Gothrevival: “I don’t believe art exists in a vacuum” says Cathi Unsworth

Goth is making a comeback. It’s reappeared on catwalks, red carpets, and across social media, reviving an aesthetic born from 1980s counterculture. In New York the style was prominent on the red carpet at MTV’s VMAs 2025 where a number of high-profile guests, including Ashlee Simpson, Lola Young and several others donned the style for the awards ceremony. The dark glamour movement has been trending with the rise of Y2K styles, and the arrival of Netflix’s Wednesday. And soon Guillermo del Toro’s adaption of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” will launch on Netflix, starring an actress with the best name ever – Mia Goth – as Elizabeth Lavrenza, the mad scientist’s love interest.

As wars rage, democracies falter, and global anxiety and depression rise by 25%, according to the World Health Organization, the revival feels less like nostalgia and more like a mirror of the mood. In social media people argue if Goth is political or not. One thing is certain: modern Goth is more polished and less DIY than it’s original inspiration, but with the same victoriana and classic Hammer Horror vibe. But, is Goth political? Was it ever? And if so, which way does it lean? To explore its roots and relevance, we spoke to two original voices from the early scene, authors Cathi Unsworth and Joolz Denby.

“I don’t believe any form of art exists in a vacuum; all of it is a reaction to the times in which it is created. Even if it’s not overtly political, it’s making some commentary on events unfurling in the world,” says Cathi Unsworth.

Her book “Season of The Witch. The Book of Goth” (SOTW) gives an impressive overview of the music, context, and lasting legacy of Goth. In the book Unsworth investigates how the original Goth movement was shaped by the politics of the year of which it was born.

“What I call Goth was born out of Punk, yet has never been held in such glowing esteem by cultural commentators. Rather, it has been mocked, misunderstood, and ridiculed,” says Unsworth.

“Why was it so misunderstood?“

“Mainly because it is highly literate and gender fluid. It was a refuge for me and many of my friends at school who did not fit in because they had the wrong skin colour or were neurodivergent and/or gay, which were not differences that were treated with much or any sympathy back in the Eighties, either from our teachers or peers. We were the kids who hid in the art room painting while our ‘normal’ counterparts enthusiastically played sport,” says Unsworth to Styletalk.

“Some – probably most – of the bands and artists I mention in my book still refute and revile the word ‘Goth’ – which younger Goths I met doing book talks found completely bewildering. But SOTW maps the history of the various bands and artists who were the core listening pleasure of my generation and the different places, both geographically and aesthetically, that they come from. I think both these considerations are equally important”, says Cathi Unsworth.

This will inevitably resonate with young people today, as online bullying and humiliation is one of the defining cruelties of their generation.

In “Season of the Witch” Cathi Unsworth analyzes the domestic and geopolitical events going on around the birth of Goth in the years between 1979-1990, when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

“During this time, I was an 11-year-old just about to leave Junior school, who became a Goth under the influence of John Peel, Top of the Pops, and the extensive music press there was in Britain in those days. I went to art college – like many of the musicians mentioned in the book – and became a writer at Sounds. I think the best and most original music was made during that period – likely this is because these were my own formative years, and this is the music that meant everything to me when I felt like a social outcast. I was also reacting to the times.” says Unsworth. Back then her own role models were very political.

“I have to say, the most important role models I had are the bravest and most overtly political: Joolz Denby and her American counterpart, Lydia Lunch, both of whom I have seen commanding the attention of rooms full of rowdy punk rockers by their carefully chosen and stunningly delivered words coupled with their sheer warrior charisma,” says Unsworth, who was in awe of her female role models.”

“Unlike the boys, they did not even have guitars and drum kits to hide behind. Both looked to me how I imagined Queen Boudicca would have looked, covered in tattoos with flaming tresses and words as their combat weapons. It was thanks to their influence that I became a writer myself, and both of them have shown me much kindness along the way. It would amaze my 16-year-old self in 1984 that I ended up sharing a stage with both of them.”

But, what was political in the early Goth music? Cathi Unsworth, who has also worked as a reporter for music magazines Sounds, Melody Maker, Mojo and Uncut, points out what can be seen as social commentary in several of the more popular songs from the early eighties Goth bands.

“Take the song ‘Nightshift’ by Siouxsie and the Banshees that captures totally the atmosphere in the years when the Yorkshire Ripper was abroad, and it seemed like the police would never catch him. Siouxsie even seems to intuit something about Peter Sutcliffe’s MO when she sings “What goes on in your mind, always silent and kind, unlike the others” – some of the survivors of Sutcliffe’s attacks remarked on how pleasant he seemed in the seconds before he hit them over the head with a ball peen hammer.”

Another example is ‘Heartland’ by The Sisters of Mercy.

“It was written by an Andrew Eldritch, a native of Ely in Cambridgeshire who had come to study in Leeds, West Yorkshire in 1978, and seems to foresee the Miners’ Strike that would rip the UK apart in 1984-85 from the perspective of the heartland of the coal mining industry. Which was also the scene of previous pivotal battles in the Wars of the Roses and English Civil War centuries before,” says Unsworth.

 “Do you think Goth values such as individualism, nonconformity, and fascination with death or darkness translate into political positions that are necessarily “leftist”?“

“Some of the bands and artists I looked at were and are overtly political and came into existence as a direct consequence of being ideologically opposed to the Thatcher/Reagan monetarist policies,” says Unsworth and lists them up: “UK Decay, The Mob, Theatre of Hate and Southern Death Cult all came out of the anarchopunk/squatter/traveler scene, largely incubated by the Crass collective, who were members of the older Sixties counter-culture mixed with young punks and proposed an alternative lifestyle outside of the mainstream. Rather like their historical forbears, The Ranters, Diggers and Levellers of the English Civil War period. Southern Death Cult didn’t last long, taking the moral high ground – as you know, Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury became leather-clad cock-rockers The Cult. But their former drummer Aki (or Acky) Haq Nawaz Qureshi has, since 1988 run his own record company Nation, seeking to combat racism, examine the causes of Islamic fundamentalism in British youth and create a unity between Britain’s Asian and Afro-Carribean communities,” says Unsworth.

“Have goth communities traditionally engaged with political issues, such as climate anxiety, gender politics, anti-capitalism?“

“The generation I grew up with – which I guess is ‘traditional Goths’, at least their late 20th century British incarnation – have always engaged with these sorts of issues. Although posing around in graveyards reading Rimbaud, watching Hammer films, and gesticulating wildly to our favourite music are all essential Goth pastimes, I feel that by nature we are political too – we have to be,” she says and explains:

“So many Goths have been on the receiving end of violence fueled by hateful ignorance, the ultimate shocking example of which being the murder of Sophie Lancaster in 2007. Her murderers laughed as they jumped on her head and continued to laugh in court,” says Cathi Unsworth. Sophie Lancaster was just 20 when she was murdered by a group of teenagers for the simple act of dressing Goth—an attack on her right to look different. Her death remains a tragic symbol of intolerance toward alternative identities. Years later, her story still resonates online. As one Reddit user recalled, “I remember how incredibly conformist the 2000s were. Being different, or having interests and fashion outside the mainstream, was a huge no-no.” Cathy Unsworth confirms:

“Just the appearance of a Goth is a statement in itself – it’s the adoption of a metaphorical suit of armour. A very glamorous and alluring suit of armour, but armour nonetheless,” says Cathy Unsworth to Styletalk.

“Is Goth political? My bag of fucks is long empty,” says Joolz Denby.

The award-winning novelist, poet, artist, and original post-punk figurehead calls bullshit on the whole social media debate about Goth, politics, and the absurdity of online culture wars. Writing this reply, you can almost hear the voice that has made her such a distinctive presence for more than four decades.

“Some Goths were political, some were not, just like all people, and there wasn’t a die-hard binary consensus; that’s a modern social media invention as we see all over all platforms because conflict is monetized by different people. No Goths espoused the Right Wing, or if they did they kept their mouths shut about it,” she says dismissively.

“Please bear in mind at all times I am 70, an OG (original Goth), and my bag of fucks is long empty,” she adds. “The question if Goth is political or not is meaningless to people like me, because we were not interested in conforming to a rigid conservative style standard which seems to be the mode nowadays. Nor did we buy our Goth clothes from Amazon as they do now; we made them ourselves, and the mere act of dressing in such a fashion in the 1980s was in itself a social rebellion and youth movement.”

Joolz Denby considers the whole conversation in social media ridiculous, and typical for the polarization that ruins most debates today.

“The polarization of Society as a whole by billionaires invested in setting everyone against each other and setting up petty distractions such as conflicts over rules and regulations of whatever movement you choose, policed by paid pundits, is certainly a reflection of the greater Society, and I fully and 100% reject it all,” she says and adds:

“You can be political and a Goth – I was as a lifelong Socialist – or you can be uninterested in politics and be a Goth, though I cannot personally imagine why anyone wouldn’t be political. But it’s their gig in the end.”