What the heck does EMO mean?

Question

I keep seeing all these questions about EMO this and EMO that. What does it mean?

Answer 1

emo - short for "emotional." Emo is a broad title that covers a lot of different styles of emotionally-charged punk rock.

The link will tell you all you want to know about emo. You can also find it by typing emo into yahoo search. The title on the website is What the heck is emo anyway?

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

emo is short for emotional. people who listen to emotional hard punk music. go to http://www.wikepedia.com type emo

Answer 4

it is short for emotional...
it came from emotive hardcore music in the late 80's
not all "emo kids" cut themselves...
that is a stupid stereo type...
many "scene kids" get mistaken for emo...scene is just a fashion.
PLEASE don't believe urbandictionary if you go to it... it is a ton of
stupid generalizations 95% of wich are wrong...

Answer 5

Emo is short for emotional. It started with punk bands who get very emotional during their performances, such as starting to cry and things like that.

Answer 6

emo is short for emotional, thus some kids are called emo.

Answer 7

Emo, well what I believe is Little Rich teenagers that want to be sad and depressed, but have nothing to be sad and depresed about ... Believe me they are rich, theyve got money to go spend at Hot Topic buying 30 dollar notebooks... They also find it interesting to cut themselves...

Answer 8

emo is short for emotional, or for the genre of music, emotive hardcore.

Answer 9

if you dont know then it means your not hip or cool, but dont feel bad in a couple of years they wont be cool anymore either, they will be history and something else will be cool, they are trying to be the next goth fad, it is not taking hold very well, remember when grunge was in, or punk rock was all the hype, its like that. Really.

Answer 10

Emotional music