What would you consider goth?

Question

People have always called a goth from the time i was in 6th grade and I never really understood the term. So would someone please TRY to explain to me what it is suppose to mean.
*And please when explaining don't degrade other people, it's rude and i'll flag u if u do...*

Answer 1

No one is goth when they're in the sixth grade. What they probably mean is you wear a lot of black and aren't very perky. That's not what goths really are about. Being goth has nothing to do with what clothes you wear or music you listen to, it is a way of thinking and seeing the world. The clothes that goths wear and the music that goths listen to is just a reflection of that mindset. Goths see that there is extreme pain and evil in the world, along with the good. Instead of condemning it or ignoring it, goths accept these things as a part of life and try and enjoy the good along with the bad, since they can't stop the bad from happening. They are not obsessed with death, they just accept it as an inevitability. They do not try and cause more pain in their (or anybody else's) lives, since there is plenty to start with. Goths tend to be kind, intelligent, non-violent, emotional, and artistic.

Answer 2

Usually someone whos just into darker things that may be creepy to others. Wearing all black has NOTHING to do with it, its just a darker look of life, and no that doesn't mean goths are 100% depressed all the time. They're just different by their music, what they read, how they act and other things. Vampires dont make you gothic, black lipstick doesn't make you gothic, and being pale does not make you gothic, its just who you are.

Their music usually has a classical or industrial vibe to it, and no, metal is not goth. Goth really started out as a Bowie-style glam, but with a darker, horror-type twist.

If you listen to The sisters of mercy, bauhaus, specimen, siouxsie, alien sex fiend, christian death, switchblade symphony, combichrist, ect. then you would understand the gothic music which really is where it all started, just like any other label.

Do some research online if you still have questions.

Answer 3

You may be a goth if you wear long black garb, dye your hair black, have a white-pasty face, and wear black lipstick. You may be a goth if your favorite books are by Anne Rice and all have the word, "Vampire" in the title. You may be a goth if the sunlight makes you squint and you prefer hanging out in darkened buildings for late nite raves. Goth is short for "gothic" and if you see the gargoyles in gothic cathedrals, and read gothic romances about dark mansions and watch gothic TV shows like the old "Dark Shadows" then you are into the goth culture and lifestyle.

That is my impression of goth-ness.

Answer 4

Someone who wears a lot of black & is into dark fantasy?

Answer 5

The original Goths were an Eastern Germanic tribe who played an important role in the fall of the western Roman Empire. In some circles, the name "goth" later became pejorative: synonymous with "barbarian" and the uncultured due to the then-contemporary view of the fall of Rome and historically inaccurate depictions of the pagan Gothic tribes during and after the process of Christianization of Europe. During the Renaissance period in Europe, medieval architecture was retroactively labeled gothic architecture, and was considered unfashionable in contrast to the then-modern lines of classical architecture.

In the United Kingdom, by the late 1700s, however, nostalgia for the medieval period led people to become fascinated with medieval gothic ruins. This fascination was often combined with an interest in medieval romances, Roman Catholic religion and the supernatural. Enthusiasts for gothic revival architecture in the United Kingdom were led by Horace Walpole, and were sometimes nicknamed "goths", the first positive use of the term in the modern period.[citation needed]

The gothic novel of the late eighteenth century, a genre founded by Horace Walpole with the 1764 publication of The Castle of Otranto, was responsible for the more modern connotations of the term gothic. Henceforth, the term was associated with a mood of horror, morbidity, darkness and the supernatural. The gothic novel established much of the iconography of later horror literature and cinema, such as graveyards, ruined castles or churches, ghosts, vampires, nightmares, cursed families, being buried alive and melodramatic plots. Another notable element was the brooding figure of the gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero. The most famous gothic villain is the vampire, Dracula, originally depicted in a novel by Bram Stoker, then made more famous through the medium of horror movies.

The powerful imagery of horror movies began in German expressionist cinema in the twenties then passed onto the Universal Studios films of the thirties, then to camp horror B films such as Plan 9 From Outer Space and then to Hammer Horror films. By the 1960s, TV series, such as The Addams Family and The Munsters, used these stereotypes for camp comedy.

Certain elements in the dark, atmospheric music and dress of the post punk scene were clearly gothic in this sense. The use of gothic as an adjective in describing this music and its followers led to the term goth.


20th century influences
The influence of the gothic novel on the goth subculture can be seen in numerous examples of the subculture's poetry and music, though this influence sometimes came second hand, through the popular imagery of horror films and television. The Byronic hero, in particular, was a key precursor to the male goth image, while Dracula's iconic portrayal by Bela Lugosi appealed powerfully to early goths. They were attracted by Lugosi's aura of camp menace, elegance and mystique. Some people even credit the band Bauhaus' first single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released August 1979, with the start of the goth subculture, though many prior art house movements also influenced gothic fashion and style. Notable early examples include Siouxsie Sioux of the musical group Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Dave Vanian of the band The Damned. Some members of Bauhaus were, themselves, fine art students and/or active artists.


Film poster for The Hunger, a key influence in the early days of the goth subculture.Some of the early gothic rock and death rock artists adopted traditional horror movie images, and also drew on horror movie soundtracks for inspiration. Their audiences responded in kind by further adopting appropriate dress and props. Use of standard horror film props like swirling smoke, rubber bats, and cobwebs were used as gothic club décor from the beginning in The Batcave. Such references in their music and image were originally tongue-in-cheek, but as time went on, bands and members of the subculture took the connection more seriously. As a result, morbid, supernatural, and occult themes became a more noticeably serious element in the subculture. The interconnection between horror and goth was highlighted in its early days by The Hunger, a 1983 vampire film, which starred David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon. The movie featured gothic rock group Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" in a nightclub. In 1993, Whitby became the location for what became the UK's biggest goth festival as a direct result of being featured in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Throughout the evolution of the goth subculture, familiarity with gothic literature became significant for many goths. Keats, Poe, Baudelaire and other romantic writers became just as symbolic of the subculture as dressing all in black.

A newer literary influence on the gothic scene was Anne Rice's re-imagining of the idea of the vampire. Rice's characters were depicted as struggling with eternity and loneliness, this with their ambivalent or tragic sexuality had deep attractions for many goth readers, making her works very popular in the eighties through the nineties. Movies based on her books have been filmed in recent years — notably Interview with the Vampire, which starred Tom Cruise, and the more recent Queen of the Damned, in which goths appear directly and indirectly. The first film, in particular, helped further encourage the spread of the more "romantic" style fashions in the subculture (although period inspired clothing has been a recurrent trend in the gothic subculture).