The Post-Punk Explosion Part 5: Goth
On April 10, 1815, a volcano erupted in the central part of the Indonesian archipelago\u2026Mount Tambora blew up, ejecting nearly 200 cubic kilometres of debris into the atmosphere\u2026all that dust circled the earth, blocking out a significant amount of sunlight\u2026\n\nThat blockage was so severe that the average temperature dropped almost a full degree\u2026the result was that 1816 has gone down in history as \u201cthe year without a summer\u201d\u2026\n\nThere were food shortages and famines and outbreaks of disease\u2026and not only was it cold, but huge storms battered much of Europe\u2026\n\nThat summer, four artsy types were holed up at mansion called Villa Diodati near Geneva, Switzerland\u2026to entertain themselves on through these dark, cold, wet, rainy days, these people drank, had sex, and took opium\u2026and they tried to outdo each other by coming up with the best horror story\u2026\n\nOne of them, John William polidori, came up with \u201cThe Vampyre\u201d about undead bloodsuckers 80 years before Bram Stoker wrote \u201cDracula\u201d\u2026meanwhile, 22-year-old Mary Shelley, conjured up the idea of a mad scientist who created a new being by sewing together the parts of dead people\u2026she called her story \u201cFrankenstein\u201d\u2026\n\nThese two stories\u2014imagined during the year without a summer, caused by the biggest volcanic eruption in 1300 years\u2014created the foundation of gothic fiction, a type of horror that endures today\u2026novels, movies, comic books, fashion styles, and yes, music\u2026\n\nIn fact, the music part of this equation has blown up to the both where Goth music culture is one of the biggest musical subcultures the planet has ever seen\u2026and that explosion happened in the wake of the original punk era of the 1970s\u2026\n\nThis is the post-punk explosion part 5: Goth\u2026\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices