When I said emotionally driven I mean through heart- felt feelings and pain and hurt and such. Okay, now that singles out about...10% of all music. Furthermore, Emo is emotionally driven as opposed to politically or anything else. Alright, well there's another 30% left out. So what makes emo...emo? Violence. Emo-core, screamo, etc. etc. all have that ONE thing in common. Violent visualizations to get their painful lyrics across. Examples: Finch - Three Simple Words "with my hands around your neck/who will stop me now?" Still need more? Saves The Day - As Your Ghost Takes Flight "The last time that I saw you August of '99 Should have had my hammer And a few rusty spikes to nail you on a wall and use bottles to catch your blood display you for the neighbors So they know your time had come and I drank your blood feel it drippin down my throat And head right for my heart" Senses Fail - 187 "You ripped my heart out You tore my eyes out Now you're gonna pay I'll stab you one time I'll eat your heart out So you'll feel my pain Don't you know that I always need you All of my dreams I wanna kill you I wanna kill you NOW I'm insane" Now, granted I'm using more popular artists the common similarity is there with most TRUE emo artists. Now, around the time that Green Day and Blink 182 began growing in popularity similar bands began emerging all delivering messages about the almost that same thing. High School, girls, growing up, and having no friends. Now with the introduction of these bands the title of emo became more used amongst the "punks" and still is. They/we use(d) is to describe music that was whiney and angsty and not what emo is. Granted, I'm a fan of said genre Blink 182, The Ataris, New Found Glory, Simple Plan, these bands and such like them are NOT emo. I'm sure SOMEONE will remind us all that "putting genres on stuff is stupid" and I'd like to thank them for remembering that and letting us all know what their opinion is. But the fact of the matter is...society, take part in it or not, is based on labels and there's no way around it. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Even though said bands all sing about emotion and pain and heart break They do not share the same common element that the true emo bands share. Enter, Dashboard Confessional. Dashboard, and bands that are similar, though I've yet to hear it, brought a split in the emo genre. Dashboard has brought the heartfelt, loving, sensitive aspect of emo out in the violent visualizations emo-core gave us. In the end of it all, this article may not do anything and some of us will still refer to pop-punk bands as "emo" and give the kid in the cardigan sweater vest and think framed glasses a hard time for listening to Weezer. Anyway, I can only HOPE that something has gotten through to SOMEONE out there. Till next time, Rock Out With Your Cock Out (I fuckin hate the band who started that too)