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What Happened to Our Scene?

I do remember so well the beginning of our alternative music scene. Even though I was rather young then. Most of all, I remember the strong and energetic women that emerged from the Punk Rock scene who inspired me deeply. I recall seeing Siouxsie and the Banshees on TV, with Hong Kong Garden. Back in those days, many of the underground bands and artists were invited to play on commercial music shows, and I could also hear them on the radio sometimes. Naturally, Siouxsie's gothic make-up style fascinated me, since I have always been a "child of the night", so to say. I also remember seeing Nina Hagen many times on german TV. Freaky, shocking and provoking, she became the conventional german's worst nightmare; and believe me, she had attitude and she inspired many german girls to show the finger to the patriarchal and conservative establishment.
Like I have stated many times in interviews, one who impressed me greatly was Lene Lovich, when I saw her on the german TV show Disco. There, she stood on stage, in a white dress, gothic make-up, wild black hair, a robe around her neck, and sang her spooky Bird Song (which I did a cover version of on my album Laguz - Within the Lake). The audience applaused a little feebly and Disco host, Ilja Richter, thanked Lene a little nervous. But hey, she was invited to a commercial TV show with her macabre appearance, and these things don't really happen anymore, unfortunately. I was totally mesmerised by the song and by her appearance, and a couple of nights later, I actually heard Bird Song in a dream, where I stood in a circle of trees and from each were hanged men. Yes, I have always been a strange girl...
I saw Lene again on national TV, this time together with Nina Hagen, where they sang Don’t Kill the Animals, the Animals Are Free. Me being a die hard animal lover, I of course welcomed the song, and bought the single immediately.

So yes, back then there were many female artists in the scene who had attitude and something to say. We remember Anne Clark, and her great song Metropolis, Ambient Eco Punk Toyah, Hazel O' Connor - who made a great impression on me in the film Breaking Glass. I love the scene where she is on stage and suddenly the power cuts; all is black, and the audience starts to leave. Her band is leaving too, but she doesn't give in so easily. So she sings a new song alone in the dark with an enormous energy... and the audience is impressed. Now this is what I am talking about: fighting spirit and energy (I do feel this same energy on stage) and you just don't give up: it is your own show after all.

Generally, the 80s were blooming with weird and colourful "Wave" and "Synth Pop" artists who had their own style and personality. And with it, yes, you would get played on the radio. Strange was cool. I remember an interview with Marc Almond where he was asked what he liked to do as a child, and Marc said "Oh, I like to find dead animals and bury them and then dig them up again, to see the putrefaction process". Interesting.

By the time I dreamed about making music, I had many charismatic, strange or extreme artists to look up to: Gitane Demone, Eva O., Diamanda Galás, Lydia Lunch - and let's not forget Lisa Gerrard, whose voice was a constant companion on the cemeteries me and my friends visited at night - and when I was living in London, I was so fortunate to end up "squatting" together with some of my "gothic heroes" of the time.
The subculture had many different controversial directions, and when I made it as a known artist, we had this cool scene with all from Punk Rock, Gothic, Ambient, Industrial, Medieval, Occult/Magical/Pagan music, Neo-Folk, and we were also joined by Metal bands. The magazines supported all of us, and often we knew the editors and writers. We were friends with the people that started label- which is why I ended up on Metal labels. Yes, it was a scene full of energy and strong opinions, and we could express ourselves in the manner we wanted to.

So what happened to this scene? Because sadly, alternative music is certainly not what it used to be. In fact, over the last years, I must admit that I have witnessed cool people, journalists and labels, vanish, and the stupefying trend that has taken over the commercial music market, slowly moving into our scene too.

The commercial music industry, oh my! I'm astonished when I hear all this "Shake it, booty, arse, tits, sugar momma, do your thing (seriously, what is this thing they're always on about?)", and I am embarrassed to see these sad women singers desperately shaking it, aiming to win a "porn babe" contest. I'm surprised they don't get fucked for real in their videos or give real blowjobs (but it wouldn't surprise me if that would be coming soon). And oh, the Paris Hilton trend. I just don't understand why someone can be so famous for having absolutely no talent.

So yes, a few years back I heard several angry journalists from both Gothic and Metal magazines say that they had been arguing with their editors because they suddenly didn't get permission to write about the artists they wanted to anymore. They also said that the editors had begun to edit expressions of various artists, something the writers of course did not like at all. Several of the journalists I knew left the magazines. New people entered the editorial department, and suddenly I experienced journalists telling me during our interview, that their editors were concerned about my answers because I always say things that are by far too complicated - and thus too difficult for the readers to understand. The readers, they said, want to have "easy reading"! What? Easy reading? In a scene that has been all about the extreme, obscure and dark? How does that make any sense? Yes, many of the bigger magazines (not all of them!) rode the commercial trend, and soon we could read more and more shallow and stupid articles over and over again, about the same bands and about rather boring Gothic Metal "chicks", about "oh, so cosy, she is having a good time, yes?", "oh, what a lovely dress", "oh, what a nice outfit", "oh, doesn't she sing pretty?", "does she have a boyfriend now?". Yes, Nina Hagen's "sexual revolution" has certainly went backwards. And while the magazines take good money from the labels for this superficial promotion of the same bands, the artists that have been respected in the scene for years for their music, art, passion and obscure views, get less and less attention, to the point where they get deliberately "‘forgotten".

How did people just accepted this? How come did we just allow it to fade out like that? Where are the rebels, anarchists and outsiders that made this scene?

I think it is time to bring back some of the old spirit, a subculture that has attitude, with real and controversial ideas, with female artists that inspire with sincere music and strong statement,s and an audience that once again says "fuck off" to superficial journalism.

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