I'll let Tempest take that one... she explains it well. I think that there's an old post on that. Lemme dig to see if I will find it.

On my personal opinion (and I stress personal opinion) the emo subculture is much younger than the gothic subculture. A lot of people I meet who are getting into the goth subculture confuse it with emo or confuse it with what the mainstream calls "gothic" (Manson, NiN, etc.). They seem to find out as they get older and get more into the subculture what it's based around.

I can't speak for the emo subculture because I have never been too familiar with it, but I can speak for the gothic subculture. No one really fits the stereotypes. There are a few things that all of us seem to have in common and seem to enjoy. Finding beauty in things? Check. Enjoying the arts? Check. Finding creativity in almost anything? Check. As far as everything else? Well, embracing who you are as an individual kind of goes with the territory when it comes to that.

Oh yes...and we staple our hands to our foreheads.

www.youtube.com/watch

hehehe...

aha...

I see "Goth" as a bunch of burly white dudes in leather and fur running about pillaging, raping and setting fire to things...
WHOOPS, wrong millenia. and they actually weren't that one-dimensional - just as the style-kittens of "Goth" aren't one-dimensional now.
"Goth" for me, is a natural extrapolation of a scientific beige witch, talking to the under-the-bed-spookies, and gazing into flowers...

i think everyone might agree, that "Goth" is about BEAUTY. Beauty, and high style. It is Dress-Up for grown-ups, when we can be on the outside what we are thinking on the inside. Sometimes Goth can be pretty damned cheerful - i know my 6" heels and fishnets, eyeliner and velvets make me happy. Most of the clubbers i knew had blood-red or jet-black smiles (you heard me, SMILES) when they saw each other. For me it is about the art, the fashion show... making Goth more a celebration of life than anything else. Ja, there is alot of stylistic anachronism, but that is due to the general blandness of the present. I look at it as a mix of Anachronist, Eroticist, Occultist, and Epicurean sensibilities. For me, anyway.

And to pick on some people... old-school old-world Catholicism is pretty damned Goth, what with the robes and mysterious hallways and pieces of saints in jars. The Aztec were pretty Goth, all the envisceration and ceremony and heavy jewelry (and eyeliner, i betcha). The Egyptians take the Goth cake with them to the Afterlife, for sure.

Hmnn.... did that help? "Emo" kids annoy me, the way they are these days. Altho who ever called Poe the 1st Emo was right... all the modern ones are missing is some opium/laudanum and actual talented poetry.

I've always said that the difference between goth and emo is make up time! LOL just kidding. I personally see the "emo kids" as being just that, kids. and whiney to boot. i don't know, maybe I'm just getting old. Someone asked me who Siouxsie was... I almost clutched my cold, pale, chest and really died... ;)

Emo: Anything related to Twilight
Goth: Anything NOT related to Twilight

(Yes, I'm an anti.)