What does 'emo' mean?

I really don't know.  It sounded like it could be a slur...

emotional

From what I understand it means emotional.. not sure though..

Well, question answered right after I posted my reply

I don't think it's a slur...they kinda call themselves that too...

Emo. ;D

I wish my lawn was emo so it would cut itself.

Oh, Emo Philips, for real hk or j/k? lol 

Peaches what do you mean?  They are a group or something?

Got ya, Heather.  Love that Wiki, lol

Emo, chrissannb, not only is real, but he acted in one of my favorite movies EVER.. UHF :D

The term "emo" can refer to a style of music, emotive state, or fashion, which is interesting.

In an earlier post someone compared emo to prep as a similar type of description of a person (not that prep and emo are similar themselves as adjectives). I think thats interesting because the term prep does not imply anything about emotional state.

Its interesting to me that a general trend is an emotive state. Adolescents and young adulthood are no longer only about fitting in with the correct clothing and music styles, but there seems to be an emphasis on what emotions you express outwardly as well.

I am certainly not knocking the style of emo or the emotions experienced by anyone else (emo or not), its just interesting from a sociological perspective.

Thx, Rainbow.  I just feel so 'net naive', you know?  Hard to keep up.

So it's an outward projection of an internal state?

yes, but that state doesn't cover a range of human emotions -- just sadness, despair, and angst, mainly. its funny to me that these "nonconformists" join together to conform to each other's definition of what an "emotive state" is....

it's just a thing.  in the seventies we had punks; in the 80s we had club kids; in the 90s we had sensitive-pony-tail guy and grunge; now we have emo kids.  they dress androgenously and wear dark-rimmed glasses and cut their hair short with long bangs (reverse mullet).  they're just kids dressing in the last thing their mothers would want them to.

and some of them cut.

undertherainbow, I wasn't implying that I personally project a certain type of emotion on anyone.

However, the term "emo" comes from the word emotional and people do tend to use "emo" to describe both emotion (often sadness) as well as a fashion trend. This is why I think it is particularly interesting that the two can be related.

Also, I agree it can be very sad that we feel pressure to act a certain way, dress a certain way, and now feel a certain way.

I think anyone who's ever been 14 years old has been emo.

Hell, I admit to being emo when I was in high school. No one understood me, man. Instead of the almost goth style of the emo kids these days, I wore flannel and torn jeans and Chuck Taylors. We were called "grunge" back then. We listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains.

But I worshipped Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. I think I had NIN's Broken on repeat for an entire year. I was, like, angry and sad and stuff. Look up the lyrics for the song "Wish." That's about as twisted and emotional as any Dashboard Confessional/Bright Eyes/MCR/HIM song out there. Head Like A Hole, indeed. :D

Emo's are the quite ones, Screamo's are the loud ones.

Thanks for this post, chrisannb!  I've always wondered what it meant and now I know!  :)

emo= emotional the neo-beatnicks

Oh god...what the heck does emotive mean?  Wow...I am definitely getting old.