From http://www.fourfa.com/ Emo is a broad title that covers a lot of different styles of emotionally-charged punk rock.

it came originally from emotionally charged hardcore punk bands such as Fugazi years ago, but now tends to mean a kind of punk-light pop.

Where I live it refers to gothicish people who are like constantly depressed and suicidal.

where people die their hair black and cut themselves!

Well, it was, a long time ago, music and a style. Now it's this completely other thing where people cut themselves, say they're suicidal. They're depressed, but act all effed up and weird for attention. Cos they say they want to kill themselves a lot, but if they really wanted to, they wouldn't tell people, they'd just do it. So they do it for attention, so sometimes don't even realize it. I hope this helped.

In my opinion Emo Is when you're depressed. Some emo People dress in black and cut themselves. I am emo, I am depressed and I cut myself, but I don't dress in black. To some people emo is a style, but for me, I think of it as a way to be

I'm 20, so I was in high school just long enough to see the begining of this growing popularity with being "emo." It started out as a specific type of music, then the term broadened to describe a wider range of music, all of which is emotional in nature, but really, what music isn't? A large amount of the music is depressing songs about love lost and things like that, but not all of it. When I was in high school, you were called an emo kid if you listened to or played that type of music and dressed the part. Jimmy Eat World and Weezer would kinda follow the style.(Jeans that fit, black rimmed glasses, long sleeve plaid shirts, chucks or vans classics, etc..) It wasn't cool to be called an emo kid when I was in school and unless you were really into the music and didn't take a lot of stake in your popularity, you didn't admit to listening to it at all. Now this is wear I graduated and it seemed to really take over. The bands under this, now extremely broad, classification of music started becoming huge thanks to the success of bands like Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday. Each new band brought a new piece of their own style, the kids copy what they see and now it's just a big jumbled up word for anyone that dresses like they play an instument. It's just like the word punk, the meaning is completely lost and all that's left is a broad style, subject to endless interpretation. The cutting thing dosen't really have much to do with it in all honesty. Kids that are messed up emotionally do things like hurt themselves. A lot of the music is written by people in their teens and early 20's and is a lot more relatable to these kids than other popular music. It's no suprise that a kid who is emotionally unstable is going to try and find a type of music he or she can relate to easily. To relate this to your own childhood, think of grunge. You probably listened to the music, did that mean you were suicidal or messed up? It's really just a stereotype about the style and a sad one because it fills more kids with the idea of doing it.

here, emo is a stereotype mostly. if somebody places the label "emo" on you, people treat you different. being "emo" can be either you listen to the music (Panic! at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Three Days Grace, Fall Out Boy, etc.) and/or you dress like the style ("skinny jeans, or jeans that fit tightly, seen on male and female alike; tight shirts that might have band names on them; and like to dress in black; sometimes wear black eye liner, male and female alike. but it could also mean self mutilation (scars or cuts on their wrists), depression, and in extreme cases suicide. i am emo, and i have hurt myself, and i dress like the stereotype, and i listen to all the music. we hate being stereotyped!!

It is pretty much out of fashion her in NYC. So don't worry about it. It takes a little while for everyone else to catch up. You might want to be ahead of them. NYC is loaded with "hipsters"

when people think life is out to get them so all they can do is mope and be depressed all day everyday and sit in a corner to cut theirselves and listen to My Chemical Romance