Written by sexyDEATHparty circa 2006 (I was in high-skewl!)
when I looked like this and fancied myself a rivethead!
The Industrial counterculture, better known amongst its members as Rivethead subculture is like the bastard child of the Punk and Gothic subcultures. Usually, some rivetheads may start out as mopey, depressed, and fragile Goths with white painted faces, but when one decides that the Gothic subculture does not expresses the angry, rebellious, and aggressive feelings a person may have developed, the transition to elite rivethead begins.
Many rivetheads cringe at being called Goths, and there is often a very fine line between being a rivethead or a Goth that unless you are part of the scene and are in the know of who is what, an outsider would not be able to distinguish between the two. There are also some similarities between the two and rave subculture, these are your cyber-Goths. There are similarities between rivetheads and the latter, such as the visual aesthetics, and heavy emphasis on electronic music. However, cyber is to rivethead what post cyberpunk is to cyberpunk.
“In cyberpunk, the alienating effect of new technology is emphasized, whereas in post cyberpunk, "technology is society." – Cyberpunk Article
Industrial leans towards the negative view of technology, while accepting the aesthetic results of technological dystopia, and cyber wholly embraces technology as positive. While rivetheads do also thrive on the technological advances of our age, they are fully aware of its foulness and that it might one day produce evil machines that will overthrow mankind, and they relish it believing they would be the ones to survive an apocalyptic battle of machines.
Rivetheads quite often express express their views in a post apocalyptic style. Considering this view they have on life it would not be surprising to find an assortment of gas masks complete with filters in their closets, self dug out bomb shelters in their backyards, or even that they visit the shooting range weekly to improve their accuracy in hopes that once the Apocalypse arrives the would be well prepared for a survival of the fittest.
The technology factor is not the only thing rivethead subculture is centered around. Like all countercultures, it is based around a music scene. Their scene is industrial music and some electronic music, or EBM. The music they fixate on revolves around an obsession with banging on things and playing with keyboards and computers. A large misconception by other cultures is that all Rivetheads worship Trent Reznor. Sure, he might be a God among many music savants for all of his innovations in music, but most Rivetheads have a love-hate relationship with him. Usually, they prefer the harsh industrial sounds of German-based bands such as Rammstein, KMFDM, Hanzel und Gretyl or Einstürzende Neubauten.
Rammstein would be a perfect example of remotely mainstreaming the subculture with their militant-style clothes, goggles and pyromaniac shows. However not everyone who listens to them is necessarily a rivethead. Many Japanese artists also produce music, or rather, noise or static attracts many rivetheads such as the experimental noises of Merzbow and Massona. Many rivetheads like to justify their hardcoreness by attending many morbid and underground concerts where the dance style consists of stomping around in big boots and kicking and punching the air with evil grimaces on their faces. There has been an explosion of such concerts in the past year, such as the tours by KMFDM, Bile, Ministry, and the reassemblage of Skinny Puppy and many such bands. While these are the biggest names in music controlling the industrial scene, usually the more underground and obscure a band that a rivethead listens to is, the more elite points the rivethead gets.
Fashion is a very large part of the counterculture, just like any other. Rivethead fashion is usually a blend of cyber-Goth and crust-punk. Usually, you will see a rivethead sporting shiny, tight, and black PVC clothes, lots of spikes, pieces of circuitry randomly sticking out of places from their bodies in attempts to look like cyborgs. The goal is to look as futuristic and post apocalyptic as possible. Accessories are spikes, lots of shiny things, big chunky combat boots and goggles to shield their weak human eyes from the radiation of atomic bombs. But the biggest accessory of all is the synthetic hair. Fake neon-colored hair braided like dreads and attached to the scalp. Usually the bigger the better, but some take it to a ridiculous degree to where they have excessive mountains of synthetic falls atop their head weighing it down so much they will most likely experience back problems later in their lives. The difference between Rivetheads and Goths is that Goths tend to wear flowing black clothes, emphasizing a Victorian look, and sad makeup. But sometimes the fashions merge a little too close for comfort and the only distinguishable thing would be one’s attitude. A trend among these two close and intertwining subcultures are shaved eyebrows. They usually use eyeliner to draw on eyebrows for more emphasis.
Rivetheads are quick to respond with violence, mean words or a sub cultural pop quiz of names and bands when opposed by someone of another subculture or someone they suspect to be a fake infiltrating their scene. The largest concentration of rivetheads is in Toronto, Seattle and New York City. Many are also attracted to Germany because of the industrious past of the country and the numerous musical influences that are German-based. Rivetheads would be most happy to work in factories or hardware stores such as Home Depot where they are constantly surrounded with shiny tools to catch their attention.
