*sigh* No, i don't know what it means either.

EMO



a word which at present has the most confused and convoluted meanings and connotations out there today. oftentimes it is used as a derogatory term. i feel this is wrong. the word has been stolen. that said, i will say that i consider myself to be emo. just now a bunch of ppl reading made a weird face in reaction to that. see, but when they here emo they think of a whiny, weepy, bitchy, self-absorbed guy in eye-liner. i am none of these (this is of course open to criticism as it is an opinion, but this is my blog so there) no i am more of a 'rivers-cuomo-circa-the-pinkerton-years' emo. mostly this just means emotionally honest and sensitive, most likely self deprecating (as the emotional self honesty often takes bravado out at the knees). to understand how we got the point where mexican kids get killed over being 'emo' we need to look at some brief history. the term emo is derived from emocore, a type of overtly emotional hardcore punk that developed in the washington D.C. are in the late eighties. as we are human we shorten things (i'm not calling this a web log after all) and emocore became simply emo and was typified by a indie sounding punk bands with so me pop sensibilities (think death cab or pinkerton era weezer or sunny day real estate or saves the day). along side this music in the nineties another punk offshoot was developing and becoming ultra popular: pop-punk (*shudder*...kinda). it seems strangely inevitable that this assimilationist form of punk would adopt the emotional honesty of these bands (now commonly called indie-emo). born from this freaky-crying-afterwards union were bands like fall out bot and taking back sunday. that is a very simplified account and shouldn't be taken as gospel. but now that my music-geekishness has gotten behind us...i seem to have nothing to say. oh, right. this music was picked up much the same way as mainstream hip-hop...the dreaded sub-urban white kid. now, where hip-hop posers can be shrugged off easily (as the experiences referenced in the music are fairly specific) the suburban white emo bitch (SWEB) can not be so easily disposed of and ridiculed. the experiences referenced within emo music are fairly universal: girls..um...sadness...meaner girls..? i dunno. anyway. the kids that picked up on this relatively upbeat music happened to be weepy and bitchy, SWEBs. goddamn SWEBs. and they took music i like, and clothes i like and filthied them up with their SWEBiness. converse + skinnies = awesome (also deceptively comfy). I mean i can't blame people for wnating that, plus the music, even the super poppy stuff is pretty good. i suppose what i am trying say (in no small part due to zombieChop's thoughts on this post) is that not all the ppl that enjoy converse, skinnies and upbeat emotional music are SWEBs. Any adherent to any cultural movement is easily ridiculed with a little thought and creativity. I mean hip-hop culture is downright funny, clothes that don't fit, improper pronunciation F-U-N-N-Y. Hipsters: they move around (culturally) afraid to not be in on the newest thing and deathly afraid the things they like will become popular(even though the artists creating these things wopuld probably love that, irony). Metalheads- "hey dudes, lets grow our hair to a length that is longer than is fashionable, wear black, and look grumpy, now that is how you look BADASS!) But all of this is and oversimplification, a stereotype, and really fun to mock. Stereotypes exist mostly for entertainment value, (that is totally not racist to say). These should stereotypes shouldn't be applied to everyone in the sub-culture they..er..stereotype, that leads to trouble, MEXICO. What an abrupt stop. how about that.

-Mopey

showing inconsistent disdain for proper capitalization fairly consistently