p r e f a c e I don't label myself, because ultimately if you can give it a name you can put it in a box and sell it. And that's what's happened with just about any subculture you can think of. When forced to pick a title I say I’m a Creep, and, if all goes according to plan, eventually I’ll actually be able to shop at the mall, because I’ll find a store there that sells Creep shrink-wrapped and ready to go. The following is a history lesson as well as a rant as to why I can't whole-heartedly subscribe to any of the denominations that people have tried to impose on me. goth The origins of Goth can be traced back to the early 1970's. Bands like Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, and (debatably) David Bowie. The term itself originated in the late 1970's around bands like Joy Division and Bauhaus. Through the 80's it expanded and grew, and by the early 90's had branched out to such a point that it collapsed under its own weight. Bands started being accepted under the umbrella of 'Goth' that would have been (and are) laughed at by anyone genuinely familiar with the culture. This lead to the general public's confusion over what Goth was, and what it had ever been. In the end the ignorant consensus of the masses is that “If they're wearing black, they must be a Goth” and so now mall outlets (which shall remain nameless) can sell shoddy 'Goth' merchandise to kids that don't know Banshees from Backstreet Boys. Overall it's a dead culture, with its few remaining members hiding in dark clubs arguing amongst themselves over what truly fits the archetype. punk Punk, from almost the beginning, was never a real subculture. It was more an industry-crafted ploy to get disgruntled teenagers to buy albums. The Sex Pistols were hand-picked, and then dressed up and fed lyrics by a manager, quite similarly to the New Kids on the Block ten years later. Which is why they decided they could change vocalists midstream and nobody would care, it's not like any of them were actually writing anything anyway. There were bands before the Sex Pistols, such as the Ramones or the New York Dolls, but without the Sex Pistols you never would have heard of them. And there were bands that came later that were much more talented and less prepackaged, but they wouldn't have a leg to stand on had it not been for a little London boyband with guitars. You can hate it all you want, Avril Lavigne embodies true Punk. An image and a sound specially crafted to make money off the unsuspecting masses. neo-hippie In the 1960's, America was introduced to a new breed of people. They had long hair and spoke of things like peace and free love. They also had drugs and good music. It was one of the world's only subcultures to infiltrate the mainstream, circa 1966. This led to the inevitable corporate mass-production (Hey, hey, we're the Monkees) and for a subculture based on defying establishment, this was the beginning of the end. The true culture struggled for breath through the early 1970's by continuing protests against the Vietnam War, and in 1980, when John Lennon was murdered, 'Hippie' died with him. The culture has been “revived” by kids too young to remember Reagan, let alone Nixon. Their love beads are plastic and so are they. The defining force behind a subculture is a common goal or way of thinking, and from what I can gather the only reasoning behind Neo-Hippies is that “glitter and flowers are cute”. A far cry from the ideals of social reform the true movement had.