For all you little girls that lable everyone

What is EMO?

" The word has survived and flourished in three decades, two millenniums, and two Bush administrations. It's older than four baseball teams, six basketball teams, four football teams, and two soccer leagues. It's older than five former Yugoslav republics, the last seven national spelling champions, and Avril Lavigne. It's older than most of its fans.

It's been a source of pride, a target of derision, a mark of confusion, and a sign of the times.

It's been the next big thing twice, the current big thing once, and so totally over millions of times.

And yet, not only can no one agree on what it means, there is not now, nor has there ever been, a single major band that admits to being emo. Not one.

That's pretty impressive. And contentious. And ridiculous. Good thing too--because so is emo.

Emo is short for emotional. But isn't all music emotional? Well, yes, or at least it should be. Originally, emo was short for "emocore," a strain of hardcore punk that was notable for its obsession with feelings (as opposed to politics, anger, and smashing stuff up). Then it started to be applied to bands that weren't punk, to fashion trends, to sad-eyed kids in the back of class. It's always been mildly derisive, a term used by haters and critics to dismiss something that's overly weepy, self-indulgent, or unironic. Every generation that loves emo bands simultaneously rejects the term while claiming owership of it--meaning even if they won't admit they love emo, they certainly will say how much they hate everything that's been called emo since them. But still, no one knows what it is."

-Andy Greenwald