Teen Gothic

Fully aware a lot of bands make money through merch. Yet why be rude if people don't buy your merch. They're a band rather popular now in the scene that got rather upset at people not buying anything from their table. The lead went outside me and my friend were waiting guess he thought we were trying to talk to him we weren’t like geez how self entitled does one have to be.. like the amount of negative behavior is insane. The merch people deserve better like no one can make people buy band merch. Yet being rude isn't helping neither. I'm not calling this band out in hopes they do have respect for the audience and we caught them on a bad day just disappointing especially when they were trying to lecture the entire audience on being friends partially tired of seeing fraudulent bands get respect then lose it when no one buys merch from them. Even the main act didn't sell much merch. Any musician should know touring is hard and you can't always "win" a crowd. Thoughts on muscians/bands that do this?

this has probably come up in discussion but hopefully i’m not the only one who gets irritated by people on tiktok trying to say what gothic style/makeup is trad or not? i understand that certain gothic looks can “categorize” as trad/romantic/victorian/etc. but i feel as if they’ve sucked the creativity specifically out of trad style/makeup as if a lot of trad goths didn’t/don’t have their own personal style of clothes/makeup. literally the point (from what i’ve heard, i could be wrong) was to go against social norms, so now that they’re “policing” people’s styles/makeup feels weird. idk the superiority complex that people have on tiktok about “being trad goth” rubs me the wrong way. it feels very try hard, like all you gotta do is listen to the music and go from there… don’t even get me started about the whole “you need a white base to be goth” or thinking goths just wear black and white, no colors. opinions appreciated in the comments 🙂

Baby bat here and I was abruptly reminded of an infamous webtoon comic that was literally named Goth. They look like what you would get if you combined e-boy, punk, emo, and all sorts of “edgy” styles together into one unholy mess. Also turns out, the author says the “goth” character is their self-insert. And then proceeds to post photos of them in the most un-goth fashion style. I know goth isn’t about the way you dress but the way that person presented themselves was a complete misrepresentation of what goths actually are.

This kind of misrepresentation just makes me really frustrated because it erases the music part of what it means to be goth and waters it down to just wearing black and edgy things. Things like these also frustrate me a lot because music is extremely important to me because it is a powerful method of communicating and expressing emotions. Music is something very rich in expression and it pains me to see people remove goth music, the very thing that goth subculture is built upon, and replace it with this strange version of “goth” that is being presented.

Please don’t send hate to them if you know who they are. This is just a rant to blow off steam. I just think that goth music is beautiful and great and all I want is for other people to see that and appreciate it as well.

anyone else bothered by this? it doesn't really bother me but I just think it'd be nice to be friends with fellow goths, I don't have friends with the same tastes, but in my country (Tunisia, in north africa) there's barely any alt people yet alone goths, no scene no underground no nothing lol, the only person I found that listens to goth music ended up ghosting me too lmao, so basically I have no hope of making goth friends IRL, but at least there's the internet 🙂

(This is a full on rant, I'm very sorry).

Social media can be wonderful. It's a way to find new hobbies and interests, communities of like minded individuals, and events people like you can attend. It's an excellent place for baby bats to start discovering bits of goth. But…

…Maybe I'm just a salty old woman yelling at a cloud, but I feel there has to be a modicum of gate keeping or boundary setting when it comes to any subculture to differentiate it from the "mainstream". I'm not talking about rigorous policing or being mean to others, but simple things like "you cannot be goth if you don't listen to the music (in any gothic genre), or you're not interested in media like films or books". I'll not include fashion as a hard and fast rule because there are so many gothic styles, and depending on your current life situation it may not be appropriate or safe to dress in certain ways, but it'd be like claiming to be a metalhead without listening to any metal, and wearing a Metallica T shirt because you unironically think it's a brand. Saying you're goth doesn't make you goth.
Living in the age of "big titty goth g f uwu", fast fashion "goth brands" like Killstar, and the co-opting of any and all alternative subculture styles by teens on tiktok, who will do anything to stand out but at the same time know jack shit about any of it is infuriating. Yes the fashion industry slips into a 'lil goth every now and then (just means good finds in the sales lol), but it knows exactly what it's doing and it's two faced about it.

I have personally known on separate occasions two young people who have both been abhorrent, raised by the internet types who have done nothing but very literally, and incredibly embarrassingly, shout about how goth they are in public, whilst neither of them listen to, know of, or dress anything anywhere near anything goth. Mainstream Gen Z goth (what) seems to be incredibly watered down and completely fashion or fetish based in order to get attention. It's all to stand out on the net to get their account noticed, then they ditch the entire thing when they actually leave the house. (Of course this isn't everyone, and I have met some lovely young, genuine goth kids). It's especially upsetting being a woman and now being the object of fetishization AGAIN because of the Big Titty Gf thing.

You might be sat there thinking "she's saying all this, but I bet she was the same when she was younger" but the thing is, I've never, ever called myself goth, nor have I ever tried to fit in with it. I've always liked what I've liked and dressed how I wanted and it's ended up with being goth. When I talk about a band, film, book, location etc. I know what I'm talking about, it's not for show. Goth mates both older and younger than me are the same. No one goes around proclaiming to be goth in public, they just are.

Maybe it's just be being a big old salt stick, but just saying you are something doesn't make you something. I'm not "invalidating your existence" or "being a hater", if you are pretending to be goth for attention online and it's obvious to anyone who knows their stuff. Because any and all criticism is shot down, absolutely anything is goth in some circles and the problem is, when everything is goth, nothing is.

Something that irritates me..

These guys are acting really weird these days since they want a 'goth partner' for some reason and its weird.

but because I'm a goth guy I'm cringe or something among these words.

They've been only creepy towards girls and it's annoying tbh. My friend(who's a goth girl) had normal guys acting weird around her for no reason.

(this is no hate whatsoever towards normal guys, I've just been noticing their creepy/weird behaviour toward goth people)

-random baby bat.

I am still relatively new to goth in general but something that really annoys me with the recent subculture trends on social media is that people try too hard to get into them on the terms of looks but then only listen to a few bands that are considered mainstream in that community and use it to act like they’re "different" or "underground". They only care about the "aesthetic" and don’t want to be called posers but aren’t that much interested in the music itself .

That specific person acted shocked when I said I listened to The Cure, Bauhaus , TsOm ect even after two of our friends who aren’t goth at all said they knew all the bands.

I’ll admit it, in comparison to any elder goth my music taste is pretty basic.

They don’t seem to understand there is a difference between being new to a subculture and actually looking into it and bragging about a few things everyone in that community knows.

And obviously this doesnt work for just goth, it applies to a lot of other subcultures with grunge, metal genres especially lately ,ect