A person recently asked me why goth is my religion. Sigh. I hope my good friend Keith’s article will teach people about goth. Here it is…

Goth: What it is and what it isn’t.
by Keith van Zyl

Due to so many people having a skewed view of the gothic subculture, I have decided to simply provide the facts.

First of all, goth is not a religion. There is nothing mystical about it. It is a musical subculture that started in the early 1980s as a spinoff of the punk scene. Where punk focused on anarchy and anti-system subjects, gothic music focuses more on darkly romantic, sometimes macabre subject matter, such as the gothic horror and gothic romance novels that were especially popular in the 19th century, with iconography such as graveyards, ruined castles and churches, ghosts, vampires and melodramatic plots. Gothic fashion also evolved to portray these themes, including Victorian-style dress and even some horror themes.
Early gothic rock bands such as Bauhaus, Specimen, Southern Death Cult and Spear of Destiny were some of the first bands to be be labeled as “Gothic”.
Just like most other musical subcultures, the gothic subculture consists of people from various religions, including Christians, Pagans and agnostics, among others.
The underlying focus of the gothic subculture is by no means religious, but rather recognition, identification and grief over societal and personal evils that the mainstream culture wishes to ignore or forget. The subculture is marked by its emphasis on individualism, tolerance for diversity, creativity and a focus on intellectualism.

Gothic fashion has made its way into various other subcultures such as Metal and Emo, but these people are by no means goths. Some people who listen to bands such as Korn and Slipknot sometimes identify themselves with the goth subculture, but the truth is, neither of these bands are gothic bands. Also, the emo scene has borrowed much of its look from goth, but is by no means affiliated with the goth scene.
Some Metal bands are also sometimes mistaken for gothic bands, such as Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir.
Dressing in black and wearing dark makeup does not make a person a goth, just as simply having a mohawk does not make a person a punk.
The truth is, goth is a musical subculture which is based on a specific type of music. For someone to call themselves a goth, they actually have to listen to gothic music.

For lists of actual Gothic bands, including Gothic Rock, Darkwave, Death Rock etc., check out Wikipedia’s lists on gothic music for some examples.
Thank you, Keith. There you have it, people… Goths are Christians, Pagans, and a variety of different people from different denominations…

Here is another Goth’s article on the Goth Culture. I recommmend that every one also read it, it is really good and is from another perspective also within the Goth Scene  http://theogoth.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/goth/

A Photo taken of me and Lizzy Mills at the Hero's Acre in Pretoria a few years back. We know each other and posed for this photo for fun.
A Photo taken of me and Lizzy Mills at the Hero’s Acre in Pretoria a few years back. We know each other and posed for this photo for fun.