Goth *is* a genre of music (do your history research!) & just like any genre of music there is a criteria that has to be met to fit into it. You wouldn't call Lady Gaga metal, you wouldn't call Slipknot pop. Why is the goth genre always the one people try to push anything into?

I don't understand why people want to call certain music goth so badly when it's not. It's not even that we're saying the musicians people keep calling "mall goth" or goth are bad or suck it's just that they're simply not goth!! "Mall goth" isn't even a genre of music.

The term "mall goth" has been around for years & it was used to describe baby bats who were just getting into alternative subcultures & it's associated by a distinct fashion aesthetic with various metal bands from the early 2000's. I was literally alive during this & lived it