ABSTRACT
When emo, an “emotional” or “emotive” underground punk-oriented style dating back to the mid1980s, erupted into the mainstream in the early 2000s via popular releases from artists like Dashboard Confessional and My Chemical Romance, the genre generated more intense debate, and attracted more scorn, than arguably any other rock music of the decade. Those who attacked emo generally took aim at the culture surrounding the music, specifically the stereotypes of “melodramatic” male fans and their cross-gender fashion and appearance, elements that amplified the unease that American society (and especially rock’s teenage audience) has traditionally felt in dealing with expressions of emotional masculinity. In an earlier era, the fan discourse around such a contested genre might have unfolded in the letters section of some rock magazine like Creem, but by the 2000s much of that discussion had migrated to the internet, where message boards and websites provided a faster, looser and more freely flowing forum for the exchange of opinions. The emo definitions that comprise this chapter come from one of the more heavily trafficked user-generated content (UGC) websites of the 2000s, the slang reference Urban Dictionary. All of the website’s entries follow a prescribed format: the user (identified on the site by a pseudonym) provides a definition, and then in italics gives an example of the word in context. While the Urban Dictionary users take a variety of stances towards emo, most agree that the label is problematic. As one user mentions, what music does not have an emotional basis; could we not consider nearly any musical artist or endeavor to be emo? If that is the case, then why exactly are we inclined to hear some rock music as more emotional than others? What are the stylistic elements, expressive gestures and cultural codes that ensured that certain artists, bands and their fans would be lumped together under the emo label?
