A Look Back at “Propaganda” – The Goth Bible

The ever entertaining DangerousMinds.net site just posted a great piece on “Propaganda,”  the trendsetting magazine that chronicled — and the article would claim — influenced the rise of Goth culture.

The article begins: “Founded in 1982 by New York photographer Fred H. Berger, Propaganda magazine was, at the time of its final issue in 2002, the longest running and most popular chronicle of gothic subculture in the United States. From its infancy as a punk fanzine, it grew in scope, covering the esoteric obsessions of its “Propaganda Minister”—post-punk, death rock, fetish fashion, body modification, BDSM, vampirism, horror literature, androgyny, and paganism were all tossed into its smoking cauldron. Over time, these disparate influences became codified into what we know today as “goth” culture. Never billing itself as a “goth” zine per-se, Propaganda had as much to do with developing the aesthetic of goth as any black-clad scare-band you’d possibly care to name.

“Nancy Kilpatrick’s The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined calledPropaganda “the only subculture publication known to just about every goth on the planet” for good reason. Its importance to that scene can’t be overstated. In fact, you could say that goth had to happen with Propaganda acting as a two-way mirror, both projecting and reflecting the dark music, fashion, art, and literature of its post-Cold War audience.”

Frankly, the first time we had scheduled a meet up with representatives of Ordo Templi Orientis we fully expected them to look like Propaganda cover models (in reality they wound up to be far more intriguing – so here we are 16 years later!)

read the whole article here: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/propaganda_the_aesthetics_of_evil_and_why_goth