Depends on who you ask, I suppose. I got chased out of r/goth by Gen Z kids who insisted that being goth is only about listening to the right music and nothing else. That I dared mention shared subculture and fashion was quickly rebuked. Unfortunatley the younger generations are obsessed with 'big titty goth girlfriends' and have completely skewed what most people think goth actually is.

A lot of people my age or older agree with me that it's a certain darker outlook on life. A predisposition toward finding beauty in darkness and the fact that life is ephemeral. There's also the music, of course. I go to at least one live show a month and I go to goth clubs about once every two weeks because I love to dance. And of course the most obvious thing is the style and fashion, I wear what I like and don't compromise to please others (unless the situation is serious enough to warrant it, but that's rare.)