Originally posted by Rev. M. Rodimer
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The beginning of Goth lies somewhere at the end of the 70's, it was originally started to oppose the Punk subculture who's morales and crude appearance was not for everyone very appealing. In the early days you had some bands like Bauhaus and the Sisters of Mercy who defined themselves as something completely different and was soon adopted by the Goth crowed that was already in existence (the Goth way of living existed already (although shortly) before a certain music was coupled to it). The dark sound soon attracted a lot of people and with them came influential bands like Cassandra Complex, Red Zebra, Front 242 and numerous others. But instead of keeping it to one sound the Goth subculture began to evolve because that was the key to keep it alive, the scene learned from the punk subculture that one had to evolve to keep itself going. So when the old-school Goth and Wave began to become obsolete a new genre came to life, know as EBM and some bands earlier bands like Front 242 jumped on the train and took the ride into the late 80's early 90's together with bands like Covenant, Apoptygma Berzerk,... EMB was far more electronic but still had the dark overtone the Goth crowd loved. The lyrics were still overal the same, dealing with various things like love, hate, joy, live and death and so many other topics found in many styles of music. By the mid 90's many different sub-genres had emerged of which some were quite obscure. bands like the mysterious Sopor Aeternus (who up till today never gave any life performance but still sell a ton of CD's) and the more fetish Die Form found welcome greetings in a large part of the Gothic subculture. But as time evolved so did the music and the tone was set to an ever increasing longing for the electronic music and thus Electro-Goth and Industrial was born with pioneers like Sonar (industrial), Grendel (Electro-Goth), Combichrist (Electro-Goth). From there on there was a large overflow of various bands with all there own sounds and styles. especially in the last few years we saw the rising of the so called Terror-Electro (with bands like Hocico), cyber-goth (Xotox, Soman, Heimatearde, Trimetric,...) and the more extreme form like Noise (Institut, Genocide Organ, WinterKalte,...). Where this all will go is still a mystery, the longing to more and more electronic music will certainly generate some new style which is hard to predict now.
What I never understood was the fact why so many people link Goth to Metal. Sure, superficially the looks appear to be the same (black clothings, combat shoes, combat throusers,...) but the sound is so completely different that cross-breeds between Goth and metal are rare, even the so-called Goth Metal attracts a Metal crowd instead of a Goth crowd. And while some may try it out to get a taste of both many choose later on which way of life fits them most. Metal is harder, rawer, some of the lyrics are difficult to understand, even with the booklet of the CD in you hands. And the main difference between Metal and Goth is the fact that metal leans more towards satanic lyrics, while Goth does have some satanic/vampire groups they are rare and not very popular. Black and Death Metal consists mainly out of satanic orientated groups and are therefore the extreme opposite of Goth.
there be danger there, Mr.Rev. Rodimer! them emos cry so much they could drowned the hole world wiv thier tears 
they only have each other, so they trys to out-pout each others, 
an then it be judgemint day, lord God take one look at thier black skinny jeans an big fat pouts an he get confuseds,
he gonna thinks they be satan's lollipops 
Goth Black metal?? You people come up with this stuff everyday or so it seems. Goth and (Black) Metal don't mix dear boy, the crowd is different, the way of life is different and the background is also very different. I suggest you do some decent reading about the history and differences between the Goth scene and the Metal scene.
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