What is Goth?

I've spent my day today doing research for a photography shoot I have organised. I have had to look in to what "goth" is, and what I found out has been interesting.
I decided to firstly go on to a forum to find out peoples views on the matter, and each person i spoke to said they would describe goth as being a dark subculture, but all those people would describe themselves as thoughtful, caring, passive, creative, acceptable and unique people.
Having found this out, I decided to ask people who don't describe themselves as goths what the term meant to them. Again, most people said a dark group of people, very fond of black. But I also got other responses, for example violent, evil, depressive, morbid. Vampires and death was also very often associated with them.
Going on to a website, entitled "What is Goth?", it is explained that Goths were originally a group of people who rejected society and wore alot of black. However within this subculture, there is a wide variety of people and not one of those people could define the term goth in three words.
Overall it seems that "goth" is just a label, or a stereotype. And like most stereotypes, it is misunderstood.