Thoughts on Emo

I was talking to a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless (ok, it was Lisa), about the musical genre emo. She was saying that because a songs lyrics are similar to lyrics to an emo song, then that band is emo. The example she used was Blink 182, saying they were emo because the themes in their songs were the same as emo themes. I disagreed. If that was the case, 99% of every pop song ever made would be considered emo, because emo songs are all about not getting the girl or broken hearts, etc. The lyrics, and lyrics alone, don’t classify an artist into a genre. If a rocker had the same type of lyrics and themes as a rap song they wouldn’t be rap, they’d still be rock. A genre is about the lyrics, the style, and the image put forth by the artist. Blink 182 doesn’t put forth the same image of “I hate my life now let me write crappy poetry and put it on Myspace so my other emo friends can read it and complain that we have no friends because we’re outcasts, now let’s go to The Gap and buy tight girl’s jeans (even though I’m a guy) and black turtlenecks” as emo kids do. Yes, that is a stereotype and yes I’m making fun of them. If I don’t then they might not be emo. They should be thanking me for that. Anyway, back to my original thought. Lyrics do not act alone in the genre classification. Lisa was wrong.