While the lovers of the mainstream charts often don't even know what their artists are singing in the songs, the goths listen very carefully to what is being sung on stage. The song lyrics are at least as important as the music itself. You want to identify and be taken away into a world of transience, profundity, stories and melancholy. Social criticism is also at the top of the songlyrics popularity scale.
Particularly in the New German Art of Death, the song lyrics are true works of art. They are reminiscent of poetry and leave a lot of room for interpretation. Here, states of mind are mostly sung about that are in the realm of dark emotions: Fear, anger, sadness, loneliness.
Gothic rock is often about love and new wave is about the bizarre and dark. It goes without saying that many events that are sung about take place at night. The medieval bands and pagan folk tell of legends, nature and times gone by. The EBMers prefer militant lyrics to match the music.
Social criticism can be found across all music genres of the black scene. Even Robert Smith of "The Cure" sang "This is a lie", referring to society's view of love and friendship, while Project Pitchfork, for example, addressed the cruelty of animal testing with "Human Crossing".
Musicians who want to sing about peace, joy, cheerfulness and good humour on stage would most likely play without an audience at the festivals of the gothic scene, although one or two enjoyable songs would be tolerated even by the gloomiest goths if performed in an appropriate ambience.
