"Translocal Connections in the Goth Scene" -Hodkinson

The title of the chapter “Translocal Connections in the Goth Scene” summarizes what Hodkinson was trying to accomplish through his research. I felt the main point of the chapter was that the Goth scene in Britain, though it is spread around the nation, is a scene that does not vary dramatically in different localities. The reason for this general “sameness” between the scenes of different counties is probably due to the role that commerce and media play on the way new music and products that are involved with the scene are distributed. For example, various CD stores that sell Goth music get the new albums from generally the same vendor. The point that Hodkinson made was that the Goth scene is very interactive with its different localities, the Whitby Gothic Weekend, which brings all the Goths together so that they can exchange new products and sounds, as well as make friends.
This chapter was helpful in understanding the types of issues that ethnographer’s research; in this case it was ‘why and how are translocal connections in the Goth scene made?’ Since I will have to do an ethnography project this semester, Hodkinson provided a good example of how I can go about doing the research and the types of issues that I could look into. Hodkinson wrote that in his research he conducted “interviews with more than seventy individuals.”

Hodkinson wrote, “…while there were some indications that certain sounds or looks held marginally more prominence in some places than others. There seemed no sense in which, for example. The same appearance would result in veneration in one area and a total lack of it in another. This level of agreement on membership criteria is illustrated most effectively by the ease with which goths were able to identify one another, regardless of where they were.” With this in mind, why is the Goth scene so distinct in its appearance? Or, why is the appearance of the Goth scene so easily distinguishable as compared to other scenes like hip hop or indie?