CSS: how to have transparent background with the blend mode only affecting/being clipped to the (text) content?

Question

Here is the code I have. I think it's fairly obvious what I am trying to achieve - I want to remove the black background behind the text, however, when I simply remove the black background css, the gradient layer just shows, since it's not clipped to the text.

body {
    margin: 0;
    height: 100vh;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
    background:url('https://wallpapersite.com/images/pages/pic_w/16658.jpg') no-repeat center center fixed;
    background-size: cover;
}

.neon {
    position: relative;
    overflow: hidden;
    filter: brightness(200%);
}

.text {
    background-color: black;
    color: white;
    font-size: 100px;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-family: sans-serif;
    text-transform: uppercase;
    position: relative;
    user-select: none;
}

.text::before {
    content: attr(data-text);
    position: absolute;
    color: white;
    filter: blur(0.02em);
    mix-blend-mode: difference;
}

.gradient {
    position: absolute;
    background: linear-gradient(45deg, #00f7ff, #f545d7, #0085ff, #6945f5, #005aff);
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    mix-blend-mode: multiply;
}

.spotlight {
    position: absolute;
    top: -100%;
    left: -100%;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    background: 
        radial-gradient(
            circle,
            white,
            transparent 25%
        ) center / 25% 25%,
        radial-gradient(
            circle,
            white,
            black 25%
        ) center / 12.5% 12.5%;
    animation: light 5s linear infinite;
    mix-blend-mode: color-dodge;
}

@keyframes light {
    to {
        transform: translate(50%, 50%);
    }
}

<div class="neon">
  <span class="text" data-text="NIGHT SKY">NIGHT SKY</span>
  <span class="gradient"></span>
  <span class="spotlight"></span>
</div>

Anyway, I have tried a few things like messing around with some of the mix-blend-modes, adding some clipping paths etc, but couldn't get anything close to working. I think it should (?) be possible, but if it isn't, I will try some other methods tomorrow (like converting the text to a png and using the background-clip property)

Answer 1

Another mix-blend-mode will fix it. Use lighten in this case to remove the black part you don't want:

html {
  background:#fff; /* this is needed to make sure the blending works fine (any color will do the trick) */
}

body {
  margin: 0;
  height: 100vh;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  background: url('https://wallpapersite.com/images/pages/pic_w/16658.jpg') no-repeat center center fixed;
  background-size: cover;
}

.neon {
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
  filter: brightness(200%);
  mix-blend-mode:lighten; /* here */
}

.text {
  background-color: black;
  color: white;
  font-size: 100px;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  position: relative;
  user-select: none;
}

.text::before {
  content: attr(data-text);
  position: absolute;
  color: white;
  filter: blur(0.02em);
  mix-blend-mode: difference;
}

.gradient {
  position: absolute;
  background: linear-gradient(45deg, #00f7ff, #f545d7, #0085ff, #6945f5, #005aff);
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  mix-blend-mode: multiply;
}

.spotlight {
  position: absolute;
  top: -100%;
  left: -100%;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  background: radial-gradient( circle, white, transparent 25%) center / 25% 25%, radial-gradient( circle, white, black 25%) center / 12.5% 12.5%;
  animation: light 5s linear infinite;
  mix-blend-mode: color-dodge;
}

@keyframes light {
  to {
    transform: translate(50%, 50%);
  }
}

<div class="neon">
  <span class="text" data-text="NIGHT SKY">NIGHT SKY</span>
  <span class="gradient"></span>
  <span class="spotlight"></span>
</div>