In a recent interview with Jezebel, tech-savvy presidential candidate Andrew Yang revealed his hope to become “the first ex-goth” president of the United States of America.
“I distinctly remember coming into school in eighth grade and a friend, Dan Miller, was full goth, wearing all black,” Yang told feminist blog Jezebel in a recent interview. “Dan had a real impact on my musical taste and we ended up going to many of these concerts together. So I daresay, if I win in 2020, I would be the first ex-goth president.”
Yang’s tastes in music, however, debatable as being distinctly Goth, are most certainly to be considered post-punk related. As Yang put it, his preferences were part of “the canon of alternative music,” which were found on the playlists of 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation during MTV’s late 80s and early 90s heyday.
Expounded on some of his music favorites after unearthing his class of 1992 High School yearbook, Yang went on list as some the bands he listened to as: “The Cure, The Smiths, and Depeche Mode. And when they arrived with Joshua Tree, U2 somehow was there. REM. I liked Siouxsie and the Banshees, I liked The Sugarcubes.”
“I really like New Order and Joy Division, of course. They’re in the canon. And Erasure too,” he continued, going on to refer to the transition from “the original arc” into grunge elaborating that “and then in the ‘90s it became more Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden.”
Andrew’s name, as we must point out, is very similar to the musician Andi Sex Gang, who The Cult’s Ian Astbury credits as coining the term Goth during the Batcave Era in London, stating:
“One of the groups coming up at the same time as Southern Death Cult was Sex Gang Children. Andi used to like Édith Piaf and this macabre music. I used to call him the Gothic Goblin because he was a little guy and he’s dark and he lived in a building in Brixton called Visigoth Towers. So he was the little Gothic Goblin and his followers were Goths. That’s where GOTH came from.”
Sex Gang Children are about to embark on a UK tour in support of their 1983 debut album Song and Legend, an essential album in the history of Goth.
Andrew Yang meanwhile, whose policies are centered over growing concerns on automation, and is running on a platform of universal basic income, has been doing the podcast circuit. For insight on his platform, you can listen to his recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast here.
Well it looks like my senior year yearbook photo is about to make the news in a feature about candidates when we were young. Sharing it here so you can see what I was about in 1992. Favorite bands: the Smiths and the Cure. ? pic.twitter.com/6qASjBceys
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) March 29, 2019
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