Skip to main content

Happy World Goth Day: an ode to the cybergoth dance meme

Happy World Goth Day: an ode to the cybergoth dance meme

/

As one of the best memes demonstrates, goths can dance to anything, as long as it’s somewhere around 160 bpm

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

On September 7th, 2011, the internet was blessed with a diamond in the rough: a home movie of a crew of German cybergoths gathered beneath a concrete overpass, enthusiastically demonstrating their best electro-industrial dancing skills. On this day, the 10th annual celebration of World Goth Day, we humbly thank them for their service.

This scrappy bunch of cybergoths — so-called for their intersecting passions for goth style, industrial aesthetic, and EDM-raver esprit de coeur (not to be confused with Invisigoth, the hacker hero of a 1998 X-Files episode, though she probably would identify as both) — could not have known at the time, but their contribution to the creative spirit of the internet would go on to inspire one of the greatest memes online, when another lone YouTuber discovered something incredible: their masterful performance pairs with any kind of song imaginable.

Okay, so that’s not entirely true. The majority of said song has to come in somewhere around the 160 bpm tempo. But otherwise, the sky is the limit, friends. Behold the magic, and celebrate the joys of the cybergoth dancing meme.

Future’s “Mask Off”:

The Bill Nye the Science Guy theme:

A holiday flavor, with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You”:

Meme-inception edition, with the Walmart yodeling boy’s sweet melody:

Even the theme song for Guile from Street Fighter:

They even inspired several spinoffs:

And, lest we overlook it, it’s important to note that the meme only works thanks to the unbridled enthusiasm of the dancers themselves. So have fun out there, cybergoths. Enjoy your day. You earned it. And you earned this, too:

Update May 23rd, 9:23AM ET: It’s 160bpm, not 106bpm — we regret the unconscionable error.