I think I would describe these as "scene kids", which is often conflated with "goth" but is quite different culturally. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scene_(sub

I think I would describe these as "scene kids", which is often conflated with "goth" but is quite different culturally. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scene_(subculture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scene_(subculture) If a scene kid is dressed mostly in black—which is always common—they would probably be conflated with goth pretty easily. (...and frankly few of the people I grew up with were even aware of the difference; this is certainly something imposed partially in retrospect to describe trends.) EDIT: the same as the above but with "emo", which is much closer to the goth all-black look I guess, but still looks compiled at the mall rather than the DIY look that goth typically implies. "True goth" (i.e. someone associated with the original UK scene) can be found here, but you'll want to hit up an eighties night at the alt club to find it. Then there's a lot of people who dress in black and don't particularly care about goth music, but they're still colloquially referred to as goth. It really depends who you're around and how deep they are into music culture how these fits are interpreted and named. For the most part these days, these music subcultures blur pretty heavily and policing/being sticklers about whether or not someone is a "poser" is frowned upon. For instance, I have a friend who dresses distinctly punk, and likes to attend punk shows, but does not call herself punk just to avoid dealing with kids who are eager to establish an identity by mocking a "poser" (which, tbh, I feel like if you're over 35 the concept should be absurd).