what does emo mean?

Question

i've heard this word a lot and i dont know what it means or what a emo person is? they even have a song out about it.

Answer 1

It means "emotional." But people have made that word have more meaning. As in:
People cutting themselfs
A type of music
Gothic people
And MUCH more..

Hope I have helped (=

Answer 2

Most people in this question has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. I'm not going to go into too much more detail, but emo does not mean emotional. Emo is not Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, Hawthorne Heights, Dashboard Confessional, etc. They are pop bands nothing more. You don't listen to emo, and I'm willing to bet that you never have. Emo is style of hardcore music that is short for emotive hardcore. It originated in Washington D.C. It is widely regarded that the bands Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, and few others started it in the mid 80's. Rites of Spring being one of the best and most well known. They took their music in a more personal direction with a far greater sense of experimentation. Emo bands aren't on major record labels either. Emo is anti-corporate. It's what defined the bands, and it's what still defines those bands today. You will never find an emo band on Vagrant, Geffen, Drive-Thru, etc. Those bands aren't emo, and never will be.

If you want real emo check out:

Yaphet Kotto
Policy Of Three
Portraits Of Past
Heroin
Antioch Arrow
Glass And Ashes
Planes Mistaken For Stars
Ordination Of Aaron
Current
Saetia
Hot Cross
Circle Takes The Square
A Day In Black And White
Four Hundred Years
Sinaloa
They And The Children
How To Beat A Dead Horse
Ampere
Appleseed Cast
Rites of Spring
etc.

If you actually take the time to listen to these bands, you will see that it is the vocals and music that makes a band emo, not lyrics. And band such as Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional, and Hawthorne Heights, do not have those musical and vocal characteristics.

Now that we have what emo actually is out of the way, I would like to give my opinion on this matter. Yes, people who wear mega tight shirts plastered with horrible bands, wear mega tight jeans, thick rimmed glasses, and have hideous or unnatural hair colors or styles look like idiots, but they are not emo.

Emo is not a style of dress, it's a genre of music.

Answer 3

It means emotional. But it doesn't. That is generally accepted, but now true. Here's the real definition from Urban Dictionary.com:

" In the early 90s there was a movement in the hardcore genre that came to be known as "Emotive Hardcore," spearheaded by Rites Of Spring. Harder-core-than-thou kids, who swore by Dischord Records a la Minor Threat, actually coined the term "Emo" as something of a put-down for the kids who really liked Rites Of Spring, Indian Summer and this new wave of "Emotive" Hardcore bands. That's right, "Emo" was once not something kids called themselves. The field exploded outwards from there - Level-Plane Records has always been the most famous Emo label. Acts like Yaphet Kotto, I Hate Myself, Saetia, Hot Cross, A Day In Black And White, Funeral Diner, I Would Set Myself On Fire For You, You And I, and hosts of others came in the next decade. Most emo bands have since broken up, but there's still the occasional hold-out (again, the majority of Level-Plane Records' roster has been a procession of emo acts). Like most DIY hardcore/punk of the time, a majority found its way onto vinyl and not much else. Some people consider bands like Fugazi, and later Sunny Day Real Estate, a progression of emo, but personally, I don't quite follow that philosophy.

Often, more recently, this gets intertwined with post-hardcore, and understandably so - that's nothing to make an issue of, since well ****, at least it's close.

Since the late 90s, though, bands have been emerging in the vein of Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, and the thousands of their clones. As far as I can tell, some lazy journalist somewhere, writing an article about them, decided "Well, ****, no one knows what emo is anyways, so I'll call these bands "emo" - sounds more appealing than bubblegum pop rock..." and the spiral continued downwards into the current amalgomation of bands MTV has told everyone is "emo."

Somehow, people decided that "emo" meant "emotional," which is obviously bullshit, as 99% of bands make music to illicit emotion, which would make "emotional" a completely all-encompassing genre from classical to opera to pop to rap. "

Answer 4

You've heard the word, and you were just hanging out in Yahoo Answers, so you decided to ask this brilliant question? And since you had this lightbulb go off in your head, you also decided to put it into this category?
Beauty & Style > Other - Beauty & Style
Did you think that emo has anything remotely to do with Beauty & Style??

Answer 5

emo was a started as a type of music is the 80s(90s maybe)
now its a not only a type of music, but also being put out there as a lifestyle. it refers to emotional people who pretty much are depressed and their style consists of covering half of their face w/ their hair, black nail polish, and loads of eyeliner(very very hot i might add), girl pants(even if theyre a guy), and band tees with converses and slip on vans...i kno...this is a bit steroetypical, but im jusdt trying to get the idea of it through

Answer 6

emo means ppl that are really sad and all they think about is love kinda thing and then they say emo is ppl that always cry and wana die and try to kill them selves so yeah that pretty much lets ya know there

Answer 7

Emotional

Answer 8

emo is a type of music, and emo stands for "Emotional Hardcore"

Answer 9

Emo is emotional rock / hardcore (even though I wouldn't call it hardcore) bands like A.F.I. and Atreyu... kinda cry baby boo hoo lyrics to "hardcore" music. They usually look like metrosexuals (straight people who look gay).

Answer 10

emo could mean emotional. it also refers to gothic people who dress mostly in black and have lots of piercings with hair in their face. when it means emotional, its when someone may be depressed and is constantly crying, angry, and unhappy.