Teen Gothic

I like music that is emotional and also technical

This is so random??

Take this down if it doesn’t fit.

But what I found the most interesting was how many people with this Facebook group, utterly detest goth music to such a degree. They hate it. Hate its founders. And can’t understand why anyone would listen or form a community around it.

However, they are the type of people who will say that to be goth is not to listen to the music. They all say that it is a mindset, a style, an aesthetic, a historical group, spooky, scary, all of that, but refuse to ever say that the music means anything, and that’s why rhetoric which dismisses goth music as the key to the goth subculture is so harmful.

Goth music is quite literally the one thing which keeps these assholes out on the sidelines because they hate it, aesthetics and fashion does not! Nazi’s and conservatives are like those parasites which infect weak insects, control their bodies and lead them to their colony to continue the infection. The swatskia, totenkoph, skinheads, are just a few examples of Nazi’s co-opting and taking ahold of aesthetics to force their ideology.

They will use aesthetics to draw in the masses under a guise of the dark innocence and the they use it as a way to promote their ideology. Regardless of how you feel about goth and it’s relation to music, I think it’s quite obvious how decentralizing the music to replace it with a “mindset” or those who “feel goth”, just leaves more room for those who “feel goth”, but are also bigots. That’s what I gathered.

I read someone’s comment, and please take credit for it, but they said it isn’t gatekeeping we need, it’s standards and I must agree. That community hates goth and all it stands for, no room for them at all!

What I'm about to write isn't just about recounting my memories, but about addressing the countless questions that so many young people ask themselves: "What does it mean to be goth?" and "Am I goth enough?"

I wouldn't say I'm an old goth, but I was goth at a time and in a place where it had a very strong meaning. By the 2000s, we were already far removed from the original movement, but there was a revival. I was lucky enough to experience it in a European capital at that time. There were parties, bars, bands, and artists. Since we didn't yet have smartphones, social media, etc., if you were part of that scene, it was truly because you wanted to be, because you'd been introduced to the right people. There was this network aspect that really gave it its underground feel. You didn't end up there by chance, but because you were looking for something unusual. All social classes mingled.

Naturally, it attracted all sorts of strange characters. We all came from completely messed-up families, many had experienced terrible things. And I think what united us psychologically was the desire to confront the darkness. We had experienced violence, perversion, things that were very traumatic for teenagers, and we drew our strength from a kind of revenge. Yes, we dressed in black, yes, we shocked people, yes, we listened to music that talked about death, that blasphemed and talked about sex and cemeteries, yes, people gave us dirty looks in the street, none of that scared us, we liked playing with fear, maybe because we were often very afraid in the development of our personalities. It was therapeutic, in a way.

I'm not judging the young people who want to rebuild this movement, which has already been alive and dead several times. But seriously, if you want to keep this going: don't worry about whether you fit in. Don't be afraid to be disruptive, to be the only one saying something, don't try to play it safe, but don't be mean either, but accept that it's a playground for what makes you uncomfortable. If you go there trying to please others, you'll miss out on what creates the energy and you won't experience anything worthwhile. What will connect you to others is breaking boundaries together, including your own. You're not there by chance, so go for it, and see what happens. Go on an adventure, don't be afraid, you're going to rock.

Can anyone recommend anything? I love the bass vi and I love how it’s energetic but calm and washed out at the same time and really want more goth music like that to listen to

https://preview.redd.it/y3r0azv6af1e1.png?width=521&format=png&auto=webp&s=a8ba9dcfc81c543aa482aebb48f75b794ecfa20d

So, I recently was accepted as a DJ at my colleges radio station and want to play a lot of goth and goth-adjacent (bands loved by many goths but not actually goth) music during my hour on air. I already have some artists I enjoy and plan on playing like bauhaus, christian death, siouxsie and the banshees, scary bitches, etc, but I'd really appreciate some more goth and goth-adjacent music recommendations.

I'd also appreciate "clean" (no curse words or in a non-english language) song recs if I get stuck with a slot during the day time.

If you had to pick exactly one song from one artist, whether you were alive when it came out or not, to see played live…what would that song be?

Maybe I'm just oversimplifying it, but it really seems like only one core tenant needs to truly be met to claim oneself as goth: listen to and appreciate the music. If the music isn't goth, there's nothing wrong with that, but the subculture is based around the music.

Bonus points for the makeup, the clothing, the philosophies, the books, the movies, etc. But being goth is really so straightforward, at least in my mind.

I'm sharing it here because it seems related even though the sub is talking about the music.

There is something about self-expression that is super hard if you have social anxiety or if you grew up in a conservative home.

Even years before I got into the goth scene as a young girl I was very anxious to stand out or look strange especially from where I come from.

The thing is that I wanted to stand out but my social anxiety together with the conservative and primitive home I come from I couldn't.

I still look at goths and say "one day I can look like that without caring what everyone or my family says".

I'm also not a social person so it's much harder to find "people like you".

So how many of you had this problem and overcame it ?