Overview

Emo and its subclass Screamo are subgenres of hard rock music typified by the possession of deeply confessional or emotional lyrics. While it first attained popularity in the early 2000s, the genre has continued to exist as an appreciated subculture, especially by young teenagers or pre-teens. The genre is also well-known for the distinctive fashion of its fans, which often combines goth and punk tendencies with aspects of cuteness or occasional bright flashes of color. In addition, "to be emo" is a way of describing those who want to look tough on the outside but have deep internal turmoil that they express in a variety of ways. Members of the emo subculture are often ridiculed by other subcultures, often for being depressed or engaging in self-harm by cutting.

History

Like much modern metal or rock music, Emo can originally trace its roots back to the 1980s, when bands combined hardcore music with emotional lyrics, resulting in "emocore," a snowclone of the two words. ^[1]

It continued to grow during the 1990s, when many American groups like Sunny Day Real Estate, Saves the Day, and Jawbreaker pioneered the genre with underground success,^[3] and in the 2000s, the genre began creating platinum-selling groups like Jimmy Eat World, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, and Fallout Boy, which all rose to extreme popularity and were regularly featured on MTV and other music outlets.^[2]

Fashion

The distinctive style associated with emo, which is also sometimes referred to as "scene," began developing in the 1990s alongside the underground scene. Originally, the fashion typically included tight-fitting jeans and tee shirts, often with a band name or graphic on it. Many would wear all black, in a similar manner to goths, but with brightly colored accents including white belts or bright bandannas wrapped around the neck. Hair was typically worn in a jagged cut of various lengths, often longer on men and sometimes short on women.^[4] The hair could be dyed black or with brightly colored streaks, and was often teased for an exaggerated effect, similar to the hairstyles worn by many characters in anime, although the subcultures have no official connection.^[5] Much emo clothing and accessories was made available in the 1990s and 2000s through a chain store called Hot Topic.^[6]

Two variations on emo style

Online Presence

Communities who like discussing emo have formed extensively on Tumblr,^[7] DeviantArt,^[8] and Reddit. The emo typology is often combined with other aspects of fandom, as in the posts related to the tag Emo Poetry on Tumblr^[9] and DeviantArt.^[10] The subreddit /r/emo was created in October of 2011, and has over 5,700 readers as of December 2015.^[11]

Two works of emo poetry.

Related Memes

Emo Dad

Emo Dad is an image macro series centered around various profile pictures posted by MySpace user CrisXcruX, who appears to be a middle-aged man dressed in a "scene" or "emo rock" fashion that is usually associated with teenagers and youth music scenes.

Emo Chin

Jennifer Da Costa (Formerly known as Xxprincesspunkxx), is a 20 year old college student from Canada. She Gained notoriety through a video she made about a FOX news report on emo/scene kids when she was 15. Her abrupt rage, and comparing being scene/emo to being born black/gay, and calling people from different cliques out while contradicting herself with the ‘stop the violence’ speech, soon caught the attention of /b/tards and anon.

Emo Peter Parker

Emo Peter Parker is a nickname for the events in the movie Spiderman 3 when Peter is affected by the symbiote substance. Due to this, he ends up getting an emo fashion sense, yet he constantly starts to talk in slang and be all crazy with dancing moves.

Emo Kylo Ren

Emo Kylo Ren is a parodic anonymous Twitter account where the supposed user is the character Kylo Ren from the film Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, except with the inflection of an emo teen. Following the popularity of the film, the Twitter account became very popular.

WHEN I WAS

WHEN I WAS started out as a forced meme on 4chan, involving mainly image macros of Gerard Way from the rock band My Chemical Romance (or any other person) holding one's grasping arm out as they dramatically start a first-person narrative sentence. The sentence is usually finished by the next post, or continued throughout the entire thread.

MySpace Suicide Fad

Joshua Ballard AKA jloveb was a 17 years old boy from Orange County, California, who committed suicide on November the 29th 2005 by shooting himself in the head with a gun.
What would have been another tragic teenager's death became instantly viral on the web for one simple reason : Joshua had posted a peculiar bulletin on his MySpace profile predicting that he was going to end his life several minutes before he carried out his fateful intent.

It's Not a Phase

It's not a phase (occasionally expanded into "It's not a phase mom, this is who I really am") is a sarcastic phrase that has been associated with various images that poke fun at individuals –often teens– that have made questionable lifestyle or fashion choices. Depicted in this meme are often goths, emos, queers, otherkin and furries due to their edgy and cringeworthy nature.

Scene Wolf

Scene Wolf is an Advice Animal image macro series that typically parodies teenage girls who fit into a trendy subculture known as “scene”. The overlaid text often takes the form of an argument between a daughter and one of her parents about her lifestyle choices.

My Immortal / The Worst FanFiction Ever

My Immortal is a Harry Potter-inspired fanfiction that is centered around Ebony “Enoby” Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, a 17-year-old vampire who attends the “Hogwarts School” in England. Upon its digital publication in 2006, the story became notoriously known as “the worst fanfiction ever written” for its large number of spelling and grammatical errors, as well as unwarranted depictions of sexual acts and allusions to popular emo rock bands such as My Chemical Romance and Evanescence. As a result, My Immortal has led to a series of copycat fanfictions and dramatic readings of the original manuscript.

Teen Werewolves

Teen Werewolves is an internet meme based on a popular news viral video from TV station KENS5 of San Antonio, Texas. The news report, called “Teen Werewolves”, focused on groups at some San Antonio High Schools who believed themselves to be “Werewolves” (creatures that shift between man and wolf). Most of them wore things such as fangs and tails, to show their “Wolf side”. Besides that, their apparel was basically standard “emo-kid” clothes.

Conor Oberst Rape Allegations

Conor Oberst Rape Accusations were false claims of sexual assault of a minor made by North Carolina woman Joanie Faircloth against the singer-songwriter of American indie rock band Bright Eyes. The scandal first broke out in December 2013, when she publicly accused the singer of raping her at age of 16 in the comments section of an article published on the women’s interest site XoJane.

Search Interest

External References