Being Goth...

[Eil]

Hello everybody,

I am new in the forum. I am not actually a goth, but I am very fascinated in the music and aesthetics of this culture.
I would like to ask you, guys, what does it mean to be goth to you? How would you feel if you could not express your 'gothness'? How do you feel when the media mis-match goth to other genres, like Black Metal and even Satanism?

I am very interested in knowing your opinions!

Eil

[Nevan]

I'm hungry.
That's how I feel.

There's a couple of questions in the sticky - care to use them as a guideline so you can tell everyone here a little more about yourself? Nobody cares if you're goth or not, as long as you don't make dumb-ass posts like 'omg i luv MCR their so gothic!! roflmolz' (or whatever), you should be fine.

By the way, the questions you ask here - there's a thousand posts about it strewn all over the place. Everyone thinks differently about what 'goth' is and it's often the starting point for many arguments. So save yourself the flameage, stick around and read the threads, all your questions will be answered in due time.

Welcome.

[Green.Lady]

1. Tell us about your hobbies, favourite bands, etc. (even if you don't consider them 'goth')
2. As Nevan said, everyone thinks goth is something different.
3. If I couldn't express my "goffiness" - IMO anyone can be goth no matter how they dress, so I personally would just feel plain... but if you took away my music I may 'asplode,' as would most people, I'm sure.
4. Uhm... bad?

Welcome to the boards!

[delicti]

I know I had a lengthy explanation of my take of it somewhere here, but to me it's essentially a music subculture that has developed a handful of distinctive looks over the course of the last 30-ish years. Of course, there's some influences from other sources, but how much those influences play into our individual lives and music choices are more just that, individual choices.

As far as this question is concerned:

How do you feel when the media mis-match goth to other genres, like Black Metal and even Satanism?

I guess that really depends. Most of the time it doesn't really bother me; I mean, I've been used to being misinterpreted my whole life.

When it does bother me is when it's in my face; whether it's being associated with the latest high-school shooting, or just not being able to talk about it around the office the same way friends who are in traditional rock bands are able to.

Lately, it's been bothering me more than usual. It is refreshing to see that a lot of goth music is starting to get better known in the goth club scene again. However, I also feel that the last couple rounds of media manipulation have done a great deal to discourage people who are qualified to speak on the history of the whole thing from actually recording their bit for the record.

To some extent, I know that there is a good deal of scene history that now is lost forever. It saddens me to know that this is a trend that will continue, and is one that was specifically engineered by the major record labels.

So I guess at the moment, it depends on my mood, which is a lot more than usual.

[Graveyard.Crow]

Originally Posted by Eil

Hello everybody,

I am new in the forum. I am not actually a goth, but I am very fascinated in the music and aesthetics of this culture.
I would like to ask you, guys, what does it mean to be goth to you? How would you feel if you could not express your 'gothness'? How do you feel when the media mis-match goth to other genres, like Black Metal and even Satanism?

I am very interested in knowing your opinions!

Eil

You shouldn't be afraid to call yourself goth, if that is how you feel.

[Eil]

Hi guys,

thanks for posting. I will check the other threads on "being goth".

I don't know how much goth I feel: I like some of the music that can be considered goth (the cure, for instance), but then it seems to me there is a lot of confusion on what the goth genre is. I like gothic literature and architecture. I like attending goth events, but I don't really dress accordingly and this has caused me some 'troubles' at these events in the past. I suppose, I just feel gothic, rather than goth, but inside, if you see what I mean. As I said in my initial post, I find goth culture very fascinating: it favours the taste for art, both aesthetically and musically... but that's just my opinion.

Also, what I find 'interesting' is this constant association goth-satanism or goth-metal... I find it quite a lot in written media, especially in my country, Italy. Also British mass media tend to do that... you see, I am a phd student and I had to analyse many articles in newspaper and this association has come up quite a lot... it made me wonder...

[biohazard]

Welcome to the boards.