Goth subculture

contemporary subculture
Goth can also mean a member of a Germanic tribe

A goth is a word usually used to describe a person who listens to gothic music and/or dresses in a goth style clothes. Goths often wear black and unusual jewelry. Both goth men and goth women often wear make-up.

Viona Ielegems at Work at the Wave Gotik Treffen 2005

The goth subculture originated in the early 1980s among fans of the first gothic rock group, Bauhaus.

The word goth comes from the word Gothic which actually means gloomy or dark. This meaning of the word comes from gothic fiction, a type of literature popular during the late 18th and early 19th century.

People who call themselves a goth are those who live up the meaning of the name through wearing clothes or putting on makeup that is in colours that represent death, decay, or gloominess, such as the colour black, deathly white face makeup, dark bloody red colours, or the tones of the colour puce.


Goths wear normal black clothes and mix them with other colours to make a new look.

Goth people are often mistaken to be emo or punk because of the everyday stereotypes.

A goth flag