Mainly the dark literature of Edgar Allen Poe and H. P. Lovecraft.

Hmm.. I'd say for me it was the extension of halloween as well as I was done with being "preppy". I used to wear pink princess stuff all the time and then one day I just decided "I prefer black." I don't remember the specific trigger actually.

I had a horrific dream i would become a goth and do horrible terrible things. Then a few years later I looked down and boom there it was. sans the baby eating ... I think at a young age i had goth and satanist confused.

What first got me into Goth was Poe and Lovecraft. So I'd say the literature first then I started to explore the fashion and whatnot in high school, not to mention I always secretly had an obsession and fascination with death and dying things and what not. Yeah >_>

The Deathrockers

nightmare before christmas

New wave. It was the next logical jump, as far as the music goes. I have very little attachment to the goth subculture aside from the music.

Poe, Lovecraft, Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton in general, My Dying Bride, and generally being misanthropic and the black sheep. xD

Emily the Strange, and Music

Musically, the literature, clothing somewhat, and the architecture

I grew up with a tattooist as a father, and he was in black metal bands. I was raised in it.

Type O Negative's music, then the band, then just enjoyed the look and style of it.

It's the dark nature overall that somehow posses a unique kind of beauty. My mother's ex-boyfriend was an initial influence since an early age, I used to listen to death metal with him and watched a bunch of horror movies. It wasn't until my late teenage years that I realized a lot of people label something dark to be wicked or evil; it was one of those things that if it gets negative attention, it encourages me to further interpret it. That was the point in which I saw not only the stereotype, but also the other things people don't seem to notice.

And by "people," I mean "those who are not Goth."

Fashion!

Everyone kept calling me a goth because I'm pale with dark eye circles due to being ill and wear black. So eventually thought i'd might as well go with it. Mostly I like the fashion/ visual side of it.

For me, it's the overall aesthetic. The themes found in the music, the pathos of the written work, and of course the general beauty (however twisted) in things of the night. My first real push in the goth direction, however, was the music. Admittedly didn't discover the standards (Siouxie and the Banshees, The cure) until many, many moons later, but the darker themes found in old Ozzy and Alice Cooper are what initially brought me into the fold.

Why yes, I am a metalhead as well. Thank you for noticing!

For what it's worth, I'm really just into dark atmospheres and settings. Dark, sinister and melancholic sorta things overall. I'm not specifically interested in "Goth" per se, but many of its features are appealing to me

This is me as of now, too.

I actually got introduced to the "goth" scene through a boy. The first real love of my life. He changed my whole world around, showed me things I didn't know existed. Also in music. I was raised on country, and didn't know anything else was out there, until he told me about Disturbed. I was about maybe.. 13. Or so. (24 now ) Never looked back since then.

Well, in all honesty I've never been "introduced" to the Goth scene, the first thing I ever knew about was that "Goths" were a race in Age of Empires II... It's not raelly something I found, it's more something I found that I had my style, the way I thought etc, and they're apparently applicable to goth.

Though, You poor thing, I hate country, so I'd hate to have been raised on it, just me though, you may enjoy it and that's fine XD
No idea what Disturbed is, but you seem to have been on the scene for a fair while O.o

Yeah, there's remnants of country that stick with me just because i listened to it for so long. But mostly, i hate it now. Disturbed is a rock band. It was the first band outside of country at all that i listened to and i fell in love.

Yeah, well, it's said that you like what you grew up with, so if you listened to a lot of country as a kid I wouldn't be surprised.
And yeah, something new is always exciting!!

I can't really remember when that actually happened - but I started to listen to metal when I was in my teen years, and somehow gotten to know the gothic rock of the 80s - that really got(h) me, I knew that tune was totally for me! I never really dressed up so gothy, I had few things of course, but I don't really mind what I wear, I just love the music. :)

I felt it was the most accurate expression of my inner self.

I read everything by Poe, I liked the music I wore black without labeling it, and then I realized I liked dark and lacy stuff, and bought more of the stuff and listened to more of the music lol. Nightmare Before Christmas. I always leaned more towards dark things. I didn't really label myself as it till more recently in part because if I said the words my mom would try buying me lighter clothes. So I wore my dark clothes and didn't say a word about it until I started hanging with the community in town. I would see our local community out and about since I was 13 but most of their events were 21 and up so I was always on the outskirts pawing at the doors to get in. Then I found out where they were shortly after my 23rd and have hung around for awhile.

The music, the darkness, the night time fun, being able to talk to people about deep issues, the arcitecture,. I've even owned a few old Hearses and plan to get another one.

Voltaire, Marilyn Manson, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. I was into goth long before I got into high school. The Inferno of Dante was a continued influence, followed quickly by Edar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft [especially the Cthulhu mythos], but ultimately I tend to settle more into the metalhead subsect of the goth culture, with more of my early influences involving introductory metal bands like Slipknot, AC/DC, and especially Ozzy Osbourne getting me interested in the aesthetic clothing style, something that lingers to this day. I still find I have a keen fascination with the concept of death, and grave-rubbing is still a favorite meditative pass-time of mine.

The aesthetic, the music, some of the literature associated with it. I can remember having a particular fascination with the dark side of the supernatural almost from childhood, especially if it involved personifications of death or representations of our fear of the unknown (hi, Lovecraft and Neil Gaiman). A huge childhood influence was the portrayal of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in the 1951 film "Scrooge" with Alastair Sim. I don't label myself goth per se, partially because once I put a label on myself I tend to treat it as prescriptive rather than descriptive x.x But I do identify with and enjoy pretty much all of what the subculture is about.