From the Real Cyberpunk's Fakebook:
goth: This is short for Gothic, as in Gothic novels like Frankenstein and Count Dracula, which feature moody, pale creatures with spooky stuff happening to them.
Well, certainly much of the modern goth scene bears a superficial resemblance to just that. But until this summer past (1999), I'd been into the musicwithout ever actually going to a club and being part of the scene.
So what attracted me to it in the first place?
Rhythm.
Lyric content.
Instrumentation.
Let's get this right out in the open and say that I'm something of a RomantiGothi -- I dig Dead Can Dance, Faith & the Muse, Ordo Equitum Solis, Qntal. But I also dig Mission UK, Sisters of Mercy, Coil, and Wench. Go figure.
But the thing most of those bands have in common is a mystical or even religious air to (at least some of) their lyrics (or, in the case of DCD, their non-lyrics), an instrumentation more on the synth end of things, and great beats (in the case of Wench, the best beats!). I listened to Neph for a while, but they got too lugubrious for me. Melancholy is fine; boredom is not.
Vamp Lestat's site - the ultimate resource. From here, you can find just about any Goth site on the net.
Unspun Records