Lets just say that I belong to the certain subculture or scene known as "goth" for masses. What I find and actually is as a meter of fact interesting is how much one person can let it's life be define by a certain stereotype. What exactly do you find as understanding by the rather shallow word "goth"? Various different sources will give you various different reasons that, actually don't have to do anything with one another.
"Dead is the new Alive" as nicely put by what seems to be the newest burst in the subculture, Emilie Autumn.
"When the obsession with death becomes the way of life"
We all can talk for days explaining how from the beginning of human origin, everyone was obsessed with death , and that is a fact. For that meter I have trouble understanding why "goths" like to think they're different, obsessing about death is pretty conformist, so if "death" is the main course of the whole goth movement , and the main idea behind it all - count me out.
(more on wikipedia )
Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.
Nicer and certainly clearer approach but does everything have to be "grotesque" and/or "horroristic" and fucking bloody? - As much as I love things that have obscure and macabre feel to them I don't see them as crucial but certainly we're getting close.
(more on wikipedia )
Gothic fashion is a clothing style worn by members of the Goth subculture; a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress.[1] Typical Gothic fashion includes black dyed and crimped hair, bright lips and black clothes.[1] Both male and female goths sometimes wear dark eyeliner and dark fingernails. Styles are often borrowed from the Punks, Victorians and Elizabethans. BDSM imagery and paraphernalia are also common.
Whoever wrote this description in on as I like to call it weenkipedia is pretty right. That's what the mass usually thinks when you mention the word "goth" and it's been recently majorly excepted within the subculture it self. As for how accurate i find it to be, i think it's just fine but having a dog chocker, dyed black hair, eyeliner and boots doesn't make you "goth" by it self.
When you become to find yourself attracted to a certain subculture it's understandable that you would first majorly explore it but you should have some limit to how much you take and how much you give to it. When one has been in the subculture for a while he/she tends to have certain "trademarks" which he finds as his/her symbols, they might not be as "unique" but they become something you put on yourself as a ritual. The same individual has his own finding of what the subculture is for him/her and most of the time an "old school goth" don't tend to consider him/herself as one. Why is that so?
As time goes by more and more people "enter" the subculture and most of them bring new elements to it, which is fine 'cos evolution is natural. The problem is to where it evolves. Take the music genre for example. at the beginning it was more or less all meant as a funny take on what the majority thought of as disturbing. Trough time influenced by classical music gothic rock went more metal and now a girl singing with bunch of metalheads is what most people think is "gothic metal" . There is so much more to it then that but I really don't want to start number all the various genres that in the period from late 1970's till now became largely excepted as "goth" .
The iconography has also changed. I really don't know has anyone from the "new generation" actually hared of Siouxsie Sioux,Rozz Williams,Peter Murphy,? Those were the people who set the fucking standards you're leaving by and you don't even freaking know their names. They popularized BDSM fashion, eroticism, deep voices, vampiric aestheticism and DECADENCE which is what goth has become all about by now ( I really hope that all the babybats reading this by now know the meaning of that word). Gosh even "Merilyn Manson" is becoming more old school every day ( I really hope everybody realizes my sarcasm when I say this) .
Now, it's understandable that one doesn't want to consider them self as "goth" when it has become this : http://vampirefreaks.com/
I leave it at that.
For what I find as definition of the word, which by the way I really don't like but let me go with the flow and except this for this occasion :
Bearer of the adjective known as "goth" for the masses is certified to have good understanding of the macabre and obscure, art, glam, punk. Knows how to canalize his/her decadence trough a certain art medium and furthermore has a good sense of humor ;)
Disclaimer: This are my subjective thoughts about this issue, you may agree and/or disagree with it. Thank you.
