Bronwyn said:
My 9th grade son has been using the word Emo a lot when talking with his friends. I gather that they are talking about a click at school. Is this the new Goth group?
Emo, technically, stands for "Emotional Rock", that subculture of music that exists right between Metal and Punk.
Typical bands within this "Emo" scene are bands such as "My Chemical Romance" (MCR), "Fall Out Boy" (FOB), "HIM", "Panic! At the Disco" (P!ATD), "A Fire Inside" (AFI), "Kill Hannah" (KH), and many others I can't come up with off the top of my head.
"Emo" is also used to describe a style of dressing. It's a bit like goth but a little more ambiguous and a lot less death and doom. The boys dress a little like girls by wearing "guy-liner" and nail polis, and usually tighter fitting tshirts and jeans, where the girls dress a little bit more like guys and wear the same kind of things instead of things which may show off feminine features.
Typically, those that dress "Emo" are your 13 to 18 year olds, where the actual music "Emo" is listened to by people from 12 all the way through 50, with the primary age group who listens to mostly emo being from 12 to 30.
I have no web based facts for any of this. The only facts I can give you are my own experiences since every single one of those bands I listed I enjoy listening and would count among my favorite bands (with Kill Hannah and HIM being the top 2, as my Avatar would imply). I can tell you that going to a P!ATD concert is one heck of an experience when the bouncers are telling you "Wow, you two (my best friend who's 25 and I) are the oldest two people here without kids!" It makes you feel real old real quick.
The "Emo" culture is relatively benign, much like the Mods in the 70's.
