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EMO?

SwoopGuy's picture
Submitted by SwoopGuy on

Yup, this is one of those "What is ..." threads.  I get the impression that EMO has been around for a little while, but somehow I managed to miss this label.  I do know that some people frequently link it with Goth, though I am also assured that they are not the same.  So here it goes...

What exactly is EMO?

What similarities does it share with Goth Culture?

What separates EMO from Goth Culture?

Please help a crusty, unhip fuddie duddie understand this new world that seems to have slipped him by.

Usually, those who find the resulting phrase comical are the first four or five people in the chain, because they know more or less what it was supposed to be.  Thus, I assume EMO is more likely viewed as non-farcical by those who weren't early on in the game, because they had no idea what the original intention was in the first place.  Which might explain why most people my age find it all kinda goofy.

I wonder if Monkey's think the same thing about Humans and that's why they laugh all the time...lol. Makes me think of all sorts of theories about entropy, evolution, and the divine cosmic joke that is life...

Emo is a sub-cultural iteration with replicative errors, a photocopy from a smudged mimeograph...

Damn, if that doesn't just put the finger right on it, for me! 

Like the old game of "telephone" we played as kids, when one person among a group whispers a phrase to the person beside them, who then whispers it to the next person, who whispers it to the next person, who whispers it to the next person , and so on... so by the time the game is done and it's whispered back to person #1, it sounds almost nothing like what it originally was.  So from that, the resulting phrase is either totally interesting in its differentiation from the original, *or* it is merely nonsensical and practically unintelligible.  Usually, those who find the resulting phrase comical are the first four or five people in the chain, because they know more or less what it was supposed to be.  Thus, I assume EMO is more likely viewed as non-farcical by those who weren't early on in the game, because they had no idea what the original intention was in the first place.  Which might explain why most people my age find it all kinda goofy.

:P

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Art of Adornment ~ Victorian Gothic Jewelry & Accessories

Thank you Atratus we appreciate your input, i was lazy in my explanation and your post gave us alot better history of it.

I knew most of the origins of punk an goth but i was surprised it had roots in disco so i guess i learned somthing new

I see a lot of you saying "emo is an offshoot of punk" and I have to take issue. The "punk" that emo is an offshoot of is second wave, twenty-years after the fact, Green Day knock-off punk. Emotional Hardcore --> emocore --> emo has the same relationship to second-wave knock-off punk and Positive/Peace Punk --> Death/Gloom/Goth Rock --> goth has to original punk.

Original punk was itself an iteration of the music that came 20 years before it, an attempt to recover from the wallowing medicrity of Disco, but infused with some genuine originality born out of desperation resulting from the realization that the UK, despite "winning" the world wars, had irrevocably lost its place in the world and there was, in a very real way, "no future." Politcally speaking (rather than musically) goth was the reaction that there is no use screaming into the ether about the suckage, better to mourn what's gone and try and hold on to what's left that still beautiful. In this way goth was an aquienscence to being "beaten", which is where the 50's term "Beatnik" comes from - the emotional, poetry-writing, self-destructive, all-dressed-in-black precursor to goth from 20-odd years before goth.

The knock-off Green Day punk never had the political motivation of original punk. It was the form without the substance. Likewise emo has some of the form of goth in the mid-to-late eighties without the substance.

Emo is a sub-cultural iteration with replicative errors, a photocopy from a smudged mimeograph of a story spewed from the anus of William Burroughs typewriter about Weimar intellectuals pining for the glory days of Belle Epoche Paris.

EMO: Blurring the lines between the sexes since 1998 jk.........well...........

(let the hatemail flow)

I noticed emo started around 1999 because i used to run gigs in kamloops and kelowna it started off like punk and 70's rock, i knew most of the major emo bands in BC and most of them are still playing the same songs now as in 99.

Actually the thing that gets me is one that is known world wide who have been playing the same songs for 11+ years i can remmember have actually gotten worse as time goes by an they admit they are doing it on purpose because thats what thier fans want.

Im just bitter, i always get a laugh at the emo's that make fun of me when i walk around because 90% of the time i get them to take off thier collar and check to see if chardwolf is printed inside it, then i hand them by business card......

I prefer the team "Dungeons and Dragons Enthusiast". Nerd just sounds so...well...nerdy.

Don't mind me, I'm just being retarded out of boredom.

*evil glare in esquire's direction*

Fantasy/D&D NERD!? ahem ahem.... We're just as cool as everybody else, thank you very much. (jk)

Evil glare in my direction? I did say "who isn't, right?" Indicating that I am also a Fantasy/D&D nerd.

Here is a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo_%28slang%29]Wikipedia link about emo.

I must admit that I am a big fan of a lot of the more current "emo" music, especially Dashboard Confessional.

Puck is right that emo is an offshoot of punk.  The music is very angsty, focused on strong emotions and sadness.  The clothing style is a mixture of punk, indie and gothic influences.  Tight tshirts with vintage logos and pictures, thrift store clothes, tight women's pants on men, thick rimmed Buddy Holly-ish glasses (even if they don't need them), 80's influenced outfits, thick black eyeliner, etc.  There is also the other kind of emo that wears khakis, is sort of an indie-influenced nerd who wears the thick rimmed glasses, scarves, lots of pins and buttons on their satchels/bags, etc. 

More often than not the term "emo" is used as an insult.  They are considered posers because they are a mixture of so many styles and many of the people identified with them are young teens - young adults who are perceived as being unneccessarily angsty, clinging to a style of music that feeds their "no one understands me" mentality.  They are seen as kids who use this ecclectic style of clothing and intensely emotional music as a way to distance themselves from their parents.  In that, they are similar to goths.  However, I often get the impression that their dedication to being "different" is motivated by teenage rebellion rather than them being true to themselves and doing that they really want.

*evil glare in esquire's direction*

Fantasy/D&D NERD!? ahem ahem.... We're just as cool as everybody else, thank you very much. (jk)

Think of emo peeps as skaters that dess a bit better and listen to really sad whiney punk instead of angry rebellious punk, and you've sorta got the idea.

In my opinion the reason they've been linked to goth is the misconception that all goths cut themselves and comtemplate suicide on a regular basis. And so, apparently, do emo people. (I'm avoiding using the term emo "kids" since some of them are in their mid-to-late twenties). There are a few minor similarities in the fashion as well, but it basically ends there.

A young lad at my work used the term EMO about a month ago. He's a fantasy/D&D nerd, of course, who isn't right? He and I were discussing subcultures and he told me that an EMO is a preppie kid who tries to dress goth. In other words, a goth wannabe. Didn't know such a thing existed.

An insight...

So, EMO is short for emotional. It's a genra of music. It started as an off shoot of punk at some point. Rather than using anger to fuel songs, EMO tends to be all about how every one hates and doesn't understand you. In recent years the EMO trend took off, which, I'm pretty sure, is what started all this EMO bashing. Aside from REALLY bad haircuts, EMO's can be identified by the overly tight jeans, make up and the fact that they never make eye contact.