The emo subculture is stereotypically associated with the socially oppressed, sensitivity, misanthropy, introversion and angst, as well as depression, self-harm and suicide. Since the early to mid 2000s, fans of emo music who dress like this are referred to as "emo kids" or "emos" and known for listening to bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Hawthorne Heights, The Used, and AFI. Emo fashion has been associated with skinny jeans, black eyeliner, tight t-shirts with band names, studded belts, and flat, straight, jet-black hair with long bangs. Often seen as a subculture, emo also signifies a specific relationship between fans and artists and certain aspects of fashion, culture and behavior. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, The Used, and Underoath. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. By the mid-1990s, bands such as Braid, the Promise Ring and the Get Up Kids emerged from the burgeoning Midwest emo scene, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre.
In the early–mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock and/or punk rock bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Weezer, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World, with Weezer breaking into the mainstream during this time. It emerged as a style of post-hardcore from the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement in Washington, D.C., where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace.
Emo / ˈ iː m oʊ/ is a rock music genre characterized by an emphasis on emotional expression, sometimes through confessional lyrics.