Labeled, mocked, and pitied by young people and beyond, the Emo subculture is one of the most analyzed, debated, and difficult-to-explain movements of recent times. But why has this phenomenon become so feared by society, especially adults?
The Birth of the Emocore Music Genre
The emo subculture has its roots in the punk scene that developed in the Washington, D.C., area in the mid-1980s. The word "emo," in fact, began to be used by bands as a shorthand for emotional hardcore (or emocore ), to define a more sensitive and toned-down variant of the angry, harsh sounds typical of hardcore punk. Indeed, unlike the hardcore genre, which emerged as a form of expression against economic mismanagement, inflation, and the culture of power embraced by Reagan, emocore distinguished itself from its inception as a totally apolitical genre, focused primarily on emotion.
Emo music
The first emocore groups were Embrace and Rites of Spring , but the greatest exponent of this new movement was Ian MacKaye, the singer of Minor Threat , a group that despite their short career, which lasted from 1980 to 1983, had a huge influence on the scene, so much so that they were even considered revolutionary. Unaware of having created a true phenomenon, Minor Threat were the spokespersons for a lifestyle aimed at abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and casual sex: Straight edge (sXe) thus became the title of one of their most famous songs and, above all, a true symbol, even tattooed on one's body as an indelible declaration to the rest of the world.
Despite this, the movement only developed as a subculture in the early 1990s when the media and the music industry began to popularize the term Emo, labeling precisely that more introspective rock listened to by younger people.
The Emo look
Adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18, feeling misunderstood, alone, and distant from the norms imposed by the dominant culture, and drawn to the emocore genre , began to feel the need to voice their emotions in an authentic and free way. Boys in particular, increasingly tired of having to conform to the models of masculinity desired by mainstream society , decided to express themselves through an androgynous style . Thus, the male and female Emo look became interchangeable: the indistinctly pale complexion , shoulder-length or spiky hair , worn with a long, straightened quiff to hide one or both eyes, and black eyeliner to make themselves sexually ambiguous. Their style, never detached from the trends of the moment and consisting of t-shirts of their favorite bands, strictly skinny trousers, Vans or Converse shoes, made them, in the eyes of their peers, vain posers obsessed with their own image, thus confirming the belief in exclusion , misunderstanding and victimhood that had originated the movement.
Freedom on the web and Emo chats
Emos thus found an alternative means of expression, a virtual world where they could be completely themselves without revealing their identity, without judgment, labeling, or shame. Myspace and online forums like Emoforum.org thus became a safe place to share emotions, problems, and feelings that were difficult to express openly. However, the very publication of depressive messages and those aimed at eliminating pain through suicide, almost always announced (but almost never completed), piqued the media's attention, sparking alarm and disapproval of a subculture now associated with self-harm.
The danger of stereotypes
By the time Jimmy Eat World released the album Bleed American in 2001, following the September 11 attacks, the emo subculture had become an international phenomenon. Those events sparked a state of uncertainty and sadness in American culture, to the point that other bands formed that year also wrote increasingly dark and melancholic songs. Thus, My Chemical Romance became the target of all the anti-emo crusades organized in the UK. The reason for this hatred was the death of a thirteen-year-old fan in London in 2008, a couple of years after the release of The Black Parade , an album steeped in dark and necrophiliac elements.
Labeling and identification
Acts of physical and verbal violence against emo people increased so exponentially that in 2013, the Greater Manchester Police Department in the United Kingdom decided to pass a regulation to punish any form of discrimination against subcultures, deeming it equal to insults based on race, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Despite this, stereotypes multiplied, and the idea that the word emo was short for hemoglobin or hemorrhage only served to further equate the practice of cutting with the subculture itself. While emo people are certainly no strangers to cutting their limbs to release their emotions through blood, several studies have shown that these acts of self-harm are actually simply a widespread means of expression among them and also among their peers, to gain attention or break the rules. But we know that when subcultures arise from a process of labelling , the sense of identification is inevitable and it is no longer possible to go back, not even in the popular imagination.
Subculture Universe
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Alice Porracchio
" If there's not a rebellious youth culture, there's no culture at all. It's absolutely essential. It is the future ."
