Research entry 1...

Created in 1997, Alicia Porter Smith’s website A Study of Gothic Subculture: An Inside Look for Outsiders is a personal response to negative reports and misrepresentation of the Goth subculture by media outlets in Utah and throughout the United States of America. Smith’s aim is to correct interested non-Goth observers’ misconceptions and present the Goth subculture positively by providing a broad overview of the subculture and its many facets from an insider’s perspective.

The subtitle claims”An Inside Look for Outsiders” and the homepage delivers. Devoid of the style that most Goth websites prefer—black backgrounds, intricate artwork, spooky music—Smith’s site is basic with an easy-to-read Table of Contents, well-organised navigation buttons, and very little artwork. As well as providing access to media reports about Gothicism, both positive and negative, Smith has collected information on various ‘scenes’ and behaviours that are associated, sometimes mistakenly, with the Goth subculture such as; the occult, vampires, religion, drugs and gangs. However, the most useful pages on the website are those that explain “What is Gothic?”, providing information on the subculture’s origins, history, and development out of the post-punk and nu-wave music scenes in London, and explanations of some of the jargon used within the subculture. Throughout the website Smith focuses on what she terms first and second generation Goths—subculturalists that were involved in the original scene based around the music of bands such as Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bauhaus and The Cure, and those that followed in the early 1990s, again with a focus on music but also branching into Victorian fashion and literature, and fetish-wear. Third generation Goths, whom Smith describes as ‘spooky kids’, do not get mentioned often as they were just developing their own space within the subculture in 1997.

Overall Smith’s website A Study of Gothic Subculture: An Inside Look for Outsiders is an excellent place for the layperson to begin investigating Goth subculture. Although Smith no longer updates the website, resulting in many of the external links no longer being valid, the content that is still relevant is well organised, easy to navigate, and provides some insight into the inner workings and behaviours of a much maligned subculture without reinforcing the perceived stereotype.