Eli5: How did the term “Goth” go from Germanic tribes destroying Rome, to the music and fashion we know today?

Question

Eli5: How did the term “Goth” go from Germanic tribes destroying Rome, to the music and fashion we know today?

In: 7280

Answer 1

Long story short, “Gothic” has always been the anti-culture since the late Roman impirial period. It’s a label splaped onto counterculture or passé movements to deride them or co-opted as a source of pride.

Gothic barbarians vs civilized Romans, Medieval Gothic architecture vs Renaissance Hellenistic and Roman revival, Gothic Romanticism vs Enlightenment Reason, Marilyn Manson vs Bill O’Reilly.