What's on your mug?

Emo isn't about the look at all, it's started to be now but many are just posers, emo is an old music genre-an offshot of punk/post hardcore. But since some lazy reviewers have started calling pop-rock emo it's got worse. Self expression features heavily and is a good thing to do esp. through art, poems and songs. The "Self-harm" can be for various reasons; a common one is distraction from emotional pain because for all physical pain emotionally it can be so much worse. Others, due to a fragile state of mind need to be reminded that the're still alive in a droning and all-to-painful world. But if you really think it's about fashion (well the streo-typed fashion); i'm a guy with long blonde *curly* hair, not emo, i wear whatever i feel like and never vans etc., not emo, i hate streo-typed emo music,not emo. So yeah, after all that i'm known as an emo, i don't label myself as due to stereo-types i am many things-none of which are emo.

Look around. Emos may not look how you look just accept society.

By Malekithe

Ian Vens' "I'm not emo but I look and cry like it so I can get attention" attitude.

Ian Vens. emo Vensypoodinkle.

By Someone in Iowa

Someone who normally wears a lot of black, most times has heavy black eyeliner, and has a lot of misconceptions about them. The emos that most people think of are depressed people who keep to themselves and sit in their rooms all alone listening to MCR and cutting themselves. This is not true for all emo people. Many are tons of fun, smile a lot, and are extremely hyper one minute, and sad the next (sometimes, the second part is just cut out completely). Many people who are emo are actually ADD or ADHD.

Woah, she seems totally emo. Yeah, but she's still fun. O_o? She's like, ADD or something.

By OrganizationXIII

Emo is ONLY an insult given by Punks directed towards the avid fans of Emotive Hardcore Punk & the genre itself. Emotive started in the mid/early 80's in the D.C. Hardcore scene. Emotive is essentially watered down Hardcore Punk. This type of music wasn't accepted in the scene, thus the term Emo was born. 2 of the most noted bands to take this form of Punk in a new direction, was Rites Of Spring & Embrace. Guy Picciotto, the lead singer of Rites Of Spring; most famous for his work in Fugazi, paved the way for what we now know as Emotive Hardcore Punk. Ian MacKaye, most famous for his Hardcore Punk band Minor Threat & the creation of Straight Edge; was also was a defining band. Emotive in the '80's resembled it's parent genre, with more emotionally charged lyrics & a new tone. But in the '90's Emotive took a totally different feel. Emotive in the '90's took a more Indie feel to their music. More commonly known as Post-Emo, it was bands like Cap'n Jazz, Jets To Brazil, Joan Of Arc, Sunny Day Real Estate, etc etc... Cap'n Jazz helped transform emo from a deeply underground Punk sub-genre, into a more widely accepted subset of Indie rock. Emotive in the '90's also gave birth to what we now know as Screamo (Skramz). Screamo (Skramz) is somewhat of a misnomer. Though the genre often had screaming vocals, it wasn't the focus of the genre. Skramz is a more chaotic way of playing it's parent genre.

Rites Of Spring is Emo. I Hate Myself is Emo. Dashboard Confessional is NOT Emo. My Chemical Romance is NOT Emo. After School Knife fight is Skramz. Toru Okada is Skramz. Avenged Sevenfold is NOT Skramz. Bullet For My Valentine is NOT Skramz.

By Doisen