Much ado about emo

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

I THOUGHT it was about a little fish that got lost… er, oh, that was Nemo!

Okay, this has been “bugging” me since I heard a teenage kid say to hairstylist, “I want an emo haircut.” What is an emo haircut? And why are kids today going gaga over anything that’s emo? For starters, emo, as shown by the need for disambiguation in Wikipedia, is a topic that leads to other topics. So that means, emo can mean different things to people, as this blog attests.

I understand emo as I understood the headbanging rockers in the 80s, the grunge movement in the 90s, and well, the hippies in the 60s and 70s. But again, these are terms that are often used loosely (read: abused).

This article, however, reveals that the term emo emerged, well, back in the 80s. Excerpt:

The term “Emo” is not derived from the word “emotional” as I was falsely led to believe before delving into further investigation. In fact, it is derived from the word “Emotive”. Emotive, noun: tending to arouse emotion. This is a key piece of jargon when trying to understand the most confusing Emo world.

The “Emotive Hardcore” music genre began to flourish in the late 80s, led by bands such as the likes of Rites of Spring. The term Emo was, believe it or not, a somewhat derogatory term used to put down fans of the new wave “Emotive Hardcore” bands. But, after a huge boom from the genre over the last decade and a bit, the term has been stolen by “stupid little boys who cry and wear eyeliner,” as Jack, 15, so eloquently puts it. Now many teens who have never even heard of the word emotive or listened to real Emo music, claim “Emo” as their own.

Because of this apparent label theft, ironically, emotion, namely anger, has been aroused amongst non and anti-emo teens.

One thing evident here is that emo is a relatively new term used by today’s teens to express themselves in music or in fashion. Back in the 80s, we called it punk, new wave, or whatnot. Or something else. This article also explains it further.

Ian MacKaye who happens to be the “Grandfather of Punk” was reportedly the person who coined the term “emo.” Some people don’t agree.

You can find more useful stuff about emo here. And more definitions of Emo from the Urban Dictionary.

Now, back to reality…

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