Has the phrase "emo" become an insult (please read details)?

i guess..

thats what happening with "gay"

i hate how people say that. they're the ones that are "gay"

The Allman Brothers?! They're probably the least emo band EVER.

Anyway, emo has become an insult because as a rule all emo music sucks, even the original "hardcore" emo or whatever. Rites of Spring... **** those guys, who said they could name their shitty band after one of the greatest pieces of 20th century music? Also, the kids who listen to this stuff are generally the most pathetic slime of this generation, so it was inevitable that this term would come to be an insult. Anyway, don't get me started, emo brought this upon itself for sucking so badly.

Being called emo IS an insult, but I wouldn't use it to insult anything or anyone that wasn't a band / band member. Like for example, I wouldn't, if I was having a bad hair day, say my hair was being 'emo,' but if a band really sucked and I wanted to show just how MUCH they suck, like MCR for example, I would say they're emo.

Make any sense at all whatsoever?

Pretty much, it's sad really. The term's gone from defining a branch off of 1980's hardcore punk to becoming an insult like the word "gay".

Oh, and I never define a band emo, unless they actually are emo, like Rites of Spring.

And I've seen bands, such as 80's post-punk and new wave, constantly being described as "emo" when they have little, if any, connection to 80's emo.

So yes, the term's meaning has shifted, for the worse.

Edit: post-punk, new wave, and real emo > modern pop-punk, alternative rock and metalcore mislabeled as emo. :p

Yes, like I've said before we will never now what emo means.

People have changed the real definition of it so many times that we will never for sure know what it really means.

I think your right, when people get mad they come up with a clever insult like "your emo", On Friday someone called me emo because they were in a bad mood.

I started laughing, because that really hurt my feelings!

It is a stupid name, so I am glad we finally have something to replace Gay and Retarded when describing something of inferior quality.

Almost any music is EMOTIONAL. So, why some group of "offshoots" (which means watered-down hybrid, in my language) had the right to label their music as "more emotional", is beyond me.

There's a reason you are not good with naming genres....

It's all pop. If it's not rock, rap , or country, it's just pop. That is why they keep coming up with new names for "genres". And, that is why it is so confusing.

Alternative, grunge, goth, whatever. None of them were doing anything new. They just made up new genre names to pretend some scene was happening. For example, there were bands doing Nirvana-type music, 25 years before they came out.

There's nothing new under the sun.

It's all just marketing.

among the general pop culture, yes, emo is an insult, but among the scenes, emo is merely a shortened term for a a genre of music, depending on which scene it is, although most of the different scenes dont like "emos" and use it as an insult

i think it's totally gone beyond bands, just like you said with that kid calling you emo...it's become a phrase we use to label people who have a certain image, a certain look where we think they might like that type of music, without knowing anything about them

for example, i work at a concert pavilion around where i live in northeast pa, and today we had one of the biggest concerts to ever come up there with kanye west(i hated the concert but i like money so i went)...and there was this kid who goes to my school who was there, and he is pretty openly gay and emo, in terms of the way he talks, dresses, etc.(perhaps i'm the one being judgmental, but anyway)...yet he was at a rap concert, so that should tell you that you can't just judge a book by its cover

yes, you're right. it now has nothing to do with music.

also, it seems like every time i see the word 'emo' on this website is coupled with 'gay.' "this band sucks, they're gay and emo." i guess the way gay has come to mean shitty, emo has also.

as i've said on here before, it really bothers me how misunderstood that that term is.

edit: haha i took too long to type my response, everyone else pretty much already said what i had to say.

I know that emo is an insult because of first hand expeirence.

Like, I dont support being emo and I think its really really dumb, but kids in my school still call me emo because I like "emo" bands like fall out boy and stuff.

LOL i really just like the music, thats all. i dont cut or wear black to wear 10 pounds of eyeliner like they do, just ew.

but I still get insulted everyday, theyre like "U R EMO BCUZ U LIK FOB" and im like haha alrighttt whateva.

but yeah its def become an insult.

So emo has become the new gay?

Wow, people these days are creative.

Jay reminded me. Kids at my school used Jew as an insult too.