The ‘Emo’ culture is based on feeling alienation from the majority of society. The typical look is to have lip rings, longish hair dyed hair and tight jeans and t shirts. Unlike other social groupings like this, IE the punk or goth look, the emo culture is based around the idea of not being popular or fitting in with society, but doesn’t do so in an aggressive or anti-establishment way. It has become popular as the youth of today increasingly feel isolated, and lost, particularly in the later teen years when choosing what they want to do in life. It also addresses problem such as teenage heartache and self harming etc, which other styles of music don’t tend to in such a specific context.
The music side of the emo culture has actually been around for a number of years, only recently becoming popular and prominent. Bands such as my chemical romance, poison the well, underoath, hawthorn heights, fallout boy and panic at the disco are typically labeled emo bands. There are two distinct styles of emo music, the first is the ‘scream-core’ style where the vocals are half screamed/shouted and half sung quietly. (bands such as underoath). The second style is all sung normally in a particular vocal style (bands such as panic at the disco).
The most important thing to understand about emo culture is that it is based on feeling isolation and detachment from the rest of society.
