You've stumbled upon this page to either see if I know what I'm talking about when I explain "goth" to you, or you are interested in knowing what it is truely about. Well, hopefully I'm going to tell you enough to let you decide. I've been studying up on the gothic subculture for about...oh, I'd say the past two months, and I've reached a conclusion. Goth IS what you make it, but there is a basic meaning behind it to get you to understand it a lot better. What is this meaning, you ask? I guess the history is going to help you understand what "goth" is about.

I've noticed that many pages that explain the gothic subculture mostly refer to the late 70's as the first "sign" of the goth word. It originated when certain types of bands from the late 1970's were described as "goth" by newspapers. In fact, they loved this word so much that any band that where black and sliver... or wore things as past "goth bands", they were automatically put into that music catagory. Altho, all this was originated in the UK. The first date I saw dating back to goth bands was 1978 (maybe 1977).

Altho, there are some other gothic related things. Such as goth writings. Most people would say that first gothic writer (in which, I'm incline to agree) is Edgar Allan Poe (by far the best writer, in my opinion). Other's have written such things like "Rebbeca", "Frankenstine", etc. Other gothic "things" are the chaples dated back in the eleven hundereds, I believe. These were named "gothic" because gothic means gaudy. Tho, many people have agreed that these buildings are much more prettier then to be considered that. Now, most archutecture in the 17 and 18 hundereds is now considered flamboyant and gaudy.

The word "goth" is used mostly in the sixteen hundereds referring to "uncivlized lack of taste or education." However, this is way off base. Most of these people where monks or artisans that worked for the church to build a land of cathedrals. They would have never used this word because of what it meant. They were very talented people.

I hope from this you learn that goth isn't really about black clothes, make-up, death, and vampires. It has so much more to it, and no one seems to really realize. I've heard that anything you feel is gothic, probably is. It's your own tastes. Altho, I'm more incline to think things of the history... 11 hundereds and on... is more of the "gothic era". The 1970's started the music goth era, tho. And for those who are wondering about whether gothic is a religion... no, it's not. Goths are many different religions. Some are Christain (altho, sometimes this is highly unlikely because of the contradictory(altho, I know a "christain goth")), or wiccan, pagan, etc. It has been said that most goths are atheist. Course, I have noticed that most goths today tend to be wiccan.