Random
Source Code
Random
(Noun, Adjective) - A word of many uses, emo generally describes:
A) A genre of music
B) Style of fasion
C) Lifestyle/subculture
(NOTE - The following may be just slightly biased)
Emo music (short for Emocore or Emotional Hardcore) is a derivitive of the mid 80's hardcore scene. Born in Washington D.C., early emo was a mix of hardcore punk with both emotional lyrics and performances, dominated by bands such as "Rites Of Spring" and "Embrace". By the late 90's, most original emo bands had disbanded or changed direction. From 2000 onwards, many bands have unwillingly or unrightfully been labled as emo, such as "Dashboard Confessional" and "Taking Back Sunday". Many "classic" emo fans and outsiders view modern emo music as warterd-down punk rock.
Emo fasion or "the emo look" has a number of simple characteristics. For males, hair should be black (although dark red/brown is acceptable), greassy, have a long fringe and a bang covering one eye. For females, although dark hair is prefered, any colour is acceptable. While hair may be cleaner, it must still cover a large portion of the face. Black shirts and jackets are worn, although on rare occasions an emo may wear a grey or white hoodie. Jeans are the clothing of choice for the emo, although for males anything out of their sisters closet is fine. Footware is typically any sort of skating shoe. To complete the look, apply excessive amounts of eyeshadow (males and females), put on a pair of black horned glasses and start listening to your eyepod.
Emo culture, dominated by middle to upper class suburban white teenagers, is characterised by weak music, self loathing and melodrama. After listening to some emo music (generally, but not always shite), emo-boy will log onto myspace to talk to his emo friends. After blogging about how shit life is, how he fucking hates his parents, and how the whole world hates him, he'll have a look at emo-girls myspace page. A quick look at the 17,000 photos she's uploaded (either of her looking into the distance, her looking up at the camera in a confused and drugfucked way or her at an emo gathering), emo-boy and emo-girl will chat to each other. The conversation quickly turns to how they are both alone and nobody understands them. Emo-boy has had enough of myspace (for a few minutes at least) and decides he is depressed. He writes a "deep and meaningfull" poem, before deciding to end it all. A quick slash of the wrists and it's time to sit in the dark and wait for the end to come. Unfortunately, he only drove the razor 2 milimetres into his skin, so there's a pretty good chance he'll be back at school next week, trying (not very hard) to hide his fresh scars and emotions.
"Wow, dashboard confessionaly are, soooooo deep"
"Cheer Up emo-kid"
723👍 533👎
Something that all stereotypes agree on they hate.
Metalheads, preps, jocks, punk rockers and goths all put aside their differences and agree on one thing: they hate emos.
608👍 447👎
An "Emo" really is just a confused teenager. The entire Emo subculture is rooted in music. Emo is short for "emotional" or "emotional hardcore." This type of music came about in D.C. in the 80's (before most self-proclaimed emos were even born.) The type of people who listened to this music had common tastes in fashion, and like many other fashion eras, they all began dressing the same way. Now the term Emo is associated more with behavior and style than it is with music. Simply don a pair Converse, a studded belt, head-to-toe black, and angled bangs, and voila--you're an Emo. Of course, there is the debate over real and wannabe Emos, but really they're all the same. They purposely choose to dress a certain way, act a certain way, listen to (or pretend to listen to) certain music, despite what their motives are. Whether their motives are sincere or superficial, all Emos have chosen to conform to a group of people they feel safe with. They would rather be called "weird" than be themselves and think for themselves. The ones that call themselves real Emos look and act (on the surface) like wannabe Emos. The only difference may be that they are truly admirers of the music scene, or that they truly have difficult family lives. Either way, they are all just this generation's subculture. Just like the Grunge group of the 90s or the Hippies of the 60s, the Emos have found their stereotypical shoe, their theme song, their color, and their attitude, and they will fight for it until the death (or until they grow weary of cutting themselves). If they do cut themselves, you will know it. The entire point of cutting is to garner sympathy and attention. Never will you find an Emo who secretly cuts him or herself. Emos are really just searching for a place to call home. Every teenager has to find some group to associate with, lest they be left out. In this way, Emos are no different than the Chavs. The Chavs are just looking for a group to fit into as well. While the Chav group may be much more dim-witted and emotionally numb, they too are just a group of scared teenagers looking for a family. One day, both Emos and Chavs will look back on their silly little phases and laugh. They'll also look back on their ridiculous Urban Dictionary entires and wonder how they were able to graduate from high school with such poor grammar and spelling skills.
"Hey Emos, you're never going to get a date if you keep wearing that same black hoodie every day."
474👍 347👎
EMO - is more fashion than anything else, the fashion is mainly wearing black, jet black hair (covering half the face), lip piercings, eyeliner. Sadly emo get stereotyped to being kids who sit and cut themselves which is crap. That is NOT emo thats just a sad thing called depression (get help!) and infact many "emos" disagree with self mutalation completely. Emos are said to be moody, dark and have bleak outlooks on life but most are happy and comfortable with their own styles.
Many bands are also considered to be emo such as My Chemical Romance, From First To Last, Hawthorne Heights, 30 Seconds To Mars etc as they sing on moody and sometimes death related themes.
Last note, dont judge or stereotype "emo" people especialy if you dont know them. You wouldnt want someone to judge you.
An "emo" guy might wear - black skinny jeans, black "band name hear" t-shirt, hair in his face, eyeliner.
19👍 8👎
Emo was once a negative connotation on the new style of music created by such bands mentioned already (Fugazi, Rites of Spring, etc). Now it is an overly-hyped money making process, and has flooded the mainstream radio/tv stations. Trend following kids everywhere have adopted the "emo lifestyle" because it is the newest fad.
I want to cry while we have sex with each other.
1184👍 903👎
Most recently, a term used to dismiss the feelings and emotions of others as not being as real or as important as your own.
Sandy: Stacy, you've been crying all day. Stop being so fucking Emo!
Stacy: My father died yesterday.
Sandy: What-ever, you Emo loser. Now let's talk about ME!
138👍 93👎
I looked at the other definitions, and there seems to few people on here that actually know what they're talking about. So I thought I'd add mine, with a bit of history and background information...
1976 saw the birth of punk, bringing with it many sub-genres, sub-sub-genres, and sub-sub-sub-sub-genres. In the early 80s, punk had branched off into several different styles, and ways of taking the genre. In 1981 there was a large amount of "hardcore" bands emerging from the D.C. scene. One of these bands were called "Minor Threat", who had a very vibrant, and melodic sound.
Nearing the end of 1983, the band "Minor Threat" broke up, after the band seemed to "run out of steam", and their last 7" single "Salad Days" in 1984 finally killed the band, and the DC hardcore scene.
After that new bands emerged, taking the genre their own way. 1984 showed the release of "Zen Arcade", an album by minneapolis band "Husker Du". This interpretation showed much more powerful, intense vocals with slow, melancholy and more melodic song writing.
In Spring 1984, D.C. Hardcore band "Rites of Spring" emerged, taking inspiration from the earlier hardcore scene. The band brought a totally new vocal approach to Husker Du's original style.
Summer 1985 became known as the "revolution summer" when a whole wave of hardcore bands emerged from the D.C. scene such as Gray Matter, Soulside, Ignition and Dag Nasty. Few bands retained the original fast paced, hardcore style proposed by "Rites of Spring" and "Husker Du" but took a much more droney, melodic approach to the genre.
These bands were then labelled the "D.C. Sound" or "D.C. Hardcore", and some of them were labelled "emo".
It was never suggested by Rites Of Spring that the term "emo" was short for anything. Although it has been proposed that emo was short for "emotive hardcore" or "emotionally charged hardcore punk" in a 1985 flipside interview with the band they claimed they were "not a punk rock band" and it was never mentioned in the text that they were "emotional" or "emotive" although the term "emo" was used several times.
Again, people took the genre several ways. Some people took an "Indie-rock" approach to the genre, while others retained a "post hardcore" style.
Many emo bands were poorly paid, underground, and rarely heard of, and few records were ever released around the genre. Which is probably why today it is so easily mistaken and misunderstood.
The "D.C. hardcore scene" grew, and with it, a stereotype fashion. People with a "Mop-top" haircut, skinny t-shirts and old trainers became a classic "D.C. hardcore scene" cliche. However, not all of these were "emo fans" nor were they in any way "emo's". It is suggested that this idea was taken, and progressed through the nineties to a much more "geeky" look nowadays.
However, emo is a genre of music, argue all you like, your still wrong. Saying "I am an emo" is like saying "I am a jazz", which is not possible. Emo has been heavily marketed by magazines (Kerrang etc.) and a totally wrong idea of the genre is now being spread across youths.
The early 90s saw a last breath for emo, with a much more softer, "Indie-rock" take on the genre. After that, the rest is history. It's a shame the genre was dragged through the gutter like that.
Emo - Rites Of Spring, Dag Nasty, SDRE, Drive Like Jehu, Fugazi...
What? - GUYS IN GIRL PANTS R HOT!!!11
Anything to do with 14 year old girls instantly becomes void of the possibility of it having anything to do with emo.
506👍 381👎