Someone please define EMO for me

[piinyouri]

It refers to a fashion style that emphasises hair over your face, black/dark clothes and make-up, and complaining far too much. Sometimes there's a dash of hipster thrown in, and you can tell because they're wearing an accessory or piece of clothing in a very bright colour (usually yellow or pink).

Examples:

Spoiler

No, that's scene.

Emo is a musical genre. It's a sub genre of punk and it's actually not that popular.
[vidjas]

Then there's screamo, which is in itself a subgenre of emo.
[more vidjas]

Neither have anything to do with fashion and the two terms get misused constantly.


If we're talking about scene, then that's just the general culture around certain fashion (i.e. the one posted above), certain music (generally certain metalcore and post hardcore bands) and other such things. But it has nothing to do with emo.

End of thread, this person nailed it.

 

[Mick Beard]

i never realised how much i loved goths till emos come around

but it just shows that is it true, even goths want to beat up on someone so the emos are now nere

 

[Tanis]

In a nutshell:

It's a group of kids trying to be 'different', but acting like sheep.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I didn't think emo was still a thing?

That's so 2007

 

[A Raging Emo]

It refers to a fashion style that emphasises hair over your face, black/dark clothes and make-up, and complaining far too much. Sometimes there's a dash of hipster thrown in, and you can tell because they're wearing an accessory or piece of clothing in a very bright colour (usually yellow or pink).

Examples:

Spoiler

No, that's scene.

Emo is a musical genre. It's a sub genre of punk and it's actually not that popular.

Then there's screamo, which is in itself a subgenre of emo.

Neither have anything to do with fashion and the two terms get misused constantly.


If we're talking about scene, then that's just the general culture around certain fashion (i.e. the one posted above), certain music (generally certain metalcore and post hardcore bands) and other such things. But it has nothing to do with emo.

ohmyfuckinggod. Another American Football fan?!

 

[AnarchistFish]

ohmyfuckinggod. Another American Football fan?!

oh, I'm sorry
I haven't actually given them a proper listen yet. I've been meaning to for ages

 

[A Raging Emo]

ohmyfuckinggod. Another American Football fan?!

oh, I'm sorry
I haven't actually given them a proper listen yet. I've been meaning to for ages

Do it, like, now. They're easily one of my favourite bands. I'm sad that they'll never do another album looking back on their teenage feels from a more mature perspective.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I probably should have specified better. I mean a person who CHOOSES to do that at the end of the day.

Yeah, I know.

But let me explain where I'm coming from on this.

Emo wasn't yet a thing when I was in high school, so instead we had people who were generally labelled as "goths" (most of whom really weren't goth at all, they were just alternative but the difference was lost on most of us at that age). Anyway, it was a community where a lot of people probably played up that they had "issues". Almost everyone self-harmed and a couple staged very public suicide attempts. A lot of the music we listened to was pretty angsty and miserable. We wore lots of dark colors. We wrote poetry. It was pretty cliched.

The thing is, I know that if I ever tracked down my high school friends 90% of them would be just fine now, they'd be normal well-adjusted adults who will have completely moved on and all their so-called problems will have turned out to be nothing. But at the time they were fucked. We were all fucked. High school is not an emotionally healthy environment for any human being, least of all someone who is as confused and hormonal as the average teen. True, most of us grow out of that, and as adults with a bit more perspective we realize how incredibly silly it was to get so hung up on our "problems" in high school, but at the time was real pain.

I myself became clinically depressed during high school, but you couldn't have picked me out from the other whiny goth kids at first. It's only once we all got out of that environment that the difference became apparent. For my friends, the environment had been the only thing keeping them down, and as soon as they were out of it they transformed into the normal, well adjusted human beings they'd always wanted to be.. the reason I was depressed wasn't that my problems were worse than theirs, it's that when the time came I stayed locked away in tiny, insignificant high-school level worries.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's not as easy as separating the clinically depressed from the fakers. I never met any fakers, I met people who were making drama out of tiny things but never anyone who was just straight up faking it.

See, depression itself isn't just chemicals, if it was then cognitive behavioral therapy wouldn't work, it's much more about how a person thinks. If you're a sensitive person in an environment which is beating you down all the time, it can make you genuinely depressed, there's not some special level above that. I've had clinical depression, and I've never felt some special brand of sadness which is truer and deeper than anyone else's sadness. It sucked, I lost years and years of my life to it, but it wasn't anything special. It was just pain like any other, like you'd feel if you lost your job or your relationship ended or someone died or if you were trapped in a school you hated.

Incidentally, on the "goths don't listen to emotive/depressing/maudlin music":



You have to be pretty trad not to like anything remotely miserable.

 

[verdant monkai]

I haven't heard of them for ages now, I think they have all died out in Wales.

EMO comes from emotional, from what I understand they are like Goths but with a bigger emphasis on being depressed and self harming and somtimes suicide. The last part makes me sick when you think about people with real problems, who have the guts to keep on living. Then these cretins who have nothing really that bad to complain about mostly stuff like I cant get a relationship/no one understands me.

They are basically attention seekers.

 

[Mr F.]

This word gets thrown around alot these days and I've asked tonnes of people and no-one has been able to give me a satisfactory answer. I know it's short for emotional but isn't all music emotional? I mean I got called an emo once just for wearing black skinny jeans. can someone please give me an answer.

Emo is still a thing?

Originally? Emotionally Charged Punk Rock.

These days it is used to describe teenagers, roughly 16 years in age, who wear black and only black, perhaps a black band t-shirt, black skinny jeans, have dyed black hair and listen to shit like MCR. Self harm is usually alluded to, as is being abjectly depressed and thinking that the crap you go through matters.

I speak as a "Recovered" emo. By that I mean I grew up, stopped wearing black and stopped taking myself seriously. Still suffer from the depression (It came before I was an emo) but my music tastes got better.

I haven't heard of them for ages now, I think they have all died out in Wales.

EMO comes from emotional, from what I understand they are like Goths but with a bigger emphasis on being depressed and self harming and somtimes suicide. The last part makes me sick when you think about people with real problems, who have the guts to keep on living. Then these cretins who have nothing really that bad to complain about mostly stuff like I cant get a relationship/no one understands me.

They are basically attention seekers.

Just dropping in for 30 seconds.

One: Doesnt matter if you understand why someone killed themselves, people do not just do it. It takes a hell of a lot of balls (Yes, I said balls) to actually kill yourself. It is surprisingly difficult.

Two: Self harm, I agree on that. In some situations. The kind of person who leaves chicken scratches on their arms and go on about how it makes them feel, fuck them. The kind of person who barely draws blood, fuck them. The kind of person who does so much damage to their leg they get free plastic surgery from the NHS because their ankle no longer looks like an ankle? Hug them. Help them. Love them. They need it. Self harm existed before emos, most emos do not self harm and not all who self harm are emo.

Three: What is wrong with wanting attention? This always pissed me off. "Oh, look at him, he cut himself cause he wants attention." if its bad enough that someone is HARMING THEMSELVES then just give them a hug. Whats wrong with giving someone a hug?

Emos used to get a lot of hate here. It died down. I hope it stays dead. Hating on random angsty teenagers because you don't like the way they dress is just ridiculous.

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

Are 'Emos' still going?
I thought a new trend would have come in by now but clearly not.
I always thought Emos were kids with too much make-up, bad hair, wrote bad poetry and liked to sing My Chemical Romance as they wept into their pillow.

It takes a hell of a lot of balls (Yes, I said balls) to actually kill yourself. It is surprisingly difficult.

I agree with you 100%.

Suicide is known as the cowards way out but you need some serious balls to actually pull it off.

 

[Mr F.]

Are 'Emos' still going?
I thought a new trend would have come in by now but clearly not.
I always thought Emos were kids with too much make-up, bad hair, wrote bad poetry and liked to sing My Chemical Romance as they wept into their pillow.

It takes a hell of a lot of balls (Yes, I said balls) to actually kill yourself. It is surprisingly difficult.

I agree with you 100%.

Suicide is known as the cowards way out but you need some serious balls to actually pull it off.

Its strange, I see it as both. You know, an incredibly cowardly thing to do that will fuck up everyone around you (A thought that has kept me alive. I mean, right now, my family is going through hell and my girlfriend dumped me a week ago. So I keep alive by saying "Dont do anything, it would fuck them up, what with dads death, and [Redacted] would be ReALLY fucked up if you did it") but it takes serious balls to do it. I guess the only reason I am alive is cause I am a coward, too much of a coward xD.

Emos are emos, they are harmless people who should be given a hug and a smoke. Not hated on cause they have some bad addicting habits and shit like that.

And when they grow up they either become goths again, just grow up out of it or just end up being a moderately depressed 20something.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Self harm, I agree on that. In some situations. The kind of person who leaves chicken scratches on their arms and go on about how it makes them feel, fuck them. The kind of person who barely draws blood, fuck them. The kind of person who does so much damage to their leg they get free plastic surgery from the NHS because their ankle no longer looks like an ankle? Hug them. Help them. Love them. They need it. Self harm existed before emos, most emos do not self harm and not all who self harm are emo.

Just to point out. People self-harm for very different reasons. Generally, people start out doing it because the adrenaline makes them feel better, which means they don't need to do much damage to themselves. Sure, it's not dangerous because they're still very much in control, but the fact that they need to do that, the fact that the best way for someone to feel "up" for a moment is to stimulate adrenaline by hurting themselves is not a good sign.

In medical terms, yes, you should always focus on the people who cannot control or manage their self-harming behavior because they are a more immediate risk to themselves when they do it. If someone is at any risk of doing permanent harm to themselves, they do need urgent treatment. But in terms of who "who is worse" you really can't tell. It's worth noting that many depressed people and some suicidal people never self-harm at all. It's not a particularly good indicator of how bad someone's mental state is.

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

Are 'Emos' still going?
I thought a new trend would have come in by now but clearly not.
I always thought Emos were kids with too much make-up, bad hair, wrote bad poetry and liked to sing My Chemical Romance as they wept into their pillow.

It takes a hell of a lot of balls (Yes, I said balls) to actually kill yourself. It is surprisingly difficult.

I agree with you 100%.

Suicide is known as the cowards way out but you need some serious balls to actually pull it off.

Its strange, I see it as both. You know, an incredibly cowardly thing to do that will fuck up everyone around you (A thought that has kept me alive. I mean, right now, my family is going through hell and my girlfriend dumped me a week ago. So I keep alive by saying "Dont do anything, it would fuck them up, what with dads death, and [Redacted] would be ReALLY fucked up if you did it") but it takes serious balls to do it. I guess the only reason I am alive is cause I am a coward, too much of a coward xD.

Emos are emos, they are harmless people who should be given a hug and a smoke. Not hated on cause they have some bad addicting habits and shit like that.

And when they grow up they either become goths again, just grow up out of it or just end up being a moderately depressed 20something.

If I may be so bold, no woman is worth contemplating suicide over(like-wise no man is worth it).
You might be experiencing hell now but I've always believed that mountains only have two routes - down and up. When you're up you have to come down at some point but eventually; you will have to go back up. Why? Because to give up at the bottom with your legs crossed and arms folded is a way to ruin.

You're not a coward because you haven't done the act.
Human nature dictates you fight to survive. Some people can overcome it when they feel the world is truly ending but the majority don't.

 

[ace_of_something]

When I was a lad we called these people 'goths' I think the only difference is that the jeans are skinny rather than baggy and emo kids don't wear dragon/vampire jewelry as much.

 

[verdant monkai]

Just dropping in for 30 seconds.

One: Doesnt matter if you understand why someone killed themselves, people do not just do it. It takes a hell of a lot of balls (Yes, I said balls) to actually kill yourself. It is surprisingly difficult.

Two: Self harm, I agree on that. In some situations. The kind of person who leaves chicken scratches on their arms and go on about how it makes them feel, fuck them. The kind of person who barely draws blood, fuck them. The kind of person who does so much damage to their leg they get free plastic surgery from the NHS because their ankle no longer looks like an ankle? Hug them. Help them. Love them. They need it. Self harm existed before emos, most emos do not self harm and not all who self harm are emo.

Three: What is wrong with wanting attention? This always pissed me off. "Oh, look at him, he cut himself cause he wants attention." if its bad enough that someone is HARMING THEMSELVES then just give them a hug. Whats wrong with giving someone a hug?

Emos used to get a lot of hate here. It died down. I hope it stays dead. Hating on random angsty teenagers because you don't like the way they dress is just ridiculous.

1. Never tried to kill myself. But if you live in a first world country, your justification for trying to kill yourself will seem stupid and childish, compared to people who keep on living in miserable depressing places without hope. I have no sympathy for anyone who tires to kill them self. I've been to places in Africa and Thailand which make most places in Britain look like Heaven, people will continue to live in these shit holes. They work hard they suffer but ultimately they keep on living. Some of them of course do end it all, but the vast majority will stick it out.
People who kill themselves in first world countries where life isn't really a struggle I have no sympathy for, I don't hate them or anything I just don't respect them. Because I know there people out there still fighting for survival who have seen worse then these people ever will.

2. Self harm is an irritating thing for me to hear about as well, anyone who mutilates them self so bad they need money wasted on them to get better, is clearly in need of some counselling. As you can probably tell by now I'm not the sentimental type.

3. You should get attention for being interesting, cutting yourself so people feel sorry for you is pathetic without being pitiable. If you want acknowledgement become a better person and try to get others to like you by being nice and helpful ect. The sappy "oh we should just give them a big hug" thing has always annoyed me. It implies everyone else is doing something wrong, rather than the weirdo taking chunks out of their own flesh. Just giving them a hug won't fix the problem, just show them self harm is a great attention grab, they need to be told to find a productive use of their time.

Also I have never hated emo's I met my first girl friend when she was one.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Emo doesn't get thrown around as much as it used to, but I'll bite. Emos tend to wear a lot of black, eyeliner and straighten their hair. I guess they do tend to be a bit melodramatic, but the whole 'bad poetry and self harm' thing is a bit of a stereotype in my experience. I actually discovered that a hell of a lot of my friends have self-harmed, and the ones that are emos did just as much to hide it as the rest of us did (which is to say as much as possible). I actually found emos tended to be fairly lovely people, they were pretty accepting to weirdos which was nice. I have a lot of good memories of bumping into groups of of them in parks in Bristol, I can't imagine most other subcultures letting a group of scruffy metalhead kids (I had terrible dress sense back then. Not that I don't still love metal, but I wear clothes that fit me now) that they hardly knew hang about with them.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Why are people still giving wrong answers when I've already given you all the right answer?

 

[Scarim Coral]

I thought emo meant emotionless? Well I view the word as people who are a downer, depress or have a blick outlook in life.