By Amy Catz

A Very Brief History of all things Goth.

By Amy Catz

1. Ostrogoths and Visigoths

• Goth a member of Germanic people that invaded the Roman Empire from the east between the 3rd and 5th centuries.

• The eastern division, the Ostrogoths, founded a kingdom in Italy, while the Visigoths went on to found one in Spain.

By Amy Catz

Ostrogoths

Visigoths

By Amy Catz

2. Font: Blackletter • The Blackletter typeface started in the 12th century.

It also sometimes referred to as Gothic, Fraktur or Old English and was used in the Gutenburg Bible, one of the first books printed in Europe. This style of typeface is recognizable by its dramatic thin and thick strokes, and in some fonts, the elaborate swirls on the serifs. Blackletter typefaces are based on early manuscript lettering.

• They evolved in Western Europe from the mid twelfth century. Over time a wide variety of different blackletters appeared, but four major families can be identified: Textura, Rotunda, Schwabacher and Fraktur:

By Amy Catz

• While Gutenberg used blackletters for his bible and books, this signaled a new era in typefaces used for printing. Blackletters are difficult to read as body text thus, in the 1500’s; blackletter became less popular for printing in many countries except Germany.

Excerpt from Gutenberg BibleBy Amy Catz

• Germany continued to use Blackletters until the early twentieth century.

• Blackletters have more recently become associated with beer labels, heavy metal bands and rap.

beer labels heavy metal band album covers rap album coversBy Amy Catz

By Amy Catz

3. Architecture• Gothic architecture is a style of building that was

popular in the Middle Ages, from about the twelfth to the fifteenth century.

Cologne Cathedral

By Amy Catz

• Most gothic buildings are religious buildings like abbeys, cathedrals or monasteries. Pointed arches, intricate stonework and sculptures, tall spires, high vaulted ceilings, stained-glass windows and flying buttress are characteristics of Gothic architecture.

gargoyle St Vitus Cathedral in Prague Lincoln Cathedral

By Amy Catz

• The term gothic was not applied to this style of architecture until the sixteenth century. The term was used disapprovingly, intended to demean the architecture as crude and barbaric.

Malbork Castlegargoyle York Minster

By Amy Catz

4. Literature• The recipe for Gothic literature is a dash of

romance, a sprig of the supernatural and a pinch of horror. It is said that the first batch of Gothic literature to ever be served up was by Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.

By Amy Catz

• Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror both psychological and physical, mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses.

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• Bram Stoker’s Dracula written in 1897 being one of the most popular but others include Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera (1909–1910).

5. Music• The date of origin is usually placed in 1979 when

Bauhaus released the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead." The band originally intended the song to be tongue-in-cheek; however, many young fans latched onto this mysterious, eerie sound as inspiration for the budding gothic subculture.

Bela LugosiBy Amy Catz

• The first generation of the gothic movement emerged in the UK in the late seventies as a heavy inspiration from post-punk and glam rock. Bands like Bauhaus, The Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees characterize the first generation.

Bauhaus The Cure Joy Division Siouxsie and the Banshees By Amy Catz

By Amy Catz

• These bands were called Gothic later on, but most did not consider themselves Gothic at the time. There is a great deal of uncertainty about who coined the term "gothic" and how it got attached to this dark music.

Some “Traditional “ Goths