From myspace to the streets of lagos

Jan Hoek is an artist and writer in Amsterdam. Stephen Tayo is a photographer in Lagos. Edwin Okolo is a writer and editor in Lagos

ROCK music is often produced and enjoyed under the pressure of social constraints, and the restrictive culture of post-dictatorial Nigeria made for a perfect cooker.

In the 1990s and 2000s, teenagers who rejected the country’s politics of restraint in dress, physical appearance and behaviour embraced American punk and metal imports.

Footage of Western concertgoers dancing in defiance of any discernible rhythm, alone in a throng of bodies, moving with careless abandon to music, presented a possible escape.

Many of these young Nigerians first encountered bands beloved by early 2000s emo kids – Linkin

Park, Evanescence, Paramore, Fall

Out Boy – online and, through the exchange of music, formed a digital community. They called themselves Gothics, shorthand for a composite of binding beliefs and aesthetics from different rock subgenres, including dark clothing, severe make-up and an obsession with death.

“The scene’s true beginnings are the MySpace groups from the early 2000s,” said Cheyi Okoaye, 30, who runs the music website Audio Inferno.

“MySpace used to let you create and save these playlists, and many of us would sleep over in cyber cafés just to discover new bands.”

In the last decade, Nigeria’s Gothics have taken their act offline. Each year they congregate at Rocktoberfest, the only festival in Nigeria dedicated to rock and alternative music. It has become a crucial meeting place for members of the country’s underground rock community.

“I’m grounded,” said Kaego Odiah, a 19-year-old student at the University of Lagos who had come to Freedom Park in Lagos for the festival. “I snuck out of the house because I had to be here.”

Rocktoberfest presents a rare opportunity for fans to dress unselfconsciously in their gothic uniform of funereal black. At the smaller but more frequent sing-off parties held in karaoke bars around the city, for example, many Gothics come straight from their day jobs, still in dress shirts and ties, and try to avoid meeting anyone they