Confession.
Feb. 7th, 2004 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sharplittleteethDanced myself silly at Abyss last night.
And as I sheepishly admitted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
andricongirl last night, I think I rather like Evanescence.
Not because the music’s great. It’s not. It’s moderately acceptable pop.
But whole the Christian Goth thing has got my intrigued .
Because, at first glance, the two should be antithetical. Christianity with its ethos of fellowship and joy seems completely at odds with the emotional outcasts of goth, driven into the darkness by their dark, spooky pain.
And yet, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. We all are of us lost in the wasteland of the soul. Stereotypically, goths console themselves with sex, drugs and aesthetics. But these are worldy things, and will not satisfy a spiritual hunger.
And therein lies the appeal of Evanescence. Thier music is not the smug self-congratulations of those who claim to have found God. It’s far more honest than that. It’s the bitter yearning for salvation.
Which leads to another, stranger appeal.
Jung gave us the concepts of the animus and the anima, the archetypal image of male and female that we hold inside our individual psyches. Can I introduce the concept of the adorator, the archetypal image we hold of the fans of a particular band?
Because the adorator I have of Evanesce is of someone who is sort of goth, but not really, wrestling with amorphous spiritual achings that would seem just plain daggy to the sex-drugs-and-sneering brigade.
And regular readers will recall I feel a certain affinity for the daggy goths of the world.
(I also suspect my Evanescence adorators have posters on their bedroom walls of fairies, or unicorns, or maybe both. Maybe that’s the secret appeal. andricongirl is always teasing me about my "My Little Pony" tattoo.)
Hm. My LJ isn’t exactly talking me up as Mr Sexy Sophisticate, is it?
And as I sheepishly admitted to
andricongirl last night, I think I rather like Evanescence.Not because the music’s great. It’s not. It’s moderately acceptable pop.
But whole the Christian Goth thing has got my intrigued .
Because, at first glance, the two should be antithetical. Christianity with its ethos of fellowship and joy seems completely at odds with the emotional outcasts of goth, driven into the darkness by their dark, spooky pain.
And yet, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. We all are of us lost in the wasteland of the soul. Stereotypically, goths console themselves with sex, drugs and aesthetics. But these are worldy things, and will not satisfy a spiritual hunger.
And therein lies the appeal of Evanescence. Thier music is not the smug self-congratulations of those who claim to have found God. It’s far more honest than that. It’s the bitter yearning for salvation.
Which leads to another, stranger appeal.
Jung gave us the concepts of the animus and the anima, the archetypal image of male and female that we hold inside our individual psyches. Can I introduce the concept of the adorator, the archetypal image we hold of the fans of a particular band?
Because the adorator I have of Evanesce is of someone who is sort of goth, but not really, wrestling with amorphous spiritual achings that would seem just plain daggy to the sex-drugs-and-sneering brigade.
And regular readers will recall I feel a certain affinity for the daggy goths of the world.
(I also suspect my Evanescence adorators have posters on their bedroom walls of fairies, or unicorns, or maybe both. Maybe that’s the secret appeal. andricongirl is always teasing me about my "My Little Pony" tattoo.)
Hm. My LJ isn’t exactly talking me up as Mr Sexy Sophisticate, is it?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-06 10:12 pm (UTC)do they sound good?
does it move you?
if so, then so be it, i point to my own music collection and wave at the Charlie Danienls Band, Ricky Martin and Metalica CD(s!) that are there and say unto the snearers, "Hey who the hell let YOU into my house, piss off dicks!"
hope you had even more fun than i did . . .
no subject
Date: 2004-02-06 10:33 pm (UTC)As for liking Evanescence... they're certainly not the best music I've ever heard. Hence the long rambly post trying to define exactly what the appeal is. Plus I wanted to jot down the the whole concept of an adorator, even if my Latin is bunk.
You don't think I post these things for YOUR benefit, do you?
whatever floats your boat.
Date: 2004-02-06 11:01 pm (UTC)But he does have to put up with shit like Aqua blasting from my speakers! hehehe
I'm glad you had fun.
I had a good time also - couldn't you tell?
Re: whatever floats your boat.
Date: 2004-02-07 03:34 pm (UTC)And yes, I could tell. And was pleased.
Re: whatever floats your boat.
Date: 2004-02-07 07:16 pm (UTC)*still sleep dep.'ed, that's all I can manage and stay coherent*
*bounce*
no subject
Date: 2004-02-07 12:08 am (UTC)Only 1 of the memebers of the band are christian, and the whole band only hold them selves to being gothic, not to religion.
(I got lectured on this here one day when I passed the same comment).
They're ok I guess... (I've got the album around here somewhere)
I don't mind hearing them out... (I've pushed the cd to a few friends)
But I'd never dance to them... (Singing along quietly is the best you'll see)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 03:37 pm (UTC)But I'd never dance to them... (Singing along quietly is the best you'll see)
Ve haff vays off making you dance, leetle girl.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 07:18 pm (UTC)Ve haff vays off making you dance, leetle girl.
You do? oh wow! What you going to play Garbage for me first... then shoot bullets at my feet in the awe of all good western movies?? :P
no subject
Date: 2004-02-07 01:25 am (UTC)A 'friend' of mine on lj, who is a goth from San Francisco, mentioned that an inordinate (no pun intended) number of goths there were also Catholics, that there was a strong Christian presence in the American goth scene as a whole, and that Paganism isn't the ubiquitous presence there that it is in Australia.
Makes me boggle, the possibilities of a goth scene wearing rosaries without the faintest hint of irony.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 03:31 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-08 08:45 pm (UTC)Might be something in this 'God' business after all.:)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-07 06:38 pm (UTC)That said, I don't mind a bit of Evanessence.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-08 08:44 pm (UTC)But like I said, America's a big country, and I'm sure all this is very variable depending on where you are in it.