Too old to goth?

I’ve been trying to think of something to write about over the Christmas for a few days now. (Writers block, don’t you just love it?) A chance remark on Facebook today got me thinking.

An acquaintance recently turned 30 and said he was now ‘too old to go punk’. That made me frown. However, it also made me think back to when I was 30. At that age, I was still growing into myself and finding my place in the world. How people perceived me still mattered.  With that in mind, I realised how easy it is for me to scoff from the comfort of my mid-forties but it did make me think. Are you ever too old to be goth?

Goth first emerged from the post-punk movement of the late seventies and early 80’s. So those who were teenagers at that stage are now in their forties and fifties. From what I have seen, age hasn’t been a stumbling block for those of us who are still part of the Gothic subculture. We have left school, been to college, gotten jobs, married, divorced, had kids and through all this, have still retained our love for all things goth. It’s in our blood and in our souls. Not ‘just a phase’ as we were told in our younger days. Personally, my love of the goth life remains as strong as ever. Black is my colour, the music speaks to me in a way that nothing else does. I embrace darkness, decay and decadence as they are simply the flip side of ‘normal’ life. I choose to walk the other side of the line and that’s fine. I don’t see a reason to ever stop and I don’t think I will.

It’s the people who make Goth what it is. We may be a small community but we are close-knit. I have made so many friendships over the years and met people I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t been part of this movement and as I get older, these friendships have deepened and have come to mean more, to the extent that I count some of them as family.

What I would say to those younger members of our family is this: Hang in there. The older you get, the less you care what others think. Do what makes you happy and be true to yourself. Here’s to another year.