Throughout history, there have always been people who wanted to distinguish themselves from mainstream society. A person who was morbid and sullen would have been called depressed or unsociable in the past though these days such a person is called an emo. Let’s find out what an emo is and why people become ‘emo’.
Emos are fans of the genre
The in the 1980s, a new genre of music called emocore came into being. It was derived from punk pop though it had poetic and sentimental tunes and lyrics. Given its confessional nature, fans could identify with it a lot more. Fans of the genre, who were also called emo, too began dressing in the same way as the musicians from the genre did and of course, they began espousing a great sense of emotional expression too.
People become emo to define themselves
Like with fans of most musical genres, emo too use the imagery, garb and language particular to the genre and its prominent figures in a bid to define themselves. Just like fans of rock ‘n roll dress, talk and behave in a brash manner, fans of emocore too define themselves using the symbols of the genre.
Contemporary emos
Society has come a long way since the 1980s. These days, a boy or girl can be a lot more expressive than they could three decades ago. However, it is still hard for teens to process their emotions in a healthy way and just like punks from way back when, teens today use the legacy of the emocore movement to display these feelings of confusion and depression. In fact, teens that aren’t clinically depressed too use the symbols of the genre to feel “cool” and a part of a group in their own right.
