NeoVictorian Experimental Group A-1

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What is Goth ?

An interesting question. I think I've successfully answered "What is Ambient" and "What is downtempo", so I tackled "What is Goth", both musically and culturally.

Lots of people seemed confused on the concept of "Gothic" music, because saying that all Goths listen to the same music is as saying all model railroad builders listen to the same music. or, sans the whimsy, all hotrodders listen to the same thing. In answer to that question, I received "Metal", "Death metal", "Classical" and "Opera" as choices. Until one day, a self proclaimed Goth girl looked at me and said "I thought you weren't goth!"

That really worked on me. I'm not "Goth" because "Gothic" is 14th century Austrian. Now of course modern Goths are broken into other groups - Cybergoth, fantagoth and vampiric goths (To name just a few). Overall the term "Goth" should be "Neo Gothic". Now it starts to come together.

My own lifestyle is "Steampunk". Or, as I like to neatly state "Neo Victorian". After further research into it, I find out that Steampunkers are classified "Goth" (Victorian Goth, Steampunk Goth or the like)

I've tried unsuccessfully to create "Goth" pandora strands. They turn into Emo style music, or they turn into Metal. There doesn't seem to be anything that reflects what the Goth attitudes are, or what the culture is best represented by.

Enter "Alu". Alu was played on WSHU, 91.1 CT after a Hearts of Space episode. Alu spoke to me EXACTLY what "Steampunk" music should be, with a death-oriented vision. Treating death not as violent, nor as sad - just treating it as "something to cope with, and something to ultimately embrace". This is what differs NeoGoth from NeoVic. Goths are angry about the world, Vics want to fix it and maintain it. With Alu set as a Pandora seed, I was moving forward to uncover the world of "Happy Goth".

It lasted about 10 minutes. Pandora was only able to show me about 12 songs or so, and then it just looped. In the past, when I add a second seed (a double helix?) I always wind up with a mutated DNA strand that falls apart (entropic aging) too quickly. The station presented "Kerli" but only played one of her songs. I decided to add more Kerli, so I recursively seeded it, and then became reminded of a few Sarah Brightman pieces that I thought would perfectly keep the Metal / Rock out of the DNA strand.

So far - so good. This station is good. You'll hear orchestral strings, peaceful mood altering sways and blips - and the occasional calliope sounds of bells and brass - the true Victorian instruments.

Let me know what you think !