From it's very early days when emo was better known as emotional hardcore or emocore. Emo had been characterized by its melodic music and expressive and confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid 1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington D.C., and pioneer bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace gave emo a blended effect of pop punk and indie rock. This music was later encapsulated by emo groups like Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate.
By the turn of the century, emo culture had made its mark and broke into mainstream culture with platinum selling success of Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional. Screamo emerged as one of the subcultures of emo culture. The word emo later on was signified to a particular relation between fans and artists, and to describe fashion, culture and behavior.
With more and more emo acts getting up on the Billboard charts, emo trend was beginning to spread across like a wild fire. It slowly developed into an attitude, where an individual needs to be true to oneself and to believe in what they are doing. Emo music brought out their feelings like personal problems, unemployment, contemporary issues in the society and teen angst and alienation.
Today emo is commonly tied to both music and fashion. Among teens, emo is usually stereotyped with wearing skinny and torn jeans, short-sleeved tight T-shirts with bright colors, studded belts and black wristbands. Skate shoes also known as Vans are also quite popular with emo culture. Emo fashion is recognized for its hairstyle. Long side-swept bangs covering one or both eyes and colored with bright colors like pink, blue, red or bleached blond to make sure that they stand out of the crowd. Short, choppy layers of hair are also common in emo culture.
Emo culture has widely spread into different parts of the world like UK, Russia, Mexico and other parts of Europe too. However, recently they are look down upon in many countries as messengers of death. As emo culture talks about depression and alienation, it has been criticized that emo culture and music romanticizes death, which leads to suicide and self-mutilation cases. Russia is already working on a legislation that will make it illegal to be an emo in their country. However, it was protested by a mass of emo kids and by Russian emo band MAIO. A similar wave of violence was witnessed in Mexico City, where a group of people attacked emo kids because they didn't like their attitude and music. Chile also broadcast news about assault on emos by skinheads who were frustrated by their saddening music and culture. There have been cases in the UK where teenagers have committed suicide, only to impress the followers of the emo movement in the UK.Jan Weidenbach is the owner of
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