Teen Gothic

I first started listening to The Soft Moon in 2015 and I immediately was blown away by their sound. ‘Zeros’ was the first song I heard and I couldn’t get enough. Ever since then, I was hoping for the opportunity to catch them live and it wasn’t until November 2022 that I finally had the opportunity to see them. Hands down, one of the most energetic shows I’ve ever been to. Luis knew how to move a crowd. His music was incredible, I hope everyone takes the moment to listen to this band if they haven’t, we lost a great one today. 🥀

first post on reddit ever – so i thought i'd share one of my favorite underrated artists

every single song on the palest grey's debut album "always haunted" is excellent. killer debut – i think they're going places

https://thepalestgrey.bandcamp.com/album/always-haunted

just saw a post on a non-goth related subreddit that happened to feature a goth woman, and so many people in the comments were implying or outright saying that she's only dressing goth to be "unique" or to feel superior. and i wonder what are your thoughts on this mindset?

i personally just don't understand this train of thought at all. just because dark fashion came into the mainstream a couple years ago doesn't mean everyone who's goth is only doing it because they wanna stand out. the woman in the post wasn't even the trendy sort of goth! i legitimately love this subculture and it honestly makes me a bit mad.

of course there were also snarky comments about how she dresses that way to feel unique but dresses like every other goth 🙄 like yes, that's sort of an aspect of nearly any subculture, you guessed it! fashion is still a thing in subcultures and it doesn't discredit someone's gothness just because they dress similar to other goths.

one time i got a comment on one of my own selfies saying i should make sure i actually like being alternative instead of only liking it because it's different. still irritates me to this day tbh. why make such a hefty assumption about a stranger? i don't dress how i do just to stand out, i dress how i do because i love it! it makes me feel like myself and increases my confidence.

btw i'm not implying that goth is merely looks, this issue is just fashion-centric. anyway, rant over lmao

A couple of my first goth albums were the cure and lycia back in the 90s/early 2000s. But at the time I don't think I realized these groups were considered goth. At that time, I think I was aware that goth music existed, but I don't think I really knew what it was or what it was defined as.

Even many years later, after getting into other bands like Bauhaus and Christian Death, I don't think when I bought their albums I knew they were "goth". It wasn't until decades later after I bought my first goth albums that I learned that a lot of the music I listened to and enjoyed was considered goth.

Anyone else experience this?

Okay so maybe not always, but very often it seems you get band shirts that look like this – seemingly posterized to such an extent that you can barely tell who or what you're looking at unless you already know. And at least in some cases this seems to be an intentional choice rather than the result of limitations, since the same bands will have great album art, photos, or other designs that could likely be used instead or in addition, but aren't despite those same designs sometimes appearing on other items they mass-produce.

What is the reasoning here? Am I missing something? Do you enjoy how these kinds of designs look? Please let me know.

Ultimately taste is subjective and I'm not trying to insult anyone here. I love my favs and typically buy their merch no matter how I feel about how it looks; I just wish more of the designs were aligned with my tastes and am a bit confused as to why things are the way they are.