Jimbean wrote:
yuppies are the opposite of hippies. emo kids are just the product of reaganomics and the baby boom of the 80s: grew up with Kurt Cobain as a role model and many came from broken homes.
I disagree. I look at the kids in the high schools and youth programs I work with and many of them either didn't exist during the 80s or were too young to experience "80s culture". I think it's that these kids have latched on to dark ideals that have been created by the same people over the years.
Jimbean wrote:
look back as far as the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s,.. you still had kids that took their lives too seriously, stressed about everything, were sad, depressed, thoughtfull most of the time, dressed in black, and had a penchant for death, drama, and sad music. pretty much if you were a serious alternative kid, basket case, mod, goth, or any other variant of those you can now consider yoruself emo.
Taking their lives too seriously, stressed, sad, depressed, thoughtful...those are terms that can be applied to anyone at any given time. Does that mean that we're all emo kids?
I look at the whole emo thing as being over-emotional, focusing on negativity but still having a taste for life and love. However, I also think that emos are a unique sub-culture that is crying for individuality and acceptance from society. I believe that anyone who rebels or tries to be non-conformist truly is a conformist and wants to be accepted by those around them. It's basically "let's be different in the same way". Look at the episode of South Park where Stan becomes a goth/emo kid and one of the guys in that group actually says something like "to be different, you dress and act like us". It's all a series of imitation and group ritual that make up "emo".