I am curious as to what most people perceive "Goth" as. Please explain your views in a respectful manner. Please respect those of others as well.

When I think of goth, I first think of the stereotype: people dressed darkly with maybe lots of makeup, probably a frown on their face, and some piercing and spike apparel, etc.

Art. I think of art.

My avatar is what I would perceive as a gothic style.

How is it a stereotype? Literally every Goth I have ever seen or known fits this exact thing. They try to be that way. So hasn't it transcended a stereotype and become an actuality?

Depends. Do you mean classic Gothical Architecture, literature, art and caligraphy. Or the cliche black hair, eyeliner, nail polish, pale skin, and horrible music taste Goths?

It does say "subculture" right there in the title, people.

pretty much this then. And it's not like there's a shortage of them when I was in HS, college, and when I go to the mall.

I think of the 90s.

Well, I joined a vampire cult. No half-assing it for me. We track down virgins and svck their blood. I plan to live like 100 yrs or so.

I guess the post-punk stuff like Siouxsie (a few of the girls in my class really styled themselves on her... this would've been in the early 1980s!) and later bands and their fans such as the The Mission, Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim are what I tend to associate with it most of all. I think I went through my "wearing black everything phase" when I was at college 25 years ago but largely lost interest after that, though I still like a lot of the music. Other friends who were into the goth scene at the time seem to have become more likely to be metal fans these days.

Or in short, I suppose I view it largely as a music genre and its following.

I think of a Germanic tribe that moved south from Gotland, Sweden, eventually splitting into two subgroups and conquering vast swathes of territory before being driven westward by the Huns and eventually being completely culturally subsumed by other peoples.

I only think of the music (more specifically the band Bauhaus), there's a difference between scene kids and goths and there's no goths at my school.

Emo... but way less whiny and suicidal.

This is generally what pops into my mind as well - I know it to be the stereotype, obviously. There were a few goths in my high-school - one of my friends briefly became a goth, though once she went off to college it faded away for her as an identity / way of dress.

... *facepalm* You have just about defined the word "stereotype" there.

There is really no way to "transcend" a stereotype. Unless you know 100% of the people who are in a group do X or Y, it's a generalization. Even statistics cannot demonstrate that 100% of any one group does X or Y.

I see a Paradox starting lol. I am explaining how they are but by explaining I am explaining a stereotype but I am saying it isn't a stereotype. But seriously they go out of their way to dress in black, wear eye liner, black nail polish, baggy chained pants. No one does that by accident.

Again, anecdotal and a generalization. It's like saying all furries wear fursuits or all gamers live in their mom's basemant.

Good point.

Are you saying there are goths who don't dress that way? Blasphemy.

The 30 or so goths on this island all dress that way, so it must be true! TRUE!!

Goths build nice cathedrals but they have rather bad taste in clothing and music.

Goth originally sprouted from a music group, with quite a unique dress style and art style of themselves. It became a rather funny subculture when people began to correlate it with vampire, renassiance dressing style, especially when the Japanese made use lots of it in their lolita culture. So I'd say it's safe to say whoever wears black liner with pale face and pretended they're all alone and emo are goths, thanks to Anne Rice's emotional vampire prince always looking for true love to redeem his soul ughh...

This I assume OP is referring to the "Goth" instead of historical "Goths" tribe.

I am indeed referring to the modern "Gothic" culture as opposed to historical one, yes.

I suppose it's easy to know 100% of all goths on an island the size of Malta.

OMG you're so smart and educated and funny! And what a completely unpredictable joke you make! Oh wait...


... yeah.



To answer the OP's original question, I've been to a few underground goth parties in my city (which has a bit of a goth scene) and it still surprises me how many people still associate goth with bands like Cradle of Filth or Nightwish. Some even call the genre "gothic rock", where it has nothing to do with gothic. The whole vampire shtick is also, if memory serves, not a staple of "true" goth culture. Unless I'm gravely mistaken, most goths listen to electro, industrial, dark wave and the like, and wear 'modern', specially designed clothing, often with studs and chains, and most men wear long skirts. There is also the occasional gas mask. And those awful, awful mesh shirts.

I'd like to think of myself as cultured, intelligent and open minded, but the first thing that popped into my head was Richmond from The IT Crowd.