A Question of Attitude
Emo is an abbreviation for emotional hardcore and claims a critical and punk attitude, but centred mainly on individual, personal and private emotions, rather than on the political.  Emo takes on the urban, iconoclastic street attitude of Punk, with its anger and way of expressing discontent with a reality that urges change as soon as possible.  However, incorporated also in the discourse are personal feelings and emotions that, without losing clarity, and being radical and urgent, not only speak of an external malaise, but also of the pain, anger and dissatisfaction of those who do not now believe in the American Dream.  This attitude which is shared by the whole Grunge movement, that defines the American way of life as nothing but a farce which pushes youth to desperation, unemployment, apathy, ignorance and loss of hope for the future.  Emo raises itself against all this.

Not all is negative and pessimistic within the movement; there is also room in Emo for happiness, fun, parties, and, most of all, irony and sarcasm.  All these feelings come to the forefront, and personal experience is given entry into the socio-political agitation of early Punk, that also continues in current Emo, but in a more internalized, cerebral and equally convincing form.

A Question of Style
The evolution of the Emo concept, especially within the world of fashion, does not currently limit itself to the influences of Emocore music, given that other counter-cultural trends and popular contemporary fashion trends – such as Hip Hop, Skate, urban wear, electronic music, Grunge, Indie Rock and even Post punk, New Wave and the Gothic movement, as well as comics, the cinema, television, videogames, the Internet, and other aspects of modern times – have taken their part in forming the look.

All this has been channelled into a style, the Emo look, which is a very popular, young, modern fashion that has established itself over the whole planet.