Okay, maybe I am old or really sheltered, but can someone please tell me what EMO means?

Question

Is it emotional? or is it something else entirely? I keep seeing it here in answers and its driving me crazy!

Answer 1

Emo is short for emotional but it also punk music on estrogen. Often acoustic guitar with soft, high male vocals that dwell excessively on the singer's feelings, especially melancholy remembrances of past relationships/mistakes in life. A form of music that diverged from punk in the '80s, the name "emo" is derived from the emotive style of the lyrics and music. This genre has lately been marketed heavily by the music industry to teenagers with bands such as Dashboard Confessional and Taking Back Sunday, and has seen much commercial and mainstream success. The music has also spawned a subculture which conforms to certain conventions in dress such as tight sweatshirts, tight band T-shirts and horn-rim glasses. Adherents profess to excessively melancholy temperaments. Males that adhere to the emo subculture are sometimes confused with metrosexuals; indeed the line between the two is somewhat blurred, though both groups claim to be in touch with their emotional side. The ephemeral and hackneyed nature of emo songwriting suggests that its audience will be restricted largely to teenagers. the genre suffers from a lack of credibility outside the aforementioned demographic group, much like current Nu Metal bands.

Answer 2

"Emotional Hardcore". Rooted in "emocore" in the 80s (Fugazi, Embrace, Rites of Spring, etc...)... got way whinier and cross-bred with post-grunge and started becoming the underground sensation in the mid-late 90s (Cursive, The Promise Ring, Sunny Day Real Estate, etc...)... just recently hit the mainstream a few years ago (Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, etc...).

But yeah... "Emo(tional Hard)core". People used to whine about how it simply meant "emotional music", but how much music out there ISN'T emotional?

Sorry 'bout the rant!

Answer 3

EMO is a phrase for emotional sorta. It means that the person is being described as emotional needy or whiny. Usually is a punk-oriented phrase to a kind of music that generally sings about how horrible life is and things like that.

Answer 4

Some people say emo is a music genre, "emotive hardcore." But now, "emo" is more widely referred to the kids who cut themselves for attention, shop at Hot Topic, listen to Fall Out Boy, and fake mental illnesses. :]

Answer 5

Emo kids are the ones you see in black (not goth) they act all depressed eventhough there's nothing wrong with their life. It may stand for emotional, pop music thats whiny is generally emo music too, fall out boy and afi are two emo bands.

Answer 6

Emotionally immature, cry baby sort of ppl,

Check out these top rated definitions from
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=EMO

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EMO:
Genre of softcore punk music that integrates unenthusiastic melodramatic 17 year olds who dont smile, high pitched overwrought lyrics and inaudible guitar rifts with tight wool sweaters, tighter jeans, itchy scarfs (even in the summer), ripped chucks with favorite bands signature, black square rimmed glasses, and ebony greasy unwashed hair that is required to cover at least 3/5 ths of the face at an angle.

::sniff sniff:: "The Demise of the Siberian Traintracks of Our Rusty Forgotten Unblemished Love" sounds like it would make a great emo band name. ::cry::





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EMO:

Like a Goth, only much less dark and much more Harry Potter.

My life sucks, I want to cry


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EMO:

A group of white, mostly middle-class well-off kids who find imperfections in there life and create a ridiculous, depressing melodrama around each one. They often take anti-depressants, even though the majority don't need them. They need to wake up and deal with life like everyone else instead of wallowing in their imaginary quagmire of torment.

Emo conversation!

XxSlavetoAnguishxX: omg my gf just left me
acidburnedsoul: that sux man
XxSlavetoAnguishxX: i blame myself only i'm such an *** *cries*
acidburnedsoul: dude come over to my house and we can cut ourselves together
XxSlavetoAnguishxX: okay *cries*
acidburnedsoul: omg dashboard confessional has a new cd, i preordered it already
XxSlavetoAnguishxX: dude they're my favorite band to self-mutilate to
acidburnedsoul: i prefer to cut myself while watching Napoleon Dynamite on my bigscreen
XxSlavetoAnguishxX: dude that movie is so deep. i cry every time i see it
acidburnedsoul: me too. i hate myself
XxSlavetoAnguishxX: yeah we're such tortured souls, nobody understands how hard life is for us
acidburnedsoul: yeah we got it tough dude. pass the tissues

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MOODIFY : Even I find myself floundering when I come across these terms, And I used to be so net savvy ! Sniff Sniff! Pass the tissues man! I feel like cutting myself up, right now.

Answer 7

Emo is short for "Emotion Hardcore", a loosely defined kind of rock song. partial to Emotion Hardcore or one adopting the varieties of that lifestyle is "an emo". If somebody is being overly dramatic or delicate they are in a position to be defined as "getting emo" or "going emo". that's generally meat in a unfavorable way.

Answer 8

emo is a label that people put on certain people. its kind of annoying b/c there are stereotpes w/ it...... its kind of frustrating. i bet you someone will answer your question w/: kids who wear all black, eyeliner, cut themselves, and are into suicide or some bull like that. really, no one knows what emo is b/c it isnt real.... its just another abel created to further seperate peopl from each other.

Answer 9

Yeah it's emotional, but i really don't understand still lol

Answer 10

its a genre of music but people use it as if youre emotional or if you slit your wrist and yeah you just cry for anything....OH and you dress in all black...........thats what ALOT of people think it is......but its actually and genre for music