Gothic Music- where NOT to begin!!!

This is an informative/ completely useless rant post I've been craving on doing for quite some time now.
The reason for me going to shit all over tons of classic gothic bands right now is simply because I want to clear a point that is mistaken to be right, but essentially it is ridiculous and overrated.
What the hell am I talking about?
Alright. So as most may know, in any gothic website/ article/ youtuber there is a section that tells you what gothic music is and what bands you should listen to if you want to explore the gothic subculture. Mostly these "sections" give you an overview of how gothic music started [which is mostly well written], however there are tons of "how to"'s on where to begin with gothic music. I personally came across a lot of videos from well known gothy youtubers in the community that proved these sort of tips just because they were asked to do it. It is mostly done by my favorite youtubers, such as Allison, Sebastian Columbine or Kill Natalie I believe.

Now, I think that to tell someone he should listen to Joy Division/ Siouxsie to get into gothic music is wrong. I think that generally pointing out the mothers and fathers of gothic rock saying that you should begin ONLY with them is a mistake.
Why?
Because I believe that is elitism, and if there's something I don't like in the goth community is elitism. The first time I heard Siouxsie and Joy Division was when I was like 15-16, I was all into Classic rock and Prog Rock, and when I heard Ian Curtis' boring voice, the lack of power and energy in every song it just made me mad. And I asked myself- how can this be the gothic music I was looking for? I literary disliked Joy Division for a long time until I began to understand how amazing their music is. I also wrote about Siouxsie here, because frankly I didn't like what she did when I first got into goth. I do like her now, but I must tell you that Xmal Deutschlad always had a bigger impact on me than her.

And then there's obviously the beloved Sisters of Mercy and Christian Death, and bands that sound completely the same you can't differ them from one another. I seriously dislike those two so much, again, because in my opinion these bands are completely boring and overrated. I don't think that if you're goth you it is a must to listen to these band every amount of time, for hell's sake it's not a medication, it is completely ok to dislike a massive amount of classic gothic rock bands, because you simply don't enjoy the music. A lot of people think it is weird and impossible, but it is, and the gothic subculture has so much more to offer.
One could also find the Batcave music ridiculous and perverted, for that matter.

Another very important thing I want to mention is that one should not listen to a specific genre of music nor specific bands in that genre just because he is told to do so. If you are first getting into goth, then you should follow what your heart tells you. This is the most important thing when wanting to get into goth, especially music. I assume that people don't just fall into the subculture out of nowhere- they've been into phases [or whatever] before, listened to a hell lot of music before. So let's just put it as an example- if one came into the subculture out of Metal music [and there are a hell lot, I'm one of them] I doubt he would enjoy listening to something as calm as The Cure, who for the most part expand more than of the "gothic music" category for like 80% of their music. Maybe he would enjoy listening to Industrial music, maybe he would enjoy listening to some cheesy but romantic Lacrimosa, which then would lead him to more classy bands.

Here's an experience of mine that I would like to share: when I was exploring the gothic subculture for the first time, I was sitting days online reading tons of websites, more than a half were rubbish. But then I cam across a really old and simple website called Gothic Nederland [link in the right column] which listen a lot of bands by every genre that gothic music has to offer. At that time I didn't check out even one of these bands, but I kept that long list in mind. And then something else happened- I was influenced from the people I saw on the internet. I was spending 90% of my time reading Israeli blogs, and I noticed that most of these people mentioned several bands that they listen to. Great, I thought, I shall try these bands to be as cool as the gothy bloggers who were older than me, and maybe will have a chance to get closer to them.
That's how I've decided to listen to Bauhaus, and I only chose to listen to them first because I liked the name. That's it, nobody even told me that they were so important and blah blah blah.
And how was it? It was amazing. I spent 2 years listening basically only to them. After that I came back to Gothic Bederland to see what other band were in the list, and that's how I've started listening to Sopor Aeternus, which is also freakishly weird in comparison to other "classical gothic bands".

What I want to say here [after so many paragraphs or rambling] is that you should follow your feelings when you want to explore gothic music. There are a few people who actually listen and enjoy Einstuerzende Neubauten, an amazing band one should be deaf in order to enjoy it [I looovee them]. There are tons of amazing bands out there, but it just happens to be you won't like nor understand them for the first time. Maybe it means that you'd have to go through a certain path on musical taste in order to fully feel and enjoy the traditional gothic music. Which is fine, that's how it's supposed to be. This music is so great, that I believe one should experience different styles before getting into it, before fully understanding it. Because let's face it- we can always find something new within the gothic music, even if it's a song you heard numerous amount of times. Which is why if one is making his first steps in the subculture, the music should take the most patience in evolving and revealing itself around him.

+ Nebel Violet +