The gothic culture was a horror movement The first goths look like corpses with white faces occult symbols etc There was no aesthetic or romantic thing This romantic thing is a phenomenon of the 1990s or an influence of the new romantic movement and has nothing to do with the traditional gothic subculture The same with Gothic architecture Gothic novels etc The name of the Gothic subculture came from the Gothic music a dark punky music genre related to death rock and horrorpunk There was no relation to the Gothic architecture but a preference for dead and old buildings in ruins cemetaries symbols of decay etc It was a death romanticism The term gothic means dark gloomy spooky I agree that there are new developments But now you have a culture without any relation to the roots Metaller are listening to metal music punks are listening to punk music but goths are listening to futurepop metal and techno Bullshit They re not goths They re derivatives or parallel movements Btw Do you have any reliable scientific source that definitions of gothic rock have shifted over the time A drum machine was in use since the early days of gothic rock It s not a mid 80s thing