Teen Gothic

Please correct me if I am wrong about this and I am fully open to criticism:

For a while now I have seen a rise in berating others, especially baby bats, for interpreting a band or song as goth that another person disagrees with it/makes fun of them for thinking it is goth. I have seen legitimate harassment level messages such as death threats due to someone interpreting something as goth that another person deems incorrect. Music genres, especially this one with so many genres and subgenres, get incredibly blurry in some areas with other music (such as new wave and non-goth postpunk) and it feels wrong to say that there is an exact hard line everyone has to agree on between what is and isn’t be considered goth. Obviously not saying that BTS or Arianna Grande are goth due to interpretation as that would be straight up wrong, but for example the debates on Molchat Doma and similar seem to go wayyyy further than should. Why can’t we just “I interpret this song/band as goth” “I interpret this song differently and not as goth” “that is okay”?. The subculture is very important to me so I know that keeping the genres meanings are important, but the recent rise has kind of concerned me and a lot of the “protecting the meaning” has gone way off the rail. Has anyone noticed a similar trend? Is this a common sentiment and I’m just late to the party? How can we better approach this issue and help prevent toxicity?

Thank you!

Recs for witty/funny goth songs that are not in the caberet/folk goth genre? Especially songs that sound serious on the surface, but are not.

Please don't recommend stuff that intentionally or ironically punches down on folks, I've never found that funny.

I'll start this this off as this is a bit of a rant, I was just scrolling through instagram reels and that tiktok artist TX2 came up where he's fetishizing goth women. Naturally like the other people in the comments I also comment about not wanting to be fetishized for being goth and liking goth music. You wouldn't fetishize a woman for liking pop music.

Naturally this did upset people who fetishize goth women and during the argument I kept saying "I just don't wanna be fetishized for liking a genre of music." One of the men who was very defensive told me "You know it has nothing to do with the music." Along with "There is a fashion aspect to goth culture." Now I'm a firm believer that you don't have to dress gothic to be goth. This can be due to environment reasons, stimulation reasons, truly whatever reasons people have for just nothing being able to or wanting to dress gothic. I think as long as you listen to the music and respect the community and it's history then you yourself are goth. I think the fashion aspect is the least important to being goth. It's one of the fun parts for me as I feel good whenever I dress up even though I'm one of the people who gets over stimulated quickly I do love the look, but I only dress that way like 10% of the time.

It feels very frustrating when a non goth person who simply finds goths attractive and fetishizes them tries to tell me what is and isn't goth and then say that I'm disrespecting goths by….not wanting them to be fetishized and recognized as people who deserve to be respected?? I just wanted to kinda get that off my chest about how sometimes it just feels frustrating being goth in a world that treats goth women as an accessory. But I personally feel those same people would 100% call trad goths unattractive cause I've seen that happen online before where it's I want a goth girl but not to goth. Sorry if this rant was long and pointless just frustrating from the lack of people that actually care or know about the goth culture but try to speak on it.

i was invited to a goth event with my friend tonight and i want to go but i’m nervous. i don’t own anything black and i can’t change at the moment. would i be judged if i went to a goth event in just a t shirt and shorts? i really like the goth scene and i want to get involved in it but i’m scared people will judge me.

Maybe this is petty and I should just leave people alone but I want to vent here because it’s been driving me insane since day 1. Our local “goth” scene has ALWAYS, at least since I started going to clubs 20 years ago, been exclusively industrial music. Not industrial mixed in because we’re a small city. Industrial ONLY. For the most part it’s dead because they’ve completely failed to attract fresh blood and almost everybody else has kids and other things keeping them at home but it does seem like they’re trying to hang on with occasional events. And still, it’s all industrial. If you request Siouxie or Sisters of Mercy or something they’re unlikely to play it. It’s very grudgingly. Some old friends are taking up DJing and posting videos and it’s the same exclusively industrial playlists they’ve been playing since the early 2000s and probably before. Now when someone posts about an event or DJing it’s really hard not to say “so is there going to be any actual goth music this time or….?” I already know the answer. “Industrial is goth!” -_-

It’s hopeless and stupid and I just needed to get that out.

A friend informed me "Bauhaus isn't goth they're actually post punk." are they being pedantic or has my whole life been a lie🤔????

I'm new to goth music, I've seen some people call them goth and some refuse to do so, I'm just confused issall

I'm tryna diversify my goth playlist, that's why I'm asking.

I’ve noticed my recent songs posts getting deleted and sorta just confused about the whole thing. Last song I posted was Tears by Boy Harsher, but it broke the music relevancy on here. I guess I’m just trying to figure out what’s up with the mods on here.

I mean… they create postpunk, darkwave music why aren't they goth? Bands like Siouxsie and the banshee don't only make goth music and don't consider themselves goth but they are considered a classic goth band. why?