The Sound of Emo There are many stereotypes in society for every culture or group of people. These stereotypes are often based on musical influences, personalities, activities, and fashion. I am going to focus this essay on the group of people who are known as Emo. Both positive and negative attributes come from stereotyping an Emo follower, but most of society focuses on the negative. This essay will focus on all aspects in hopes of turning some of these negative stereotypes into more positive ones. The word Emo is often used to describe anyone who is perceived as being too emotional, often too sad or too dark. The term Emo is short for “Emotional Hardcore” which describes the genre of music an Emo follower would listen to. According to author Brian Bailey (2005), “[Emo music] is characterized by feelings of vulnerability, and...confessions about adolescence. Emo music draws from various genres of music including rock, punk, indie, pop, and heavy metal...The behaviors, attitudes, and values expressed through Emo music involve...despair, nostalgia, heartbreak, hope, and self-loathing.” These emotional characteristics and topics described in this genre's music often associate with the life experiences and characteristics of its listeners. Emo music is characterized by heavy, distorted, or acoustic guitar with male vocals ranging from soft whispering to screaming. Lyrics are expressive and melancholy. Mainstream Emo bands include Dashboard Confessional, My Chemical Romance, Black Veil Brides, Taking back Sunday, and Jimmy Eat World. Emo music has 2 specific subgenres: Screamo and Emo-Pop. The characteristics of Screamo are more aggressive and focus on shifting between soft singing and screaming vocals. According to Johnathan Dee of The New York times, “the music [of Screamo] is most often characterized by dual guitars...by frequent shifts in tempo...[and] as aggressive [but] lyrics are contemplative.” Lyrics are more political and focus not only on emotional pain, but human rights and religion. Poison the Well and Senses Fail are two popular Screamo bands. The characteristics of Emo-Pop are more pop-oriented and encompass high pitched melodies and singing rather than screaming. Lyrics are often about heartbreak and love. Fall Out Boy, Saves the Day, and The Get Up Kids are a few popular Emo-Pop bands. The Emo music genre became popular in the early 2000's, and came from an earlier genre of hardcore punk rock of the 1980's. Punk rock is often associated with rage, aggression and destructive behavior, often against government establishments. Several mainstream hardcore punk bands of that time were Rites of Spring, Black Flag, The Sex Pistols, and Rancid. The Rites of Spring have been speculated to be the founder of the Emo genre, but its official originator is still unknown (Greenwald, 2003). Emo was born when punk rock kids began to turn their anger in towards themselves instead of aiming it outwards toward society, and became more emotional and involved with self expression. When speculating the beginning of the Emo genre I look to Andy Greenwald, author of the book Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo (2003). Greenwald says, "it is believed that this [Emo] was caused by the nation's grief after 9/11...the nation was deep in an introverted healing process, and the way it was healing was by wearing thick black glasses and vintage striped shirts. Emo, we were told, would heal us all through fashion" (p.93). I believe it is this fashion aspect of the Emo culture that make it an iconic genre of its time. The average Emo follower is between ages 14 and 25 and each individual embraces clothes, hairstyles, and music that portray their personality and emotions. Followers share fashion trends that focus on individuality and uniqueness. Thick, black rimmed glasses, tight band t-shirts, skinny jeans, studded belts, and Converse are what best describe the Emo style. The Emo fashion is most recognized for its hairstyles. Popular looks include long, jet black hair with side-swept bangs, covering one or both eyes (Greenwald, 2003, p.125). The Emo boy is typically more self image conscience and often referred to as metro-sexual and feminine because they often wear dark eye makeup, black nail polish and have piercings. Emo followers can usually be found at mainstream coffee shops, thrift stores, shopping mall arcades, and music concerts. The Emo culture is different from the goth culture. Some people think that they're the same and sometimes use "Goth" as another term for "Emo". In fashion, the one color that they have in common is black but the similarities stop there. Both Emo and Goth are forms of hardcore punk and experimental underground music. Their musical influences are similar with punk as the root, but Goth has veered off towards electronica and industrial rock, and as for their personalities, Goths and Emos are similar, often associating with depression and the dark aspects of life (Mabelle, 2011). However, you cannot identify one particular type of personality as being exclusively Goth or Emo. Typical personality stereotypes for the Emo culture are someone depressed, unhappy, and lonely with attitudes toward anti-society, pro-self harm, and pro-emotional suffering. These stereotypes have created the Emo scene to be linked with issues of cutting, self harm, and suicide by the media. In Suicide & Life Threatening Behavior, Stach, Gundlach, and Reeves (1994) refer to Emo music as inspiring “self-induced violent tendencies and suicide”, and that young people are “drawn to certain styles of music because the music reflects their attitudes and moods”. Some Emo music has been linked to promote cutting and self-mutilation. For example, Taking Back Sunday portrays cutting on one of their album covers and have produced a song titled “Cute without the E”, and Dashboard Confessional also make references to cutting in their song “If You Can't Leave It Be, Might As Well Make It Bleed” (Stach, Gundlach, and Reeves, 1994, p. 15-23). Contradictory to the studies by Stach, Gundlach, and Reeves (1994), Hilt, Cha, and Nolen-Hoeksema (2008) reported there are no cultural or medical links that connect self-harm to any one specific music genre or social group. Cutting and suicide are usually linked to psychological issues and serious mental illnesses, and claiming that the Emo music genre is responsible for self-harming is misleading because it is impossible to suggest that it affects any one specific group of people (Hilt, Cha, and Nolen-Hoeksema, 2008). Motivation for self-harming comes from mental and emotional problems and not simply because one listens to one particular musical style. Many people in the Emo scene are aware that it attracts vulnerable people; therefore help is provided in many ways for those involved in self-harming. Music concerts such as Warped Tour and Take Action Tour have combined Emo bands and the organization known as To Write Love on Her Arms, and they are dedicated to present help to people struggling with depression, self-injury, and suicide (www.TWLOHA.com, 2006). Although little research has been done on the negative effects of Emo music and its followers, the Emo scene is aware and providing help to spread suicide prevention awareness. There have been instances of violence against the Emo scene. Daniel Kreps (2008) reported on the first incident that occurred in 2008 in Mexico, when 800 young people came to the city of Queretaro with one purpose of finding Emo kids to beat up. People who disliked "the Emo look and attitude" started an anti-Emo movement using social networks. In response to the attacks, the Emo population began asking for peace and tolerance and organized a march with a Mexico City gay-rights organization because they felt the anti-Emo attacks were fueled by homophobia (Kreps, 2008). Some people believe that Emo is a popular trend coming to an end, and according to Andy Greenwald (2003) will eventually be replaced by Scene, which is being compared as a less emotional and self-pitying version of Emo. Greenwald (2003) states that Scene kids are much like Emo kids, but they generally tend to be more upbeat, confident, and outgoing, and their taste in music is similar, but is usually more mainstream or pop inspired. Emo fashion is inspired by the dark and emotional music they listen to, but Scene kids are attracted to a more colorful apparel, and are usually only inspired by their own creative individuality (Greenwald, 2003, p.125). Emo is simply a style and music genre of emotions, meaning and individuality. When most people think of Emo, they think of people who are sad and suicidal. Emo is not a genre where one has to be involved in self harm, or where one must be incessantly depressed. Those who identify with the Emo genre, generally just want to be different, and see the deeper meaning behind life hardships. Although, Emo followers have an overall negative stereotype, a deeper understanding and compassion for each other can be seen behind their side-swept bang and thick, black-rimmed glasses.

References Bailey, B. (2005). Emo music and youth culture. Steinberg, P. Parmar & B. Richard (Eds.), Encyclopedia of contemporary youth culture. Westport, CT. Greenwood Press. . Dee, J. (2003). The summer of screamo. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/29/magazine/the-summer-of-screamo.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Greenwald, A. (2003). Nothing feels good: punk rock, teenagers, and emo. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. Hilt, L.,Cha, C., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S., (2008). Nonsuicidal self-injury in young adolescent girls: moderators of the distress-function relationship, 76.1, 63-71. Kreps, D. (2008). Anti-Emo violence plagues Mexico as attacks increase. Rolling Stone. . Mabelle. (2011). Difference between emo and goth. Retrieved from < http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-emo-and-goth/ >. Stack, S., Gundlach, J., & Reeves, J. L. (1994). Suicide & life threatening behavior. The heavy metal subculture and suicide, 24.1, 15-23. Http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8203005 To write love on her arms. (2006). Retrieved from http://twloha.com/