Teen Gothic

okay so i just want everyones opinions on this. i feel like the community is so insanely split? like people saying "oh its music based" (which it most definitely is) or "you have to wear _" or that you cant buy fast fashion etc etc. i feel like it's important to discuss but along the way we seem to lose a sense of community? like it feels like no one agrees on anything and we stopped having fun and enjoying ourselves. was it always like this or is my perception warped? i dont really know. thoughts? hope this is on subject enough lmao.

I'm still quite new here, so please go easy on me…

I've always listened to alternative music, Rock, Metal, Punk etc and more recently I've been listening to goth.

I'm listening to playlists on Spotify called things like "Real goth music" and there's a varied range of styles on there, spanning different decades. What I'm trying to work out is what ties them together and means they are classified as "goth", a lot of them I can't join the dots between, for example there's loads of Joy Division, which sounds nothing like the Sisters of Mercy.

Is it the subject matter, the vocal style, aesthetic of the band or something else, or a mixture of all three? (Or more)

The Cure have always been cited as one of the quintessential goth bands, but what makes songs like "Friday I'm in love" gothic and just not a pop song? Why is "Wasteland" by the mission not just classified as rock.

I'm trying to establish themes in my head, like bass driven melodies, chorus heavy guitars etc but this certainly isn't the rule for everything.

What makes a song goth and not just Rock, Dance, etc? I know it's not just about the aesthetic as there are people who dress in a gothic(ish) style that makes music that isn't considered goth, for example Cradle of Filth, which is probably where I first saw the whole corpse paint, black clothes aesthetic!

i’m not totally sure what flair to put here but i just wanted to talk about it somewhere. i’m a baby goth just starting to get into more of the music— you might’ve seen my posts on here before. but just recently i found out my mom was into a few well known goth bands in the 80s! she’s always had a cool music taste, i grew up on green day for example. i’ve also known she was into quite a few post-punk bands when she was younger, echo & the bunnymen and the cure being two of her favorites. she was OBSESSED with the cure and in love with robert smith i believe. but i just asked her if she also listened to bands like siouxsie & the banshees and cocteau twins since i’ve been getting into them lately and she said she was and to totally look into it! she never dressed in gothic fashion but i just thought it was super cool to know lol