What are Goths? What is Goth? Who are Goths? What about Gothic Architecture?

In this video, The Lady of the Manners of Gothic Charm School explains what Goth is, and what Goth isn't. I found this by looking up Gothic architecture (a style of French architecture from the 12th century), but I got all distracted when I saw this video. So, I'll come back to that another day. For now, let's just talk about goths. She does a good job in this video explaining who goths are and what they're into. 

Although I know there are goths around today, I will always associate them with the 80's because that's when I first saw them / knew them. It used to pretty common back then. I mainly knew high school goths.  On the one hand,  it was supposed to be about individuality, but on the other hand, there was a required dress code. The goth staple was the black leather jacket, often with safety pins attached, and often with a band's name on the back, painted in red. Or, one would cut out the band from their favorite band t-shirt, and pin that to the back of their black leather jacket. Fingernails were almost always painted black (on males and females). Goths with more lenient parents would wear white face paint and black or dark red lipstick, but for some parents, that's where they drew the line. 

Hair was often dyed black, and it was often sprayed up, either in spikes or in any form which did not look "mainstream". It could also cover one eye. The eyes would be outlined in black eyeliner. 

Black lace was also popular. I guess I would describe the overall 80's goth look as, "I just popped out of a punk casket". 

Punks and goths didn't think of themselves as the same, but to the average Joe, who was neither punk nor goth, they would appear to him to belong in the same family. The average Joe was often scared of goths, because, well, the 80's high school goths WANTED to look scary to the average Joe. Part of the fun was freaking average people out with all the black clothes and make-up, but at the same time, it wasn't fun when the average Joe picked on a goth either. So, there was a desire to be very different to the point of being noticed, but also a desire to be accepted. In high school, that's a tall order. Goths were often people who didn't fit in before becoming goth, so being goth with other goths was a relief from trying to fit in with the jocks and cheerleaders. I don't recall ever meeting a goth bully. Aside from a few goths who felt they were king of all goths, overall they were generally nice people. 

The song she mentioned in the video (I'll go ahead and call it the goth anthem) is Bela Lugosi's Dead, by Bauhaus. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKRJfIPiJGY  

And, since it's almost Halloween, here's my favorite 80's goth song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIMfdlVGmqM  That's "Every Day is Halloween" by Ministry. (If we were in the 80's now, there would be a debate about whether this song is synth pop, industrial, goth, or whatever). 

Thank you to GothicCharmSchool for explaining what it is to be Goth today (my version was the 80's high school version).