Teen Gothic

I follow several music/subculture reddits and almost none of them have people asking if they truly fit the title or not, absolutely none have near as many people asking this as I constantly see here in r/goth.

As far as I've always been concerned, the only opinion that should matter is your own when it comes to self image and applying labels is futile, you're allowed to enjoy something without being boxed in by the eyes of others. That's kind of a major point of punk/goth/metal's foundation as far as I understand it.

I'm not trying to disparage, but I am genuinely curious why this seems so consistant here. Any speculation as to why this particular subreddit seems so desperate for the approval of others and some silly sense of permission to consider themselves a part of the culture?

People are so rude when they’re told that that’s not what goth music sounds like. It does not fall within any of the genres. Other bands in the same genre as TON are never called goth either. No one is like “My favorite goth band is Moonspell”. They’ll act like they’re so educated on the subculture and say things like “gothic metal is goth” yet never talk about other bands that aren’t TON.

I’m 18 and i wanna go to goth places like a goth club or rave or whatever. i live like an hour away from seattle and 20 minutes from poulsbo.