Teen Gothic

Song and lyrics from Lebanon Hanover, the world is get album

So this is a funny little rabbit hole I just found myself in

I was looking into the UK based Goth band Witching Hour who formed in (edit: 1980s) and trying to find what they've put out and also where I can pick up their music from as I like what they do.

Then I ran into a Germany based metal band that formed in 2006 called Witching Hour

Then I ran into what appears to be a Alice Cooper inspired project from 2013 called Witching Hour from a Maryland based guitar maker called Tony Leicht

And then to cap it all off I found another act called Witching Hour from 2022 that's like horror movie inspired electronica music in the vein of Trevor Something

And yes as you can probably guess all of these are getting mushed together and this isn't didn't confuse me at all during my searches.

As the title says, I've recently gotten super into gothic fashion after admiring it for most of my life, and I finally built up the confidence to start buying and creating outfits from a local alternative fashion store in the past few months. I absolutely love how it looks on me and already have amassed quite a wardrobe of goth wear, from dresses to corsets to pentagram skirts, and have even started learning new makeup skills to match.

Through this I've ended up reconnecting with an old friend from back in school who has been wearing goth fashion for years and whose fashion sense really inspired me back in the day. Today I sent her a text with pics of some of my new outfits and was excited to want to talk with her again; however the response she had confused me.

She essentially told me while goth fashion is fun, "just don't forget to educate yourself on all the goth subculture too." I feel this is phrased weirdly as if it was more of a warning rather than an invitation to learn more about what being goth meant as I assumed at first.

This has left me a bit confused, and I can't tell if she's supportive of my new style or slightly gatekeep-y. Is she saying I can't wear gothic fashion if I don't understand the intricacies of goth subculture? Is this a suggestion that how I've gone about wearing goth fashion is wrong and that I need to educate myself on how to wear it properly? Or is it simply a friendly suggestion to look into the subculture that could help me improve wearing gothic attire?

Would anyone have some idea of what this could mean and how important educating yourself on the goth subculture is? Thank you in advance!

Is it just used to describe any post punk alternative genre? Bc ik dark wave is goth but synth wave isn't.

I hope this is the right place to ask. I'm just a curious metalhead who's not super familiar with goth culture (though I've always thought y'all are cool), so I apologize if this is a dumb question. But I have to know.

I see many goths wearing rosaries and I've always thought it's just because it looks good, but I came across someone saying that many goths wear it to express anti-conservatism or anti-christianity. I've never heard about that before and rosaries are a religious thing, so it feels counter intuitive. So I come to you to ask, is any of this true? Can someone explain the connection to anti-conservatism and anti-religiousness?

Im goth and I wear spiked chokers and everyone at my school thinks I’m into bdsm. It’s rlly annoying and makes me anxious. I won’t stop wearing it but I would like to put a little knowledge into their thick skulls

Thank you all for the help.