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if there is already a recent post on this topic then i am sorry and apologize!
but i just read a topic where someone associated cutting with being emo, and so i thought to myself....what makes you an emo..please feel free to answer and if i am a nut for posting this because this is ALREADY a recent topic then....please no flamming! ^^

"Emo" really has nothing to do with cutting at all. A lot of people who are into the emo style (emo being short for "emotional") like to listen to bands like Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes, as well as well as music from indie labels. The look includes rather tight clothing, thick-rimmed glasses, short, spikey haircuts, often longer in the front, and messenger bags decorated with pins.

Of course, this is pretty much all from an outsiders' perspective. I'm sure there's someone else here into scene, or just more literate than I am (lol), who could give a better synopsis?

I've been searching for information about emo for quite some time, and here's the sum of my studies:

You can't be emo.
There is no actual emo subculture.

Emo is an abbreviation for "emotive hardcore" not "emotional". Emotive hardcore was an emotionally driven style of hardcore punk. The genre was first started in the 80's by bands such as Husker Du and Rights of Spring. Modern bands like The Dears and Juliana Theory keep the style going.

What most people consider emo is a fashion style started by teenagers in the late nineties, popularized recently by Hot Topic and pop bands like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. The fashion is feminine based, and encourages deep colors and tight-clothes.

In this, real emo has no subculture, but "emos" are followers of the popular fashion labelled as emo. The stereotypes of them being cutters, depressed, suicidal, bisexual, homosexual, etc. comes from the modern "emo" style, rather than from the original scene and it's followers.

Well, I hate them as much as they hate me.
All of the "Sub-cultures" are just to different to co-exist peacefully.
Like nearly every damn counrty in the world, we are all in an almost perpetual war. And like ALMOST every war it's usually for some dumb reason.
(This wasnt a complete thought, i'm having an off day)

Well while I can't give a definition per say of 'emo' am not emo myself, I know a few people who have made it a way of life.

i like the song "Stabby rip stab stab"





sorry i had to

If I may add to this, to be gothic, you would have to be a style of architecture, featuring sharp poined arches, high ceilings, poited rooves and pillars.

I think that the Emo Song has brought all of the stereotypes to everyone's attention, which has caused everyone to think that way about "Emo." Like others have mentioned above, Emo is a type of music and a fashion, but not really a lifestyle in its own respects. Almost all of the traits mentioned above are associated with "Emo", but are not necessarily related to the music.