Eli5: How did the term “Goth” go from Germanic tribes destroying Rome, to the music and fashion we know today?
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Others mention the Gothic architecture connection, but the explanations are generally incomplete, so I’ll try to be as thorough as I can.
Gothic architecture is derived from the earlier medieval Romanesque architecture, largely through the architectural innovations of the Normans. At the time this style was called “frankish/french” or “modern”. This new modern architecture used techniques like flying buttresses, which allowed walls to be thinner and windows to be wider, allowing more natural light to flood the interior of churches. Because of this modern churches were a lot brighter, and also came to use more stained glass.
With the Renaissance classical antiquity came back in fashion, and churches were instead built in a new Renaissance style which mimicked ancient Roman architecture, which was seen as more civilized. It’s during the Renaissance that a concept of a “middle age” is invented, as European historiography begins to categorise history into the old golden age of Rome, and the new age of the “Rebirth” (Renaissance) of civilization, with the time in between being considered by contrast uncivilized and even barbaric. It’s simply called the “Middle Ages” because it’s in between two periods of high civilization, unremarkable and worthless by itself. This is also where our idea of the dark ages comes from, and in part why such an emphasis is placed on the Fall of Rome in the West.
In rejecting the old medieval world, the Renaissance also rejected its architectural style, and supporters of the Renaissance started using the term “Gothic” as a derogatory term for the style, as one might use “Vandal” or “Barbarian”. This the term “Gothic” began to be applied to what we now call “Gothic architecture.”
In addition to letting in more light, Gothic churches were generally bright in their construction, built from relatively light-coloured materials and painted in bright colours. However, over time the paint faded and chipped, becoming bare stone churches. This is not unlike to why during the Renaissance people thought Roman architecture was pure white and started carving statues and building marble buildings the same way, even though originally they had been painted. The paint simply didn’t survive, and over time people forgot. In addition dirt and smoke would increasingly come to cover churches and cathedrals over the centuries, which would lead them to be darker, even black in appearance.
Their dark spires could make these buildings quite intimidating, which is perhaps why they became associated with and a staple of Gothic horror novels. Generally the first Gothic novel is considered to be _The Castle of Otranto_, set in a haunted castle. Thus an association between horror, the medieval, and the darkened remnants of medieval architecture began to take shape, all under the label of “Gothic”.
As it happens, a new trend of Gothic Revival architecture also came about, which was prominent in the United Kingdom. Thus there was both old and new Gothic architecture.
Gothic horror would later be explored in film, and it frequently used locations such as Gothic cathedrals as well as neo-gothic architecture because it fit the aesthetic, and was often already the aesthetic described in books, which further reinforced the connection.
Because most Gothic horror was written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and was also set in this time period, movies naturally took inspiration from the times, especially the fashion of the upper classes, for their costumes. These costumes would however be considerably darker than most of what people would actually have worn at the time, fitting the darker aesthetic of Gothic horror. Of course, early films were also black and white in any case.
It’s basically Gothic literature and this dark Victorian aesthetic of Gothic horror which inspires the Goth fashion trend, Gothic rock and the Goth subculture.
However, the Gothic music scene is derived from the Punk scene, which also brought over Punk fashion trends into Goth subculture, so the fashion is actually a mix of Gothic horror and punk inspirations.
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