Emo: good? Bad? Indifferent? Have no clue?

“I like to write songs about pain” (bang flip). – South Park Emo kid..

I don’t pay attention to it.

To each his/her own.

Meh

I find the music awful, the clothing/look unattractive, and the people negative and obnoxious. It’s pretty much the polar opposite of my own style; I have no reason to be interested in it. However, I’m not one of those people who are like “kill all emos”; I really don’t pay much attention to them…

None of the above. Just annoying.

Annoying until the parts where they start cutting themselves- then stupid and dangerous.

I just thought it meant overly emotional. I didn’t realize it had evolved into a fashion, personal style or social identity. It seems people use the word to mean self-pitying. I don’t know why anyone would embrace the label.

Don’t like the hair or makeup.

Each to their own… love all people

Doesn’t interest me or bother me. It is just a fad. I’m not sure how it is any different than fashion or style trends in the past, it just has a few tweaks and a new label.

Whenever I hear this term i’m instantly reminded of Dylan Klebold. Loser types with issues both inside & outside their heads. Angst ridden snot goblins, but hey….they’re somebody’s kids right?

@ucme I think at the time of the Columbine tragedy, the same (or damn similar) style would have been referred to as “goth.”

I’m not too familiar with emo, my little brother would be more up on that stuff. I just know it as being a whiny, screaming little teenager. When I first heard of ‘emo,’ I thought it was short for ‘emotive rock.’ Then I heard somewhere that pearl jam was in that genre and I was like, nah. Means nothing to me.

@TheOnlyNeffie Not that it matters, but it’s the same difference. Kinda sorta oughta.

Crate/Mall trained, home friendly, charge card friendly version of once-upon-a-time rebel punk kid or goth kid.

I liked emo music when it first got that label. It wasn’t the same as goth, really, though I can’t quite explain the difference. In my teenage years, goths were more into metal than whiny stuff.

I can’t stand the whole emo scene, though. Dudes in skintight pants? No thanks. I dabbled a little in the goth style in my early teens, but only because it was weird. I wanted to be an individual, just like everybody else (rimshot). I realized pretty quickly that a better way to be myself was to wear what I liked, rather than what others thought was cool.

I guess every kid goes through some kind of identity crisis, and the emo scene is just subversive enough to attract them. It’s just this generation’s hippie or anarchopunk culture.

Emo = emotional, distraught, against all odd.

Gothic = Dark, cryptic, anything death.

There’s quite a difference in my opinion. I’m not saying I’m into either, but I do see the difference. Emo is just another trend with the agenda of not being a trend. Much like punk before it. When these trends are born they’re born because they wanted to be different than your usual cookie cutter image. I for one don’t care about fashion or trends. I do whatever feels comfortable and that’s my way for not being a trend setter. If emo kids want to wear tight pants and cry about how that one girl didn’t look at them today, by all means. Just don’t come crying to me about it, because I’d tell you to pull up your pants and stop touching your hair and face.

The funny part is the Xcore kids (Hard core/or Scene kids). They look almost identical to the emo’s except they’re not “emotional” labeled. You call a Xcore kid emo and they’ll probably punch you, lol.

Just another reason why “Pop music is the enemy” and they’re all just Victims of pop culture – 2Cents

Not entirely sure what the emo craze signifies, but I do think it’s perfectly healthy for teens to experiment with their look/belief systems, etc, etc.
Whatever one likes. I tend to see the person as opposed to a label, whatever that label may be.

I think if you can honestly refer to yourself as emo and you have the intense emotional issues to go along with it, that you need serious help. If you have the mental yuck that people associate with emo, then it’s not okay. Not at all.

If you just dress emo or listen to emo music, doesn’t bother me at all. Neither does goth. I actually used to wear black clothes, black lipstick and heavy black eyeliner… If it’s just a fashion thing, who cares, it’ll pass.

No one’s really ‘emo’ anymore.

Well, that’s probably not true; I’m in college. Maybe it’s still happening in high schools.

It seems mostly harmless to me.

Kids might get caught up in the trend, though, and hurt themselves for no reason. Not to suggest that all self-destructive (i.e. cutting) people are consciously participating in a trend, but some very obviously are, and it bugs the shit out of me knowing that they’re just hurting themselves as a means of (a)social posturing.

But for the (vast) majority of them it doesn’t go anywhere beyond the music and the clothing. Most of the ‘emo’ kids in my school were the well-liked, outgoing and popular ones. The ‘emo’ image was completely superficial for them, appropriated for aesthetic reasons. Today, participating in that trend says very little about the participant’s psychological or emotional identity.

Most of them are perfectly happy to pretend being sad.

What is considered emo music?

supacase If you check urban dictionary there are a million different definitions. Seems there is not too much agreement but one person who seems to know what they are talking about said it was an offshoot of hardcore metal.

It is just a fad, like so many before and so many still to come. If I was growing up during this fad, I am certain that I would find it much more annoying. It is like every other attempt to be “unique” that requires and produces conformity.

I remember gritting my teeth in the Disco era because I was growing up in that time. Disco was a fad shoved on those of my generation. It passed. I am certain that I would be just as annoyed by emo as I was by Disco.

I remember gritting my teeth in the 80s when the rap fad started and it… err, it turned out to not be a fad. * head/desk*