What does "Emo" actually stand for?

Question

My friend and I were sitting around the other day listening to the radio, and he asked me what an "Emo" band was.
I said, "Like Fallout Boy" or "Blue October."
And he said, "Oh, but does eyeliner and fingernail polish make them Emo, 'cuase Green Day dresses that way, and they're Punk."
So I'm not sure. What does "Emo" mean?

Answer 1

Emo is a subgenre of hardcore punk music. Since its inception, emo has come to describe several independent variations, linked loosely but with common ancestry. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate.

In its original incarnation, the term emo was used to describe the music of the mid-1980s Washington, DC scene and its associated bands. In later years, the term emocore, short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the DC scene and some of the regional scenes that spawned from it. The term emo was derived from the fact that, on occasion, members of a band would become spontaneously and strongly emotional during performances. The most recognizable names of the period included Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Gray Matter, Fire Party, and, slightly later, Moss Icon. The first wave of emo began to fade after the breakups of most of the involved bands in the early 1990s.

Starting in the mid-1990s, the term emo began to reflect the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas Is the Reason put forth a more indie rock style of emo, more melodic and less chaotic in nature than its predecessor. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the late 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted to mainstream styles.

As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the more mainstream style, creating a style of music that has now earned the moniker emo within popular culture. Whereas, even in the past, the term emo was used to identify a wide variety of bands, the breadth of bands listed under today's emo is even more vast, leaving the term "emo" as more of a loose identifier than as a specific genre of music.

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Answer 2

Emotional Rock.

Answer 3

Expressing emotion

Answer 4

i've heard it means emotional or
emotionally
music
orienated

or something like that...basically u listen to the music for the emotion stuff..idk

Answer 5

emo means emotional.

Answer 6

emotion. hawthorne heights is emo and they say "so cuts my wrists and black my eyes" its because they show soooo much EMOtion because they feel so strongly about it

Answer 7

emotive hardcore

Answer 8

emotional?