Title: How to Be Goth (with Pictures) - wikiHow Fun
Headings: How to Be Goth
How to Be Goth
Part 1
of 4:
Listening to Goth Music
Part 2
of 4:
Dressing the Part
Part 3
of 4:
Getting into the Mindset
Part 4
of 4:
Getting Involved with the Community
Community Q&A
Tips
Warnings
References
About this article
Jordan Stolch
Did this article help you?

Content: Members of the subculture consider listening to and appreciating goth rock, post punk, deathrock and darkwave music to be an important part of being goth. Many goths listen to many other different genres, too, but there are certain ones which are considered goth whereas others are considered goth-friendly. It doesn't mean you can't listen to them, it just means that you won't make you "goth" if you only listen to those goth-friendly genres. Musical goth characteristics include an echoing tribal beat, 4 / 4 post punk beat or drum machine, funeral synthesizers, flanging guitars that produced cold and brittle effects, distorted guitars, a prominent lead bassline and deep eerie baritone vocals, usually in men. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/6\/6e\/Appreciate-Goth-Music-Step-6.jpg\/v4-460px-Appreciate-Goth-Music-Step-6.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/6\/6e\/Appreciate-Goth-Music-Step-6.jpg\/aid10859-v4-728px-Appreciate-Goth-Music-Step-6.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
3
Understand the characters and different offshoots of goth music. Goth is not only limited to goth rock, but includes some post-punk, deathrock, darkwave, ethereal wave, grey rock and afterpunk. Grey rock is the Portuguese term for post-punk / goth rock and afterpunk is the Spanish term. Deathrock, which is the American counterpart that formed around the same time as goth did in the UK. Developed in Southern California, deathrock is a spooky and atmospheric offshoot of punk rock which consists of glam rock imagery, punk-inflected sound and attitude, shock rock theatrics and b-movie inspiration.