTH CLICHÉS

1. I dyed my hair black. I don’t think anything is more cliché than that.

2. I love cemeteries. Well, seems I found even more cliché! I love to spend times in cemeteries and visit some when I travel. And, speaking of, the tomb I spend the most time on is...

My 10 Ungoth Confessions

Hello there! Here is a tag I wanted to do for ages!


What are ungoth confessions?

It's a tag where you list ten facts that make you a fake goth, especially when it comes to tastes, opinions or habits that go against what is usually done within the goth community. This tag is completely humouristic, it's about laughing of yourself!

Ungoth confessions are the contrary of goth clichés.

Alright, let's go!

MY 10 UNGOTH CONFESSIONS 

1. I listen to a lot of non-goth music. Goth music is my whole life, but so is metal, since I’m as goth as metalhead. And generally speaking, my music taste is very wide: spiritual Scandinavian folk, video games soundtrack, Lana Del Rey, Michael Malarkey, Björk, Fever Ray, Michael Jackson, t.A.T.u... I’m also quite an acid techno fan, and I enjoy here and there some dubstep. All of the music that I listen to is a part of my life and of my endity.

2. I don’t wear makeup everyday. Nope. For me, makeup is an accessory, just like a necklace or a belt. It’s never a necessity, and I don’t wear it to be more beautiful or to hide my eyebags or acne. Which means I don’t have many makeup tools, and when it coms to creams, foundations, concealers, paletettes and such, I find it pretty much useless. I really see makeup like an accessory. If I feel my outfit doesn’t need this accessory, I don’t put it on. I put makkeup only when I feel something’s missing to my outfit. And since in my daily life I most wear jeans and band t-shirts, I barely ever feel the need to makeup - and when I do, all I do is some eyeliner or lipstick. But full goth makeup is for full goth outfits.

3. I dyed my hair fairly recently, just about a year ago. Which means I spent 9 years of being a blonde goth. How dare I!

Being a highly sensitive person

Version française ici

This is a very personal testimony. I hope it will help you to discover and to understand what it is to be a highly sensitive person.

Please note that every highly sensitive person is a human being. Therefore, each HSP is different. What you are going to read below applies to generally speaking every HSP, but the proportions may vary from person to person. For example, as for me the emotional side has more impact than the physical side, but for someone else it could be the other way round.

BEING A HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSON

"You whiner", "it's just a song, stop it, you're making fun of yourself", "you know that he's been dead for a century, right?", "come on, dance with us, stop being picky", "you're too sensitive", "you're too fragile", "you're annoying", "pff, nonsense"... These are some words that I'm used to hearing since childhood.

It's just a few years ago that I understood and that I could put a word on a whole part of my personality: I am a highly sensitive person.

The term highly sensitive person (HSP), that has been coined in the 70's speaks very well for itself, actually: being an HSP is being literally a highly sensitive person. It's not a disease nor a mental disorder. It's a personality trait.

To be HSP is to have a hightened sensitivity, be it emotional, physical or mental. This leads to situations, reactions or emotions often judged as extreme, exagerated or ridiculous.

What follows is an explanation with examples which are personal but still valid for most HSPs.

My way of explaining is also personal. I separate manifestations of high sensitivity in four categories: it's emotional, relational, mental and physical.

EMOTIONAL

GOTH & CYBERGOTH Q&A -- ANSWERS

Heeelloooo dear people! To celebrate my 200 followers on my Instagram related to the goth culture, I launched a Q&A on this theme! Thank you very much for having participated, and here are my answers to your questions!

Half of the questions asked, actually the basic ones, were included in the Goth Tag. For questions and answers about the basis of my life as a goth, feel free to check out my Goth Tag video!

- Does anyone else in your family dress gothic? 

Not at all! And I don't see it happening in a million years. They openly hate goth clothing, hate me dressing goth and wish I'd stop. Most of them are Catholic conservatives, soooo...

- How did your close family and friends react to your modelling photoshoots?

THE GOTH TAG ! || ENG - FR

Vidéo en anglais, sous-titrée en français

Comment ajouter des mèches à une paire de cyberlox [TUTO]

[ENG] DEMONIA 815 vs 220 - Comparison and Review

FAQ - Modelling Cybergoth

[Unboxing] Huion DW69 | Graphic Tablet