For me, I suppose it was my cousin, we were like brothers, he was 17, I was 11, he was the typical "mall goth" type at that time, and got me into it. Once i got to my late teens/early twenties I started researching Goth myself on a deeper level to where I am today.

Where did you start?

Well, my uncle got me into metal at a very early age (still in elementary school), and lent me loads of CDs, but among the non-metal stuff he lent me were Skinny Puppy, Bauhaus, the Southern Death Cult, the Cure, Frontline Assembly, the Sisters of Mercy and Siouxsie & the Banshees. I knew these bands were different, but really had no word to describe the kinds of music they played...... they were dark rock n roll.

In high school, my metalhead friends kept getting me deeper into death metal, and on my own discovered black metal and doom metal. I realized early on that it wasn't the heaviness of the music that captivated me, but the dark atmospheres and supernatural themes.
From there, I discovered industrial music, revisiting Skinny Puppy/Frontline Assembly and getting more into stuff like Coil and Einsturzende Neubauten. I also got into Danzig/Samhain/My Dying Bride/Type O Negative/Tiamat from the metal scene. I also had lots of punk friends, but while I respected the punk scene heavily, the music just didn't appeal to me. Neither did the mainstream stuff that the babybats in my school liked (Manson, Korn, NIN)
I also had a friend who was heavily into EBM/Metropolis Records stuff like Covenant, VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, Evils Toy, In Strict Confidence, and Project Pitchfork, though while I liked it, it took me longer to really get into it, due to the whole "club friendly" dance music atmosphere.
I discovered Future Sound of London and Autechre from another friend of mine who was an extreme eccentric into techno, and from there Cold Meat Industries and the dark ambient genre, and along with that, the neoclassical darkwave genre: Dead Can Dance, Arcana, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Lycia, Dargaard, etc.

Anyhow, getting more into the occult community as a form of rebellion against my conservative Mormon family, I met one girl who invited me to New Orleans and "check out the goth community there". At the time, I'd never heard the word "goth" used to describe a scene/music genre, but thought of it as more of a description.

Anyhow, I ended up going to my first big gothic event in New Orleans, interviewing Bella Morte, the Cruxshadows, and Written in Ashes for a soon-defunct magazine, but was hooked after that.
The first few "fully-fledged" gothic rock bands I ended up buying CDs from were Fields of the Nephilim, Clan of Xymox, Sopor Aeternus, Faith and the Muse, Christian Death, and Diary of Dreams.

I was kinda thrilled to know there was an entire scene based on darkness and the supernatural, and I knew that if there was any place I really "belonged", this was the closest thing to it.

"Fashion wise", I was already dressing in black as a metalhead in high school. I was into black button-up shirts, black leather biker trousers, leather jackets, shades, ass-length hair, big stompy biker boots and satanic/occult/mythological jewelry.

I didn't get into makeup or eccentric hairstyles until I began going out to clubs, whence my wardrobe also experienced an upgrade, going from leather to velvet.
Now 15 years later, I think I've settled more into a comfortable, minimal hybrid.

When I first heard Alice by The Sisters of Mercy back in 1983.
Hook line and sinker as they say.

I was always into the darker side of things as a youngster. I loved vampires and often wore fangs to my elementary school trying to trick people into thinking I was really a vampire.
In middle school the only group of people i seemed to be attracted to being with besides the anime kids were the "Scene emo" kids because they wore heavy makeup and some black. I definitely dressed more goth when trying to fit in with them and it didn't work out so much. Before my freshman year of highschool i met my first goths. I went to palm desert to go to this art class and visit my father. (who i hate) and i met these 2 goth women in the art class. They seriously influenced me to take on the style. I became inspired by mana, manson, goth and metal music..etc. When I went back home to orange county, I was sadly very much alone. Not many goths around but there were some but we didn't get along. Unfortunately after my freshman year of highschool i got very depressed. The goth thing ended with my depression. In the last 2 years (i'm 22 now) i've been reembracing my gothic self since I went on anti depressants and began my gender transition.
I am very close with one of those gothic women today. i've been listening to a lot more goth music nowadays and have completely emerged myself.

i guess I was always an out cast and like to be different.

I was stumped for a bit in how to answer this question. It seems like I've been goth for ever and I'm having a hard time remembering when I wasn't! I found a reply to an old thread here and it's still valid for me (except I'm now 36).



It just hit me when I read a few of the replies in the other thread, that I've become a teenager in my 30s! I remember seeing bands like The Cure and Siouxsie on Top of the Pops when I was a teen and I hated them, really loathed them. Now I adore them... and I shudder to think of my life with the album Disintegration... what a nightmare

I've always been a rock chick, but it has only been lately that I've come to appreciate the bands that I couldn't understand in my youth. Stuff that I considered 'noise' like Nirvana (I know not goth) I finally see what I didn't all those years ago.

I was a total sheep when I was at school with music and fashion... anything to avoid more bullying. I just went with the crowd and did nothing to stick out. It has only been in the last 5-6 years that I've really allowed myself to be myself. Sad really, but better late than never. I'm always 'late to the party' it seems

Better late than never, Minty!
I also seem to be getting more immature, if that's something that can happen. I was such a serious little kid and teenager.

Also, white hair is quite goth, I think.

Maybe this is an early midlife crisis?

I wish my hair was all white... that would look beyond amazing! At the moment it is in weird stripes like this and underneath the top hair. Oh well.

Getting back on topic, though, I have to say that being a member here also helped me become more goth. I was made welcome and felt accepted right from the start. I guess I was lucky I chose here and not one of the other forums I looked at as well.

Mwahahaha! They've got you now. Your hair will grow out all white except for a single stripe like that horror movie lady I can't remember. You're doomed to gothdom...doomed.

uh, what I mean is, sure, early midlife crises are a thing. Just remember to eat plenty of citrus so you won't get scurvy.

You mean Elsa Lanchester?... she's the only one I can remember with a stripe in her hair.

Fortunately I love oranges, so scurvy with keep itself at bay

You're luck if you've got hair, mines all gone. Shave it every other day now.

I was thinking of some movie with Vincent Price, maybe? Except now that I think about it, the woman had all black hair with one white stripe. Well, it could be like the Bride of Frankenstein or Susan, Death's daughter.

I wish I could shave my head and look good that way.

And now I believe I've led the thread hopelessly off track.

Never claimed I looked good with it but I am comfortable with it.

I was always bullied and ostracized. I think that was the reason that made me start into Goth. Being a Goth makes me feel special and I can express myself through it.

Joy Division.

There was a book in our house about all of the albums you have to hear in your life time. Joy Division-Unknown Pleasures was in it. There was a bit about the album, but the person writing described it as a 'suicide note' and somewhat of a dark, inescapable tunnel. This was around the same time that 'Control' and the documentary came out, so there were was this great huff about 'one of the most tragic stories in popular music'. There was also stories about people in Germany in the 1980's all separately falling under the spell of wanting to be Ian Curtis, and subsequently killing themselves.

Although most people would think that it's a load of baloney, given that a close friend has recently attempted suicide for exactly that reason sometimes I wonder. It certainly had an affect on my 14 year old self, but the idea of music driving people to suicide scared me a bit until I was older.

I was already a colour-phobic Tim Burton loving girl who used 3D chat sites not to talk on, but to make very gothy looking avatars with because they represented clothes I never thought I could have(one of them was a broken china doll with a hot-pink deathhawk, combat boot, shirt made out of spiderwenbs, and upside-down cross earrings).

Once I got brave enough to actually listen to Joy Division, I liked them. I liked how brave and honest their particular brand of 'sad but sometimes stargazing songs with sad lyrics' were. Everyone at my high school school kept asking if I was some kind of 'emo gothic freak' so one day out of boredom I google 'what is goth'. Joy Division kept popping up as 'quintessential gothic listening'. Suddenly everything made sense.

I bought my first Joy Division album at the age of 17 from a 'record and vintage CD' shop in all black outfit with combat boots. Five minutes after walking out of the store I seen my first dead body. Go figure.