Humans need pigeonholes to order the world, and even in a subculture like the gothic scene people try to define themselves and others. The result is numerous funny or even serious illustrations floating around the internet that are supposed to explain gothic types. However, anyone who moves around the scene will quickly realise that all styles have more or less mixed over the decades. Nevertheless, goths orient their outfits to certain original types and to new influences. These are some of them:
Humans need pigeonholes to order the world, and even in a subculture like the Goth scene, people try to define themselves and others. The result is numerous funny or even serious illustrations floating around the internet that are meant to explain gothic types. However, anyone who moves around the scene will quickly realise that all styles have more or less mixed over the decades. Nevertheless, goths orientate themselves with their outfit on certain original types and on new influences. These are some of them:
New Romantic
Steve Strange, an art student and later the lead singer of the band Visage, is responsible for the New Romantics style. He was a fixture on the London club scene in the late 70s, hosting Bowie and Roxy Music nights. At the door of his Blitz Club, he only let through guests who wore the most outrageous outfit possible. David Bowie was the early model for this idea with his stage character Ziggy Stardust. If you watch the official video "Ashes to Ahes" by David Bowie, you will also discover Steve Strange and some other visitors to the club in typical New Romantic outfits. Make-up and outfits also play a big role in the videos of the band Visage (Visage, Fade to Grey).
The New Romantics came together because of fashion, even though they shared a similar musical taste of new wave, synth-pop and disco beats. Adam Ant and Boy George were among the famous representatives of this genre. One of the characteristic features was the visual blurring of the sexes. Incidentally, Adam Ant's romantic pirate look was created at the time by fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.
Extravagant, decadent and narcissistic - these were the characteristics with which the New Romantics were described in public and they were not particularly popular - neither in the press nor in society. Not even in the New Wave scene did they meet with great love, because they did not put the music in the foreground, but outfits and hairstyles.
Fashion, however, was far too superficial for the New Wave scene. There was talk of selling out New Wave and for the first time criticism of the commercialisation of the subculture was to be voiced. Not for the last time, because this criticism continues to this day. Today's visual offshoots of New Romantics are most likely to be found in Japanese subcultures like Visual Kei. However, fashion and makeup from back then still have an influence on the black scene today, which in this case allows for strong colours and romantic pageantry.
Waver
The Wavers were the dark faction of the musical subculture in the late 70s and early 80s. With them - in contrast to the New Romantics - it was the music that was in the foreground, although the outfit also played an important role. The Wavers exaggerated "bourgeois outfits" and thus put an ironic stamp on them. The tousled hairstyles of the 60s and 70s were further tousled to the point of absurdity in the New Wave and the sides were simply shaved out completely. Suit jackets were bought way too big and flapped around with the shirts and wide bloomers. The shoes were not only pointed, but insanely pointed with the pikes, and already the social dress norms were undermined. A clear demarcation. The make-up was equally striking. Not just a soft eyeliner, but thick black kohl line, far beyond the eye. No pretty made-up lips, but bright red smudged lipstick. The predominant colour was black, but there were also many colourful clothes. They wore oversized crosses, rosaries and esoteric symbols to exaggerate society's religious allegiance and to provoke.
In the 80s it was musicians like The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Anne Clark and Gary Newman who pointed out new visual and musical directions. Incidentally, Robert Smith of The Cure, the epitome of the waver, also wore white trainers and colourful shirts with far too large suit jackets in the early days.
Only later, when the scene gradually became gloomier, did Robert Smith switch completely to black. Together with the goths of the 80s, the wavers are still called oldschool goths today. It doesn't matter whether they were actually around in the 80s. What is meant is the styling.
Gruftis
Gruftis are what is largely associated with the term Goth. Gruftis looked like they were fresh out of a horror movie. However, the transitions between the types of the scene are fluid and the labels are only afterthought aids to grouping. There were no classifications at the time. It was in fact a single scene and most members did not even realise that they were forming a new subculture.
By the standards of the time, the Wavers seemed to take some getting used to. They were met with contempt, scepticism, incomprehension and caution. But the goths really scared society. They didn't want to provoke, they wanted to keep themselves completely apart and be left alone. With their outfit and make-up, the Gruftis referred to the depiction of vampires in the late 70s. "Dead make-up" is what they called it when they covered their faces with white make-up and painted their eyes into dark caves with black eye shadow. It had to be occult, as creepy and symbolic as possible. Their clothes were reminiscent of gowns and nuns' robes. They wore veils and black gloves like characters from gothic novels. The prototype for the goth is considered to be "Rat", for example, who was featured in a photo story in the youth magazine Bravo in the early 1980s.
Wavers were somewhat socially acceptable with their appearance, goths were not. This is how one could make a makeshift distinction. The musical contrast can also only be vaguely described. One could perhaps say that the wavers were more comfortable with synthesizers and also with lighter sounds, while the goths wrapped themselves in gloomy sounds and deep voices. But even that is only an attempt at differentiation.
EBMers
EBMers were also part of the scene as early as the 1980s, even if they were visually and musically distinct from goths and wavers. Their focus was on electronic body music (EBM), which was aggressive and electronically reminiscent of marching music with slogans. The roots of the music were in British industrial mixed with minimal electro. The vocals were actually more like bawling and reminiscent of military drill.
During the Cold War, electronic music was about combat and the military and war and terror. Accordingly, people also liked to dress in camouflage colours with boots and uniforms. The cool and threatening industrialisation was also a big theme. Technical progress was frightening because it seemed soulless. EBM music played with this - and so did its followers. Even their hair - styled into flattop hairstyles - was very angular and edgy. Machine parts served as symbols. The motto was: "Work, sweat and muscle power".
While DAF and Die Krupps were doing their thing with us in the early days, it was bands like Front 242, The Klinik or Nitzer Ebb that expanded the EBM genre. Bands like Skinny Puppy and Ministry were pioneers in America.
That the currents of the scene also inspired each other can be seen, for example, in Depeche Mode, who combined extravagant pop music and industrial sound, combined this with dark styling and sometimes stood on stage with a sledgehammer. An impressive example of the mix is the official video for "People are People".