[KontanKarite]

Goth, is simply this, a power word. A word used to SELL a PRODUCT to a teenager who feels at odds with other things.

This is why the goth subculture is as diverse as it is. Because Hot Topic and Nightwish are CAPITALIZING on the angst of these kids.

Goth, it's a tool for capitalism to make a quick buck.

Upon retrospect, the only thing that makes a goth, is one who is a fan of the music and what goth music is. That being, a fan of those bands that started the movement. NOT VNV Nation, NOT CombiChrist, and DEFFINATLY NOT Throbbing Gristle.

Me, personally, I grew up as a kids fascinated by mystery, darkness, ghost stories, and all things spooky and camp. This was a natural attraction I had as a child. I'm not saying goths are born because they aren't. I'm not goth because I enjoy moonlit walks in the cemeteries, I'm not goth because I write shitty gloomy poetry, and I'm not goth because I wear lots of black or punkish looking clothing. These things have been purely my own design for as long as I've been alive. It's MY aesthetic. The only thing that makes me "goth" is because I'm a fan of Specimen, Siousxie, Virgin Prunes, The Damned, and other various goth rock bands.

So in essence, I'm not goth either. I don't listen to techno, I don't shop at hot topic or even spend hundreds of dollars on expensive "gothic" clothing.

To anyone with tendencies to say they do the "gothic" things and that makes them "goth" might be true, but they're also contrived people. The more one indulges in a dark aesthetic so that they can call themselves goths is entirely right. But goths are contrived.

I can't even go to a goth club, request Christian Death, and enjoy it without it being some kind of EBM or techno remix of it. So yeah, goth essentially, is pretty fucking lame. But that's because I'm not a fan of future pop, I guess.