Teen Gothic

I've never been to a goth show before, and i went to see French Police and was kind of taken back by all the people moshing, doesn't really seem like mosh kind of music.

I was thinking it kinda seems weird for goth to not be something you started with as a teen. Curious as to how common it is.

I made this account specifically for this sub, please let me know if I’m doing something wrong or delete if not allowed. I think I used the correct flair.

Hi! I’m writing a story set in the mid 90s, and one of the characters is starting to explore the goth subculture. I’ve been doing research, but nothing really compares to first hand experiences. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share anything about their experience during that time period!

What made you connect with the subculture? What were your favorite bands? What was the scene really like? What were clubs like? What media did you enjoy? How did non-goths treat/react to goths? What experiences did you have on web forums? What kind of discourse went on amongst the community? What was dating like in the scene?

In regards to the last question: women who were goth in the 90s, what were men like? Both goth and non-goth. Nowadays there’s a whole meme related to the fetishization of goth women, and I can only imagine it wasn’t all that different in the 90s, but I’m curious about how it presented back then. The character I’m writing is a woman, so this is some insight I’m particularly interested in.

Anything at all helps, even small stories or memories! I’m especially interested in little details or things that you or your friends did that most people who weren’t in the scene at the time would know about.

I’ve done a lot of searching for first-hand experiences of the subculture, but with the 90s revival and the ever-growing misuse of the term “goth”, search results have been quite muddled. Thanks for reading!

I can definitely differentiate in many cases but I’m curious to how to properly differentiate it music wise because a lot of gothic rock sounds like standard post-punk and whenever I hear a post punk song I wonder if it’s gothic rock, ik lyrical themes play a big role and all but I wanna know how to properly tell the difference, I’m still learning about the subculture so I’m open to learning.