The funny thing about the Gothic subculture is that no one will admit to having anything to do with it. I like to wear black hats and long black coats, and I listen to bands like the Cure and the Joy Division (along with everything from fiddle music to space music), but I never refer to myself as Goth. I think of myself more as a Film Noir guy. I used to go out with a girl who wore lacy black dresses and had a Cthulhu emblem on her car, but she wasn't Goth either, she was a Death Metal girl.

As for Robert Smith, his band is widely credited with being one of the first few Goth bands. (Along with Siouxsie and the Banshees, who he also used to play for. They say they're not Goth too!) You can still count on hearing a couple of Cure songs at any self-respecting Goth night, and Neil Gaiman's Sandman character (the Gothic apotheosis) borrowed his look. For that matter, Sandman's sister Death looks an awful lot like Siouxsie Sioux, but of course she says she isn't Goth. Robert Smith has described Goth as being “dull and monotonous,” and he disavows any connection with it.

Just like everyone else! The only conclusion I can draw is that there is really no such thing as Goth, because none of the people dressing up in spooky black outfits will admit to the term, and none of the bands that make the music they listen to will admit to it either. To be fair, it doesn't really make any sense to put the Cure in the same musical category with Marilyn Manson, and it certainly doesn't make sense to lump either of them in with Dead Can Dance. They're not Goth either, by the way. No one is!