what defines an "emo"?
827750
Right.  Please visit the provided source links for your answer.
1076016
Because people want everything to be orderly so they can find it quickly. But i agree with you, emo is a stupid label!
539996
EMo is a style of music as well as person that is generally unhappy and highly emotional.  In general, real emo kids are pretty rare.  Usually an emo kid is self contained and not responsive to outside stimulus unless they believe the ideas are highly beneficial.  Unlike the cretin that answered first, it's not just specific music... it is the people who respond to that music that demonstrate "emo".  For example, you could say the blues is EMO- which it is- but EMO kids don't listen to it, so it's not.
1060826
http://www.adamandandrew.com/mp3/emo.mp3
746261
Emos cry and whine about everything, and go home and cut their wrists while listening to acoustic music, usually featuring a singer with a high pitched voice and lyrics mainly focusing on feelings (usually negitive/sad ones at that). An emo boy would tend to wear tight long sleeved plaid flannel shirts, or tight long sleeved wool sweaters, girls jeans that are once again, tight, and alot of emos like to wear scarves. And as far as hair goes, it's usually black, but you could get away with brown, and it always has to be in your face, preferably covering one of your eyes at all times.
1046756
Emo is the epitome of gay, they call themselves non-conformists when there really more conforming than goth/prep/any other stereotype. its really quite ridiculous.\n\n\nalso, your all gay for saying this good man Tyler N here is using gay in the wrong way. emo is a perfect example of gay.
378867
thyre considered emo, but theyre a different kind of emo.
457761
Emo is a really broad term and means different things to different people.  Weezer's new songs sound really cheezy and have that theme of longing and teen angst (like EMO), but there's not that deep self-hatred that Emo bands love putting in their songs.  Plus, as high as Rivers Cuomo's voice is, it's not nearly Emo-whiny enough.  I definitely miss the early 90's Weezer.
237101
em•pa•thy\n\nPronunciation: (em'pu-thē), [key]\n—n.\n1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.\n2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.
8369
Too many.  Most of their songs are painful, though the less shouty ones are really nice.\n\nYou might as well ask, 'How many emos in the world?'
133832
A quote by Chelsea on Mar 2, 2005\n\nI found this here http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=emo\n\n"""Emo" is not short for "Emotional." "Emo" does not mean Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional, despite what MTV has lead you to believe in the last few years. "Emo" is not sidebangs, tight pants, and male vocalists who sing like little girls about their failed relationships. "Emo" is not the use of diluted, meaningless metaphors and similes such as "My arms are like pinecones," and most definitely is not the rampant use of words such as "autumn," "heart," "knife," "bleeding," "leaves," and "razorblade."\n\nI just thought I'd clear that up after all of these "definitions" in which I have encountered an unbelievable amount of people who try to pass off their blatantly false pretenses as fact, and are slowly infecting others with their high-horse, holier-than-thou bullshit. Because honestly, with your ridiculous definitions, Beethoven, George Gershwin, and Britney Spears are/was "emo bands."\n\nNow, onto the real definition.\n\nIn the early 90s there was a movement in the hardcore genre that came to be known as "Emotive Hardcore," spearheaded by Rites Of Spring. Harder-core-than-thou kids, who swore by Dischord Records a la Minor Threat, actually coined the term "Emo" as something of a put-down for the kids who really liked Rites Of Spring, Indian Summer and this new wave of "Emotive" Hardcore bands. That's right, "Emo" was once not something kids called themselves. The field exploded outwards from there - Level-Plane Records has always been the most famous Emo label. Acts like Yaphet Kotto, I Hate Myself, Saetia, Hot Cross, A Day In Black And White, Funeral Diner, I Would Set Myself On Fire For You, You And I, and hosts of others came in the next decade. Most emo bands have since broken up, but there's still the occasional hold-out (again, the majority of Level-Plane Records' roster has been a procession of emo acts). Like most DIY hardcore/punk of the time, a majority found its way onto vinyl and not much else. Some people consider bands like Fugazi, and later Sunny Day Real Estate, a progression of emo, but personally, I don't quite follow that philosophy.\n\nOften, more recently, this gets intertwined with post-hardcore, and understandably so - that's nothing to make an issue of, since well shit, at least it's close.\n\nSince the late 90s, though, bands have been emerging in the vein of Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, and the thousands of their clones. As far as I can tell, some lazy journalist somewhere, writing an article about them, decided "Well, f**, no one knows what emo is anyways, so I'll call these bands "emo" - sounds more appealing than bubblegum pop rock..." and the spiral continued downwards into the current amalgomation of bands MTV has told everyone is "emo."\n\nSomehow, people decided that "emo" meant "emotional," which is obviously bullshit, as 99% of bands make music to illicit emotion, which would make "emotional" a completely all-encompassing genre from classical to opera to pop to rap.\n\n\nHope that helps.\nTaking Back Sunday, Senses Fail, and My Chemical Romance falls under the "horrible pop rock" genre, not the emo genre.\n\nRites of Spring is emo.""\n\nEnd Quote\n\n\nHere is another good site.\n\nhttp://www.angelfire.com/emo/origin/main.html
382382
I thought emocore was short for "emotional hardcore" the music from the NY NJ area during the 80's that has soft passages and queer lyrics(very gay stuff) between bludgeoning guitar riffs. This emocore was probably just shortened down to the popular crappy music known as Emo. Just remember to wear your sister's black nutthugger jeans, and comb your silly hair down over your chin!!!
605607
Emo is short for emotional.  Now, in the society today, it has turned into a high school stereotype such as jocks, nerds, geeks, goths, and groups like that.  If someone were to be stereotyped as emo, they would generally keep to themselves, be more timid than others, and not really want to do anything about it.  The majority of kids who fit this stereotype generally like to listen to music.  They feel it helps them escape the stresses of reality.  Music has essentially become their anti-drug.  Most kids have jumped into this fad thinking it's cool for guys to wear girl pants and wear black and such, but hey, if they want to express themselves like that, more power to them.  Everyone, to an extent, is "emo," considering it is derived from the word emotional, and if you're not emotional, you're not human.  \n\nLooks:  \n\n"Emo" girls tend to have shorter hair with sweeping bangs that cover one eye.  \n\nGuys tend to wear tighter jeans with the same hair cut.\n\nPiercings on the face are usually a big thing.  Same with wearing t-shirts of bands.
185711
EMO means emotional and is used in music a lot. Like My Chemical Romance, AFI or The Used those kind of bands.
757799
Emo, I am not emo. It is like when you get all depressed. You cut yourself on your wrists. You cover your eyes with you hair and you listen to depressing music.
497994
Fool, Emo sucks beyond anything ever made. All those goddamn emo kids do is stand around adn cry when they listen to music. The whole self-masochism thing is way uncool.
376077
i am an emo girl and i have lots of emo friends...\n\nfind them at libraries, coffee shops, book stores, art museums and music venues like concerts, music stores etc... bookish and artistic people are moody people-- mostly known as emo people... you'll enjoy hanging around them for they can easily relate to you... some people mistaken bookish and artistic people as nerds... but that's wrong.. not all are nerds... most are emo people. :)