You cannot really get into this discussion without getting into a lot of how the scenes work themselves and the ever so popular question of "what is goth?" 

Well just about any group has the "popular kids" and the "outcasts" even with in the group.  You can subcategorize anything pretty much.  This could be done by the type of music listened to, type of dress, people they associate with, or all three.

 http://www.odk.com/wilson/goth/150.html most of these are made up, some are pretty accurate though.

 http://www.sfgoth.com/primer/types.html shorter list and quite possibly more accurate.

 I myself am a gothabilly or a "gothick" (I like to think I came up
with that one) or cowgoth.  However I don't limit myself to this one
subsection of the subculture either.  Two of my favorite bands are Ghoultown and 16 Horsepower.  Think Victorian/Edwardian era goth in the old west (I like to throw steampunk elements in as well.

 Then again there are those that don't label themselves as such.  They don't want to be typecast as goth.  Which is ok too I guess even though they still are goth (denialgoth lol).

 As far as the music goes you've got Deathrock, Folk/traditional goth, Industrial, EBM/Synthpop, and now Emo.  Examples of each include...

Deathrock: Bella Morte, 45 Grave, The 69 eyes, Beseech, and The Misfits

Folk/traditional (some post punk fits here too): Bauhaus, Joy Division, Tom Waits, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Clan of Xymox, The Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees (a lot of this stuff blends in with the afore mentioned genre too).

Industrial: Ministry, KMFDM, DAF, SPK, Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, Unit 187, Static X, Fear Factory, Front 242, and Nine Inch Nails, :wumpscut:, and Blue Eyed Christ

EBM: VNV Nation, Covenant, And One, Apotygma Berzerk...  Easiest way to explain it is tune your radio or television to a station that plays dance music.  Now make the lyrics and melodies dark.  This was created so the goth kids at the clubs would have something to dance to.

It should be noted that EBM of the late 80's and early 90's and EBM of today have NOTHING in common.  Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb were once considered EBM.

Oh yeah then you have Emo which is today's bastard child of goth.  My Chemical Romance, Hinder, The Cure, Morrissey (pretty much any whiny band from Manchester).

It should also be noted that I do love the cure, but they're still Emo.

The major difference I've found between the two is that Emo kids hate themselves (and their girl they have a crush on for not loving them back).  Goth kids hate everyone else.  Each have an equal amount of angst (which is pretty much anger without direction) and have a common enemy (the preps/jocks/whatever you want to call the normal people).  I still battle them because even at the ripe old age of 26 I still get picked on from time to time by people who haven't yet left the high school mentality behind and probably never will.

 Then there is the woman factor.  We can't leave this out at all because it's also very important.  Girl A dislikes girl B because of "drama" so the friends of these two popular girls split in two creating two groups.  In my town they apparently split into different companies that specialize in fetish shows and modeling (I think we're up to nine (9) just off the top of my head).  Sure men have drama too, but they usually settle it in a fist fight that lasts about 5-10 minutes.  Women will drag it out for months/years before any resolution is solved, which is sometimes never.

 This concludes part one of my ramblings.  If anyone thinks I've forgotten anything, gotten anything wrong, gotten it all wrong, or would like to congratulate me on my amazing insight into the inner workings of "the scene" please, by all means post a reply.

It seems to be human nature to create cliques and splinter groups, no matter which group it may be.

The original contemporary "Goths" evolved from the punk rock era of the 70's and 80's and were the members of bands like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, All About Eve, The Mission, The Misfits, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Fields of the Nephilim, etc. Even those bands sounded different from each other, but they were still pretty traditional rock bands with guitar, bass and drums.

Synthesizers and drum machines helped to create new kinds of Goth sound and different groups of fans gathered around them... Death Metal, Industrial, Steampunk, Techno, etc. People will use any reason or difference to create their own clique. but goths seem to integrate and enjoy each other's differences.

Gothspace wants to go way back and recognize the fact that there have always been gothic-minded people, even before the term "gothic" was used to describe them.

The original use of Gothic in the way we think of it today was to describe an artistic style that appreciated decay, corruption and death -- twisted dead trees, crumbling ruins of castles and ancient cemeteries were the visual representations of the Gothic in centuries past.

The stories of Frankenstein and Dracula were written over 100 years ago, but they are still a part of the roots of modern gothic culture, along with the original monster movies (1920s to 1950's) the Addams family cartoons (1940s to 1970's) The Twilight Zone (1960s)

Hopefully, the cliques will always band together with a common love of dark culture, even when they find ways to be different. Ultimately, the creators of dark culture and the fans who enjoy their art and music share the same spirit that has expessed itself since the first ghost story.

The blanket of night falls over us all equally. Enjoy the darkness!

thanx although it was mostly the samething that Scary_Guy said, but with differences like..

i didn't know the adams family cartoons were that old, and never really thought of the whole movie thing either..i mean the music part is obvious

that's kind of what i figured, punks seem to care more about their cliques more then goths, which i like!

Well I have two definitions of gothic.  The first is the traditional one where it's the style of music/culture originating from London most say in the 1970's (although I really think Sabbath and Morrison had a lot to do with it, but I'm constantly crucified for that belief).

The second one is my more modern definition of it.  Pretty much it's the appreciation for the darker things in life.  To that effect if you look at the dark side of anything it can make it a bit goth.  This can be a bad thing when poseurs and the like try to rip it off for profit or status, to try to be cool.  My view on that though is at least they're trying and it's better at that point than anything else that exists.

 I really like what DR said with "The blanket of night falls over us all equally. Enjoy the darkness!".  We're all unified in that respect.  The only reason not to get along with the other groups is to actively choose not to.

Wow. Alot of the same forums as on The CC site back in the day.

And The Cure is emo??? Guess I'd better clear all that shit off my computer then. J/K.

What can I really say about this subject that hasn't already been said? I guess I'll put it like this:

Goths: Too general a term.

Punks: Too general a term.

Emos: Too general a term.

Preps: Too general a term.

etc.

Fuck, IMO they invented the genre :D

The Cure, The Smiths, James, The Violent Femmes...  all bands that were emo before there was a term for it.

As far as groups of people and what people belong to, there are people that cross different and many groups.  However you can still pretty much pigeonhole them into one major genre/style.  Like I said I'm a DJ and I love all different types of music, but I am first and foremost a goth.

alls i have to say is goths kick ass because goths are br00tal and have good taste. emos are fickin retarted. scene kids are just good to know (sometimes).

there my opinion on this clique has been spoken.