Cultureshock

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Video transcript

I strongly remember the next Paris Hilton staring at me. And that's no compliment. All of the original's flaws (particularly her airheaded-ness) had been amplified and evoked in one eleven-year-old girl.

Around 2007, I wore a 'skort' to school. And this girl asked me if I was Goth because said skort was black. I explained I wasn't...but later that night I was pondering the issue. If I became Goth, I'd probably get to play the 'scene' card. But at the same time I would expect to get bullied even more than I currently did.

I don't know if I told anyone I'd made my mind up, but the next weekend, I began building a hugely wrong and stereotypical wardrobe...and a similarly describable album collection. I was probably too young at the time to understand the meaning of a proper Goth song... so instead I listened to angst-filled pop-rock, all about break-ups and explanations of why the artist is totally original. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that these were just lies written by an employee at a record company to rein in all the alternatively-minded posers. Then in 2008 I was accepted into a private school, which I only really considered because it looked like Hogwarts. I had been listening to something a little closer to the real thing: Gothic metal.  But all of my classmates were listening to repetitive dance- pop, and the faux-punk I was originally a fan of! I think they only liked me because I agreed with them all the time. Within my head, I was arguing with their ideas and theories all of the time.

But after a small accident involving a couple of sadist teachers and a fractured arm, I left. I had had enough. They'd been extremely inconsiderate all term, and the accident was the first thing to push me to tell my parents about my problems at the school...And it led to me being home-schooled.

I got a laptop for my birthday that year. My parents had been promising me one for ages, and they wouldn't have been able to afford it if I was going to remain at Miniluv (which has become my pet name for that school). All I ever used to do was visit Youtube and listen to music on it. That's when I discovered the real Goth music. But I wasn't happy. You see I had no idea Goth music could be equally good and bad. This was nowhere near what I was looking for. In ten dark electronic and Gothic Rock artists, I only really felt moved by three or four.

But one of the artists I found and enjoyed was the dark cabaret extraordinaire Emilie Autumn. And there was a track of hers which had been remixed by some form of electronic band: Angelspit. At first I was just wanting to see more of the bizarre costumes they wore, but I was surprised to find their music was actually very, very good. Apparently this was 'industrial'. And I began adding more 'industrial' albums to my collection. Since I still liked -some- Goth and some industrial, from then on I just considered myself an industrial Goth.

The concept I follow today is that there are two forms of industrial: There was the original industrial: which was people messing around with synths and hitting pieces of metal with other pieces of metal. This was largely inhabited by bands from the seventies. But then in the eighties, 'post-industrial' was born. It followed more of the rules of music than their predecessors, but still kept the chaotic, dark and experimental feel.

By now the genre is huge. There must be over fifty different kinds of industrial, all based on the two main forms of their parent genre. Even I am creating my own idea of industrial music. I have found music that I could really have a passion for and it's all because of a seemingly trivial diversion made by one rather irritating airhead.