A few days ago, I was talking with a couple of people from a somewhat older generation, and I said something about having been a bit of a goth in my late teen years. (In response to a woman’s son having been rather grunge in about the same time period.) Which didn’t feel quite right to me….
Last night I watched Velvet Goldmine, and I realized that what I wanted to be, back in the early/mid 90s, was a glam rocker girl. The clothes, the music, the elan of the age — as mediated by 20 years — all appealed to something in me: brighter and more dress-up than goth, androgynous, dance-able. There’s a self I’ve buried these last few years who is still happily singing along with “John, I’m only dancing.”
Evading deeper thought on that point, I think I want to get Bowie’s Man Who Sold the World (which I used to have, not sure what happened to it) and some T-Rex (I think Myke used to have Electric Warrior).
Wow, that’s really funny. As a younger kid who looked up to you, I’d say you defeinitely had an element of the goth to you — maybe that was Raul’s aura rubbing off on you though. Bohemian was definitely another impression I got. Glam rocker I never would have guessed — though I definitely had the same inclinations myself. Dramatic makeup, short spiky hair, androgyny! I liked Perfect Tommy from Buckaroo Banzai and Dazzler from the X-Men. That’s a very high-maintenance look, though. In the end, I think I would have ended up slightly earthier. Like Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads. The cover art from Little Creatures, where they were all wearing insanely overpatterned clothing, had a big effect on me.