Emo
Rite of Passage: An “Emo”tional Journey
by Emily Lance
Jayson Gonzalez, 18, denies his emo status. “Emo” is just pants – skinny teens in skinny jeans. Gonzalez sports the fashion with his skin-tight blue jeans and dark colored hair to match his black t-shirt. This look has been prominent within the music scene, as bands and their growing fan base are sporting the fashion. Often stereotyped, these people claim it is just an expression.
“I am just me,” Gonzalez said, as he jerked his head to the side in an effort to reposition his choppy, dark brown locks. “Any other stereotypes come from ignorance - ignorant people wanting to make sense of the fashion.”
History of Emo
The 1980’s band Rites of Spring is credited with being the first and definitive emo band. The native Washington, D.C. , group was noted for being the founders of this new style of punk, “emotive hardcore.” The music had an unusual music structure and lyrics about personal and emotional issues. Thus the term was coined “emo.”
The result was not only a new style of music, but an entire culture of young fans emulating the appearance of their idols – lead singers with eye makeup, guitarists with dyed black hair and the tight pants of their most admired bassist. This style bred a culture of fans that followed the music.
Scott Van Tatenhove, social studies teacher at Rocky Mountain High School, explained that in 1982 the underground scene of punk became faster and louder.
“Making music was more about love,” he said. “They were more emotional songs. That is where the term (emo) comes from.”
Now Van Tatenhove has noticed a trend of music that reflects the same genre of the ‘80s. The music has become a more “watered down” form of emo to appeal to a broader audience.
“Now it is more emo-influenced pop music or punk-inspired pop music,” Van Tatenhove said.
He interacts with students in his classes who are fashioned in the typical emo style but regards the clothes and lifestyle as a product of pop culture, for this generation.
“It’s a marriage of fashion and music,” Van Tatenhove said.
Jessie Schrader, 17, joins fashion and fans in unholy matrimony. As a cashier at Hot Topic, Schrader is witness to the 12- to 15-year-olds who come to gaze at the wall of band-labeled t-shirts.
“It’s all about the kids who want attention,” she said. “(Emo) is attention driven and fashion driven.”
Exactly, said Tegan Kronwalo, coworker and friend of Schrader.
“Emo is a product of fashion. It’s the new indie of ‘I don’t need anybody,’” Kronwalo said. “They have the idea that they are unique and original, but original is the same when everyone is doing it.”
Melancholy in the masses
The stereotypes of “emotional depressed” youth is just a coping mechanism. All teenagers are going through the same things; “they just have a different vehicle,” Van Tatenhove said.
In the handbook “Everybody Hurts: An essential guide to Emo culture,” Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley draw a path to summit the mountain of “emo-ness.” In the book it lists a group of core emo values: depression, effortless (ness – or trying really hard to look like you don’t care), empathy, faith, insecurity and non-athleticism. Depression, core value No. 1, instills alarm in parents.
“More dramatic and simply being sad depression is the foundation of the entire emo ethos,” Simon and Kelley wrote. “Depression serves as a bonding mechanism for those with a similar outlook on life and love. Like magnets, depressed people attract one another because moping alone is, well, pathetic. But throwing yourself a pity party. That’s emo.”
Outsiders stick together
Matt Johnson, an officer for the Fort Collins Police Department, has observed the other side of this culture. About 60 teenagers that fit the stereotyped radical appearance assemble during summer nights in Old Town.
“My experience from the group as a whole is that they are not really accepted in their schools, homes or communities,” Johnson said. “A subset of the culture is that they change their appearance a lot, with a distinct physical appearance usually – darker hair and darker colored clothes.”
The lack of acceptance causes a rebellion, a mutiny against authority figures, especially parents and teachers. Johnson has noticed that these teens usually have problems at home, a negative parental element, which breeds a hatred for their parents.
“One of the defining elements of the group is that they tend to be very accepting,” Johnson said. “When they accept people who get into trouble, it causes that group safety and legal problems. Most of the kids just tell me ‘I am a good kid, I just have purple hair,’” Johnson said. “The community usually questions people with piercings or funny clothes.”
Unaware of the social definition, Johnson defines “emo” as a group of youth outside of the community or culture. He sees a lot of sensitivity and communication within the crowd.
“They have had their feelings hurt so they try not to hurt others within their group,” Johnson said.
These perceptions resonate truth. “Emo is still a kind of music, sure, but more than anything it’s a state of mind,” Simon and Kelley wrote. “It’s a place where people who don’t fit in – but who long to fit in with other people who don’t fit in - come to find solace, and its resident ideology is something that those within the scene take very seriously.”