It Must Be Emo

What is emo? To some it is a way of life or even a cult. To others it's a silly little label. Depending on who you are and where you live, emo can mean many things. Emo began as an unknown music genre. From there it grew and grew into many things. If you ask someone today, they might tell you "Look at me, I'm emo!" or they may say "There is no such thing as emo." They are both wrong. Emo is both a human label and a music label, and sometimes the two are put together.

Emo as a reference to music is much less complex than comparing it to a human being. Though it is sometimes referenced to the wrong things. Emo is the shortened version of emotional or emotive. When applied to music it is considered as emotional and painful lyrics. Some bands that can be considered that way are, My Chemical Romance, Green Day, From First to Last, Senses Fail, Bring Me the Horizon, ect... You may disagree but those bands are normally classified as such. Have you noticed though, that the bands considered as emo are also considered rock? You see no rap, or bubblegum pop. You are not wrong to call those bands emo, because they do have emotional lyrics. Though you are wrong when you say rap or pop can't be emo. All music has emotional lyrics. Rap music talks about the hard life they had or things they went through, and pop brings up heartbreak. Though things have to do with emotion, so they too are emo. That is what most people overlook. When they hear emo they think of the label emo and apply it to the band members looks.

Emo as a reference to people is a hard thing to define. It may mean something different to some people. There are some key points that normally stay the same in a person’s definition. Some of them are that an emo performs self-harm, wears a ton of black, and has the typical looks of heavy eyeliner (boys and girls) band t-shirts, and hair in thier face. The definition changes depending on where you are. You don't see many bubbly pop stars wearing dark black clothes and heavy eyeliner so they are normally not considered emo. Rap stars are considered tough and aren't sappy kids who cry themselves to sleep so they are not called emo either. People who do fit said description do get classified as emo whether or not they truly are. You fit it, so you must be it.

So, is the so-called 'emo cult' real? Yes, there really is an emo cult. These kids believe it is cool to hurt themselves and anything considered emo is what they like. These kids hurt themselves to be cool, or to fit in. Some of them don't even really believe in what they are doing. They listen to the bands mentioned above and believe that those bands promote what they are doing. Tell me one lyric that promotes suicide that belongs to My Chemical Romance? The lead singer, Gerard Way, always speaks out against it. So how can he be blamed for leading these kids to do such terrible things? Most bands may mention suicide or self-harm as something they used to do or a problem someone they once knew had. Though they would never scream that they should go out and kill themselves. Even Marilyn Manson, who cuts himself on stage, doesn't say that his fans should be like him and hurt themselves. An important quote by him shows this, “I never said to be like me, I say to be like you and make a difference.”

Some people believe that emo music is ruining our youth but in reality music has little to do with it. The children of today are so very fragile and easy to manipulate and can sometimes see things in the wrong way. Music today is screaming against many of the problems we face such as wars, violence, and suicide but the message is distorted and received wrong. People can do nothing but hope that the emo trend will die away. But the sad reality is that it won't.