Saturday, July 09, 2011

Answering Another Important and Universal Question

A post at "Super Flumina" asks:
What is the difference between Goth, Emo, and Hipster? Thank you.

This is easy. Goth culture believes in death; Emo culture believes in intensely earnest feelings; Hipster culture believes in its own importance.

In music: Gothic music blends punk rock with high art -- which may, but need not, include operatic singing, complex piano scores, violins, or symphonic orchestra. Its touchnote is the darkly sublime. Good gothic music overwhelms. Emo music is heavily lyrics-dominated, and is (although emo bands will often deny it) basically punk rock blended with pop music to allow intense emotional background to complex emotional lyrics. Its touchnote is the personal and confessional. Good emo music expresses. Hipsters have no music as such but are usually associated with indie rock in a vague and general way; this association may include emo as a subset but would be unlikely to include anything gothic. Hipsters tend to like music mostly as a catchy way to play politics.