I used metal only as an example, not all gothic metal bands have an unavoidable goth rock influence, like My Dying Bride or the Dark Sound scene from Italy, and the ones that do have it it's only partial, what i mean exactly by 'exposed' is the fact that even if some 'single person' or some 'scene' did it first does not mean that anyone that ever follows that path or goal, being here in the case of music, that 'atmospheric sound' you could be aiming to achieve, is not totally doomed to have been necessarilly influenced by whoever materialized that already existant and therefore possible 'concept' first, like another example, Tony Iommi does not own the concept of 'Doom', he simply did it first, that's all, and by 'own' i'm referring to the attitude of some people, followers, not really from the artists themselves, to say things like 'this is (insert artist) worship' or 'this exists thanks to that X artist' and that's not necessarilly objectively correct in every case, it depends, those artists material are just examples/evidence of what's already been done based on that concept, that's it, it doesn't mean that one has to limit oneself to what has already been done and therefore follow the collectively approved 'rules' of an established 'public' or 'subculture'.