Critical Review #2: "Translocal Connections and the Goth Scene"

Paul Hodkinson discusses the translocal nature of the goth music scene in England, tracing its presence across geographical bounds. He reveals his position as a "critical insider" and aims to "assess the consistency of the goth scene from place to place and to establish the extend to which it was experienced as translocal by participants." (132) Hodkinson describes two categories of cultural connections that goths experience. Identity and and taste comprise abstract connections, while connections through travel commerce and media make up the concrete. His interviews with members of the culture reveal their connection to each other across local boundaries, mostly through gatherings in physical (music festivals) or virtual space (online communities). Connections between goths depend far less on a locally-based community, and much more on a shared aesthetic. Shop owners and DJs share information about what sells, and through compilation CDs and curated stores, goths can find music and clothing that fit their common style. Hodkinson writes this account to prove that musical subcultures don't have to be rooted geographically in a single area, that they can exist translocally or in virtual space.

Questions: Hodkinson says that "goths perceived that they had more in common with other goths hundreds or thousands of miles away than they did with most nonaffiliated members of their immediate locality." (134) Is this commonality something that is unique to goth subculture? What traits of goth music culture make it so that this is possible? What is the relationship between the translocal nature of a scene and the connection between its members? Is isolation from the "immediate locality" what fosters translocality?