What is "Emo"?

hey Sup Forumsh buddies, I've been doing some research on the emotional hardcore spectrum of music. There seems to be controversy as to what "real" emo. From what I discovered, original emo, such as Rites of Spring, is the "real emo" as opposed to modern emo, like dashboard confessional, is "fake emo". where do you guys draw the line when it comes down to emo? What defines emo to you? what songs or bands would you guys consider to be "true" emo? I'm just looking for answers. It's also a quarter to 4 in the morning and everyone's alsleep.
>inb4 Kys Faggot

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real emo: Rites of Spring, Moss Icon, Indian Summer, The Hated, etc

fake emo: My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, etc

fake "real emo": American Football, Mineral, World is a Lovely Place and Blah Blah Blah

It's the final category that is the most insidious because people on this board unironically give it legitimacy

Would also add in:
Real screamo: Orchid, iwrotehaikusaboutcannibalisminyouryearbook, pg99 etc

Fake screamo: anything signed to Rise Records, anything produced well, anything that doesn't sound like emotion ripping apart your throat

>dashboard confessional, is "fake emo"
never heard them before now and I'm starting with the first album and its literally just folk music. However it seems to be composed similarly to dramatic pop punk which is very close if not in tandem to the style of emo which seems to have originated with Samiam

so I wouldnt really call it fake as much as a misnomer. And I'm only on the third song so there may still be something.

plaintive pop punk

Emo is literally not a genre, its a blanket term for bands with emotional lyrics.

But we all know Rites of Spring, Moss Icon etc. are the foundation of it all. Then the Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, Orchid,... Goes on to evolve the term into a specific flavour of indie-rock, pop-punk, post-hardcore and other genres. Then we just unite those genres under emo.

Unfortunately mainstream emo still qualifies as emo, but noone takes it seriously and if you do, you will not be taken seriously.

To anwser your question: Everything emo is emo. Its literally impossible to define "real emo" so only autists debate the boundaries of the genre. It's not "is it emo?" its "how emo is it?".

Either that or I'm retarded.

This guy is correct.

Emo is not a genre, as proved by the fact that is cited as the first emo when Husker Du already did emo before

Actually emo is short for emotional hardcore

The hardcore, as in hardcore punk is an important aspect of the genre name

Saying it's just for emotional is like saying prog is just for progressive but it's for progressive rock

wut that doesnt prove anything except that some people were wrong