A Very Brief History of all things Goth.

1. A Very Brief History of all things
Goth.
By Amy Catz

2. 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

3. Ostrogoth
Visigoths
By Amy Catz

4. 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.
By Amy Catz

5. • 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

6. • 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 Bible
By Amy Catz

7. • 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 covers
By Amy Catz

8. 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

9. • 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

10. • 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

11. 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

12. • 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.
By Amy Catz

13. • 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).
By Amy Catz

14. 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

15. • 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

16. • 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
By Amy Catz