I should say from the start here that there’s no real conclusion to what I’m about to say. It’s just a little constellation of ideas that I feel like sharing. If you have any musings to add, please do.
Months ago I was listening to the Disgraceland podcast about Courtney Love. They were talking about her father, a road manager for the Grateful Dead, and about her experience with hippie drug culture. I can’t remember which exact part got me thinking about what hippies and punks have in common, but I’ve been thinking about it on and off ever since. I’ve been thinking they’re both, at their core, responses to pain and alienation.
The hippie movement promised an end to pain and alienation through hallucinogens and idealism. LSD and marijuana would loosen your inhibitions and show you a new and more enlightened way of living, and once enough people put that into action there would be no more pain. If you couldn’t defeat war and poverty with love, you could at least drop out of society and follow the Grateful Dead in a pot-laced cloud of bliss.
The punks, on the other hand, never promised anything. Punk sees your pain, feels your alienation, and screams with you. The second that scream turns into anything else–a plan of action, a cry of sorrow, anything–it kind of stops being punk and becomes something else.
This got me thinking that a whole lot of music is a response to pain. Pop music and hair metal are usually distractions from and denials of pain. Country (older country anyway) tells you you’re not alone and offers to cry with you over your pain. Blues complains with you and sometimes laughs with you about the pain of life. Soul often encourages you to stay strong in the face of pain.
And what does goth do? I think goth offers to transform your pain into art and drama. It takes your ordinary ugly pain and shows you how beautiful and romantic it can be with the right costumes and lighting. It’s an intriguing offer, don’t you think?
Oddly Cultured 
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