Teen Gothic

I've been thinking about this for a while, as "listening to the music" always seems to be the criteria when people ask if someone is goth. A lot of people who dress quite goth get called posers or something like it because they don't listen to any goth bands, but don't the clothes have at least some say in the matter?

I have heard many people that the cure is goth music but I’ve also heard other say that it is not. What do you think?

I've listened to Joy Divisions first album a few times because i assumed they were widely considered the first goth rock band, the Ramones of goth essentially. Only to now find out they're considered a proto-goth band apparently, the mc5 of goth if we're sticking with the punk rock allegory.

So what band then is considered the first 100% goth band. Not proto-goth, not an inspiration for goth, genuine goth music

I'm somewhat new to the music and I'm just genuinly curious what makes someone goth to you, because I've heard different things at this point

My picks would be Disintegration and Floodland, but I’d love to hear other people’s choices, especially if it’s lesser known stuff.

I was watching a live performance of Jesus and Mary chain and they looked pretty goth to me, what do y'all think?

So, I enjoy industrial, ebm and goth music. I enjoy industrial and ebm way more and I don’t identify myself with goth subculture but I know plenty about it due to my interest in the music as well. Being surrounded by each crowd, I notice that a lot of goth people always label industrial and sometimes ebm bands (but I mostly just see people label industrial) that don’t fall under any goth genres as goth. I know that industrial and goth music were/still are two peas in a pod in clubs and stuff so I feel that has something to do with it buut. I’m just curious and want to know from a goth who considers industrial and/or ebm a part of goth, why?

Just genuinely curious and wanna know if I’m missing something!

Ive been getting more into goth music for the past month or so and I wanted to see what other songs people considered perfect. And I know theres “no such thing as perfect” but I figured everyone has to at least have that one song they cant just get enough of.

Might seem like a stupid question, i'm just curious about people's opinions. There are names that are well known as being the early creators of goth; Bauhaus, Siouxie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, etc. But then there are artists like Joy Division where a lot of people consider them goth, but then a lot of people within the goth community label them as post punk and not "true" goth.

Where do you draw the line, or do you see them as the same?

Hello there everyone, hope y’all are having a lovely day. So I would say that I’ve only realized recently that I’d think of myself as a part of this subculture (always loved gothic horror in video games, music and movies like Castlevania, black metal and what have you, but recently for the past year or so I’ve been listening to a lot of goth music to the point where it’s more than half of what I listen to,) but I feel kinda guilty for calling myself a goth because I don’t dress the part.

The thing is I live in a country where that is very frowned upon (to the point where I don’t think we even have a goth community here, and if we do they’re definitely minuscule, because I have literally never met another goth person before.)

Even the way I dress now I get a lot of funny looks from people (aka I literally just wear metal band T-shirts and I’ll still get funny looks from people.)

Like I remember I once wore black nail polish and got a lot of shit from people because apparently I looked too “gay” for them (for some reason a lot of people are very backwards and think you can look “gay” and they still think that being gay is a bad thing and is something you can use to insult people) and mainly for all this from my parents as they believe that men should have short hair, dress nicely, etc. (btw I know I sound like a teenager but I’m not that young, I just turned 20 last week and still live with my parents because of college.)

Over the past two years I’ve been really getting into the goth subculture (before this I’d say that I was more of a metal head and industrial person that had gothic tendencies haha,) but because I can’t dress the part (even though I’d love to) I’m not sure if I can still be considered a part of this sub culture.

Do let me know what you guys think yea, and apologies if this question turned into a bit of a rant.