It’s Halloween. Let’s Talk About Dark Music.

“Gibbs: When I was your age, I liked a lot of dark stuff, as well, and I liked it for that very reason.

Student: Which reason?

Gibbs: It wasn’t happy-clappy pop music about how great life is all the time. Although, let’s be honest. It’s not happy-clappy pop music I was rebelling against. It was happy-clappy Christian pop music I was rebelling against, which is the happiest-clappiest stuff imaginable.

Student: Fair enough. I hate that stuff.

Gibbs: I did, too.

Student: The people who listen to that stuff make me gag. That music is so fake. It makes people who listen to it fake, too.

Gibbs: Huh.

Student: Do you still listen to dark music?

Gibbs: Not really. If Korn’s “Got the Life” came on the radio, I might listen to it for old time’s sake, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to track it down. But I don’t know why I’d be listening to a radio station that might play Korn.

Student: Korn? Seriously?

Gibbs: Back in high school? Absolutely. I died my hair black, wore Doc Martens, smoked British cigarettes. The whole bit.

Student: Who else did you listen to?

Gibbs: Marilyn Manson. Nine Inch Nails. And just look at me now: I wear a blue blazer to work and try to persuade you to confess to your parents all the bad things you’ve gotten away with.

Student: Wait, so why did you listen to Marilyn Manson?

Gibbs: Because it was dark. Because it was the antithesis of the gutless, smarmy, saccharine-sweet, Jesus-is-my-boyfriend, everything-is-going-to-be-fine pop music that typified Christian popular culture at the time. That stuff seemed as false and hollow as possible, so I wanted the opposite of it.

Student: Did it work?”

-from my latest for CiRCE