A lot of people ask what is an emo? Emo is a whole subculture and Everyone can feel they belong to the emo subculture. I think the emo subculture is really focussed on being your self. But there is one importand thing that every emo MUST have to call him/her self an emo: Love for Emotional-hardcore. This is the most important thing of being emo.

But why do emos feel so much love for Emotional-hardcore? Let's go back to the history: Emo originally wasn't a subculture. A lot of people think emo is short for emotional but this isn't true. In fact emo stands for emotional-hardcore, Which is a music genre from the 80s. Emotional-hardcore is a subgenre from hardcore-punk. While punk bands (and also Hardcore-punk) had more political lyrics in their songs, some Hardcore-punk bands started to write more emotional and personal lyrics. It isn't sure where the word Emo is comming from or which bands were first labbeled with it. But a lot of people think that the word emo first was used as an insult. No band wanted to get that label. However, if they did like it or not, the word emo did stuck. In the early 90s the label Emotional-hardcore was officialy adopted.

So emo is officially a music genre formed in the 80s. The emo subculture is formed by the Emotional-hardcore fan base. These fans call them selfves emos. Emos identificate and recocnize them selves into the lyrics and the music. An emo person is a pure Emotional-hardcore fan. Someone can't be an emo without loving this music. An emo that doesn't like Emotional-hardcore is like a metalhead that doesn't like metal. The emo subculture is based on the music and belongs to Emotional-hardcore. Some people like the emo subculture and do like the fashion but they don't like the music. These people are scene kids.

Sources: wikipedia, Altpress, Study