Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

I was wondering.

I hear this word thrown around a lot and it gets a lot of negativity when used.

What is the big deal about emo's?

I hear about them writing poems and listening to music,doesn't that make it the same as another subculture called:Goth and punk?

technically aren't they both expressive and people do it to express something? or rebel against someone?

I don't live in the us so i do not know much about it.


--------------------

We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Well Emo kind of is like goth except...

They are more self destructive and mad at themselves along with depression while goths are more mad at the world because of depression.

I was goth at one time still kind of am I just added more color to my wardrobe and kind of not as mad with everything.

I kind of wondered what emo meant but learned on another forum.

--------------------

I treasure those who I love that love me in return. <3

Emo is short for emotional. Its the whiny goth looking people who cry a lot and act like they want to cut/kill themselves all the time.

Think Hope Estheim, pre-character devolopment.

--------------------

"When we think there's no hope left, we keep looking until we find some!" - Claire Farron

What Emo ACTUALLY means is shorthand of 'emotional melodic hardcore' which was a type of punk music started by a lot of Washington, DC groups, led mostly by the band Fugazi. It was punctuated by a deeper focus on angsty emotion, and the emo 'look' of shortish black hair, black sweater, dark blue jeans was just the common DC hardcore look around that time. It's a musical term that, like goth, eventually was used more for the fans than the music, and later just used for people meeting the general description of the fans.

And Magitek, not to point fingers, but you had been calling Cloud emo all that time without even knowing what the word meant?

--------------------

"If art doesn't risk upsetting expectations and challenging its audience, it can only stagnate."

I knew what the word meant,i was just talking about the sub group mentioned.

Its just that:It almost seems like they make up an excuse to be depressed to be tagged as a emo so they can be popular at times.

Not that is such a bad thing,but it seems like these tags like:emo goth punk etc are all excuses to be in the most popular group with the most popular rock.

And curiosity:can radiohead be considered emo music?

Its depressing and all,in fact most of radiohead's music is very depressing.

Question about the music itself,is all emo music melodic and soft?

It seems like goths like heavier music

This post has been edited by Magitek_slayer on 21st November 2010 13:41

--------------------

We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

I think in order to be emo you also have to be pathetic. You have to be self-centred and believe that the world is against you and only you, and that your problems are much worse than everybody else's. There is some element of that in everyday use I believe. Also, I think emo is used a lot more in the US, here in the UK people don't really say it, FWIW. For me it's more like an internet thing.

--------------------

Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 21st November 2010 08:41)

And curiosity:can radiohead be considered emo music?
Question about the music itself,is all emo music melodic and soft?

Strictly speaking, emo is a type of hardcore punk, so it's rarely soft, music-wise, though the vocals might be melodic over the heavy music. Radiohead is far from punk, I haven't listened to them in a while but I'd say they're more progressive rock. Of course, since the genre has become more commercial, it's a lot different from its roots, just like any genre ('indie' used to just denotate music on an independent label, now its a style of music).

--------------------

"If art doesn't risk upsetting expectations and challenging its audience, it can only stagnate."

Quote (sweetdude @ 21st November 2010 15:27)

I think in order to be emo you also have to be pathetic. You have to be self-centred and believe that the world is against you and only you, and that your problems are much worse than everybody else's. There is some element of that in everyday use I believe. Also, I think emo is used a lot more in the US, here in the UK people don't really say it, FWIW. For me it's more like an internet thing.

Isn't that generalizing the group?

Ok i am defending them a little,but that does sound a little harsh.

I always thought that the emo group movement thing was more or less a style of haircut and hanging out with people who like dying their hair red and black and having long hair over their eyes and listening to music of certain type.

I always thought that some of the reason these people joined was to bandwagon because they think its cool to be a rebel and it makes them popular.


That of course isn't the only reason though,there are people who genuinely start something to express their feelings.


--------------------

We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Personally, I can't stand emos. Most of them are such defeatist wimps who feed on sympathy to make up for their BS "miseries."
The fact is everyone has their own problems, be they "emo" or not. I also don't get the whole reverse-mullet hairstyle thing (when really, a paper bag would be more convenient).

I never was into that junk, and never will be. Bands like Green Day, My Chemical Romance, and Hawthorne Heights is new wave/goth rock but without the balls (if they even had one to begin with). If you or anyone else like that stuff, more power to you.

P.S. It's down the street, not across.

This post has been edited by Allen Hunter on 29th November 2010 21:37

Wow, I can't believe some of the posts I'm seeing here.

Emo originally referred to a style of rock music called Emotional (or Emotive) Hardcore. They called it "Emo" for short, and over time it started developing into a style of dress and attitude. Since then the title has been attributed to bands and songs that aren't emo at all, but are instead the sort of music that people who consider themselves "emo" listened to, and they were labelled by association.

Today, "Emo" is more of a fashion style than it is anything despite the negative stigma against it for what is considered to be the typical "emo" attitude, and it has since taken on some punk and goth influences as well. Most people who identify as emo, in my experience, are well adjusted and happy, but there are other's, I'm sure, that are not. The point is, one is not the indication of the other, as some would have you believe.

Now, in the context that you've probably heard it in, "Emo" probably refers to anyone who doesn't eat live bullets for breakfast and floss with rasor wire afterward. "Emo" is the typical brainless Maddox wannabe's way of calling someone "excessively whiney". For instance...

• If a main character of a video game doesn't get over the death of his best friend in the first 5 seconds, he's typically considered to be "emo".
• If they show any sort of pain in any way besides brushing it off, letting out a grunt or going into a testosterone enfused flurry of anger, then they're typically considered to be "emo".
• If they say, do, or move in a way that could be connected in any way, no matter how remote, to something that is "feminine", they are typically considered "emo".

There, that should give you a pretty basic idea of what they're talking about.

This post has been edited by Miss Ronin on 22nd November 2010 18:43

--------------------

"Some fight for justice. Some fight for law . . .
. . .Cecil, what will you fight for?"
~KluYa

Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 21st November 2010 18:34)

Quote (sweetdude @ 21st November 2010 15:27)

I think in order to be emo you also have to be pathetic. You have to be self-centred and believe that the world is against you and only you, and that your problems are much worse than everybody else's. There is some element of that in everyday use I believe. Also, I think emo is used a lot more in the US, here in the UK people don't really say it, FWIW. For me it's more like an internet thing.

Isn't that generalizing the group?

Ok i am defending them a little,but that does sound a little harsh.

Yeah I think it's harsh too. I find a lot of people use emo in a derogatory sense these days. Like Miss Ronin says, I think an emo has evolved into someone who is also pathetic. I don't think somebody would call you an emo as an insult if you're angsty and look like an emo but you're also a boxer, or a sprinter or something.

Oh, and, my last post was what I thought the term emo is, not what I think about emos. Truthfully, I hate the term emo, I think it's incredibly annoying.

This post has been edited by sweetdude on 23rd November 2010 22:08

--------------------

Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (Allen Hunter @ 22nd November 2010 01:23)

Bands like Green Day, My Chemical Romance, and Hawthorne Heights is new wave/goth rock but without the balls (if they even had one to begin with).

Don't lump Green Day in with crap bands like those. They may be past their prime (though I thought that years ago, and then American Idiot surprised the hell out of me), but they've got balls, intelligence, and talent. They're not whiny, pathetic posers catering to the popularity-craving young teen crowd like many of the bands they (admittedly) helped spawn, like Good Charlotte and Blink 182 and such. I pretty much dislike that whole genre of music, but I grew up listening to Dookie and will always have an appreciation for Green Day. There's a big difference there.

Quote (Reod Dai @ 23rd November 2010 23:43)

Quote (Allen Hunter @ 22nd November 2010 01:23)

Bands like Green Day, My Chemical Romance, and Hawthorne Heights is new wave/goth rock but without the balls (if they even had one to begin with).

Don't lump Green Day in with crap bands like those. They may be past their prime (though I thought that years ago, and then American Idiot surprised the hell out of me), but they've got balls, intelligence, and talent. They're not whiny, pathetic posers catering to the popularity-craving young teen crowd like many of the bands they (admittedly) helped spawn, like Good Charlotte and Blink 182 and such. I pretty much dislike that whole genre of music, but I grew up listening to Dookie and will always have an appreciation for Green Day. There's a big difference there.

Got some news for you:green day isn't that great.

Its grungy which is good,but i find that later groups like:nirvana and green day don't recreate the effect that singers like:neil young and pearl jam do.

I think that nirvana did have some good songs and all,but i think also that a lot of the fame he got was because he killed himself.


As for my chemical romance:I've never heard it.

I have heard 1 or 2 songs that were supposed to be emo tag music.

I thought that they sounded a lot like soft rock,almost radiohead ish singing.



--------------------

We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 24th November 2010 08:39)

Got some news for you:green day isn't that great.

Its grungy which is good,but i find that later groups like:nirvana and green day don't recreate the effect that singers like:neil young and pearl jam do.

I think that nirvana did have some good songs and all,but i think also that a lot of the fame he got was because he killed himself.


As for my chemical romance:I've never heard it.

I have heard 1 or 2 songs that were supposed to be emo tag music.

I thought that they sounded a lot like soft rock,almost radiohead ish singing.

First off, find some other thread to talk about how you don't like someone else's music tastes. Reod was talking about how they shouldn't fall under the emo genre of music, and you came in to tell him that you don't like them. It doesn't matter, in this thread, and you should be grown-up enough to realize that if someone likes a band, they don't really care if you like them or not, especially if you say it like you're giving them some amazing knowledge, like a jerk.

Anyway, just because you hear a song tagged as "emo," or "rock," or "folk," or whatever, doesn't really mean anything. Strictly defining genres is no good, because music is almost never strictly of one genre. There's also the fact that if you see a tag on a song, it means a person put it there, and that person is almost never the artist who made the song. That alone means that you could have someone who has no idea what they're talking about now telling you what kind of music something is, and that just doesn't make sense.

The origins of "emo" have been well-documented in this thread. Other than that, it's just something else that has been changed and re-changed over the years by people who want it to mean whatever they want it to mean, it's just that easy.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 24th November 2010 14:28)

The origins of "emo" have been well-documented in this thread. Other than that, it's just something else that has been changed and re-changed over the years by people who want it to mean whatever they want it to mean, it's just that easy.

Ok going back to the topic:

I don't know if the emo tag thing is stereotyped or true.

There seems to be a lot of trash talk on it and i don't think its 100% true.

There must be some cool emo types just like cool punk style types.


--------------------

We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 24th November 2010 06:39)

Its grungy which is good,but i find that later groups like:nirvana and green day don't recreate the effect that singers like:neil young and pearl jam do.

I think that nirvana did have some good songs and all,but i think also that a lot of the fame he got was because he killed himself.

Not to keep an off-topic discussion going, but just a few quick things. First, Nirvana formed in 1987 and Pearl Jam formed in 1990. Calling Nirvana a "later group" than Pearl Jam thus makes no sense. Secondly, Green Day are not nor have ever been grunge. Thirdly, Nirvana were extremely popular and famous even before Kurt killed himself. Not really expressing any opinions here (except conceivably about Green Day not being grunge), just a few facts.

Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 24th November 2010 14:50)

I don't know if the emo tag thing is stereotyped or true.

There seems to be a lot of trash talk on it and i don't think its 100% true.

There must be some cool emo types just like cool punk style types.

Yes, there are cool emo types (if you're talking about people) just like there are cool punksters. The personalities (and sometimes fashion choices) that are attributed to emo's are certainly stereotypes.

--------------------

"Some fight for justice. Some fight for law . . .
. . .Cecil, what will you fight for?"
~KluYa

'Emo', like any other arbitrary sub-cultural title, really doesn't mean much of anything. It's been said already, so I don't want to dwell too much on the point, but it's use these days could not possibly be any further from the origins, and even then, it wasn't something adopted by those who were described by it, but by outsiders looking for a way to generalize and classify yet another genre and subculture.

Even in terms of it's musical categorization, essentially any bands these days with angsty themes or members who have a certain personal style get thrown into the 'emo bin'. My Chemical Romance, for example, is NOT an example of what emo music actually is. Shocking, I know, but they're actually much more influenced by acts like Queen than they are by Fugazi or Rites of Spring. Most people don't even realize that it's been around for as long as it has (1984, not 2004.) and for the longest time, had nothing to do with the 'look' that has now come to define the term, and even then, really, it's no more a ridiculous look than liberty spikes and combat boots or parachute pants and a flock of seagulls haircut. Certainly, I can't dispute that it's much more focused on darker themes, and I won't disagree that many troubled teens have come to use this as an outlet for their need to gain attention, but that doesn't make them 'emo', it makes them troubled and in need of some sort of guidance, help or understanding.

I wear skinny jeans, I part my hair to the side and I've been a long-time active member of the local hardcore community. I'd never consider myself 'emo'. I consider myself an individual, and to think of it any differently, to me, seems silly.

--------------------

Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 29th November 2010 17:58)

I won't disagree that many troubled teens have come to use this as an outlet for their need to gain attention, but that doesn't make them 'emo'

No, it doesn't make them emo; they're just scene kids.

Quote (Allen Hunter @ 29th November 2010 17:36)

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 29th November 2010 17:58)

I won't disagree that many troubled teens have come to use this as an outlet for their need to gain attention, but that doesn't make them 'emo'

No, it doesn't make them emo; they're just scene kids.

Captain Misses the Point lives up to his namesake yet again. 'Scene' kids, by the way, is intended to be used to describe any group of young people actively involved in their local music scene. That it has come to represent those of the more extreme of the sub-culture is both unfortunate and inaccurate. Not that you care, Allen, as you thrive on making pointless statements.

--------------------

Okay, but there was a goat!

Fascinating

Keep on very interesting

--------------------

We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Quote

I wear skinny jeans, I part my hair to the side and I've been a long-time active member of the local hardcore community. I'd never consider myself 'emo'. I consider myself an individual, and to think of it any differently, to me, seems silly.

He is right. The problem is, since emos are a subgroup of punk, and since they are so popular now, it's hard to anyone that likes some types rock and roll or punk music (and let this taste flow to their wardrobe) to not wear anything that an emo wouldn't, so what defines an emo is the atittude, the behavior, very well explored in some (harsh, sometimes) posts.

Personally, emos where I live are pathetic, but my country is no reference for defining groups anyway.

--------------------

Live Long and Prosper!

Okay its time for an eyewitness account, from me. Emo was briefely, briefely popular in the early half of this decade; the word only really reached the mainstream conciousness in about 2005, when it was still considered kind of cool (by myself aswell).
From that point, obviously there was a sharp decline: and as Miss Ronin says it is now a derogatory term, thrown around so constantly and for any reason, but mostly to denote a lack of masculinity or anything that hints at the negative.

Magitek: I conclude that the word means absolutely nothing and nobody should use it, so it may pass from the world as soon as can be.
Wikipedia does well here

--------------------

www.youtube.com/blinje
The victor sacrificed the vanquished to the heavens