goth

1)A Goth is a fan of gothic rock who looks the part. If you spend all your money on the fashion but still don’t listen to the music, or if you spend all your money on the music but still don’t look the part, then you aren’t a Goth. Goth is not a “state of mind”. Goths do not listen to black metal, worship the devil, or are suicidal/homicidal. Sadly, there are people who will actually follow these stereotypes(posers). 2)Goth is a style of music and fashion that started in the late 1970's/early 1980's as an offshoot of punk. In reality, goths aren’t any more “dark” than mundanes (average people). It has vertually nothing to do with being different, depressed, suicidal or the word “gothic”. The first band to be called Goth was Joy Division when their music was described as “20th century gothic dance music”. After that, this style of music was called “gothic rock”, which really had nothing to do with the ancient Germanic tribe, The Goths, Gothic architecture, or the Gothic period. Then there was Siouxsie and the Banshees(who were actually a punk band), whose look and sound was immitated by various future Goth bands. Bauhaus was probably the first actual Goth band. Their song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”(which is the ultimate Goth theme song) came out on the soundtrack of The Hunger, a vampire movie featuring David Bowie in ’79. Following Bauhaus were other early Goth bands like Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, Dead Can Dance, Rosetta Stone, etc. While Goth was more inspired by Glam, Deathrock(which was also happening at the time) was more inspired by horror-punk. Some early Deathrock bands include Christian Death, Alien Sex Fiend, 45 Grave, and Specimen(who opened the popular club The Batcave). In the 1990’s when Goth was first popularized, there came a little band called Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids. This is basically what started the “mallcore” thing. A mall Goth is someone who wears baggy black clothes/shops at hot topic, hangs out at the mall, wears horrible looking makeup and listens to bands like Manson, Korn, Slipknot, Cradle of Filth, The Birthday Massacre, etc. Basically a poser. This is also the time when Industrial, Cyber Goth and Rivithead got big. Things that were called Goth were straying more and more from what it truly was. Some sub-genres of Goth(a few that I’ve already mentioned above) include deathrock, batcave, gothabilly, darkwave, EBM, ambient, ethereal, post-punk, etc. Some popular Goth aesthetics include Romantigoth, Cyber Goth, Rivithead, Deathrocker, Gothabilly, and Classic Goth.