Why was there a social stigma towards the emo culture?

The music that we listen to is the window to our souls. Music influences our ways and our mentalities affect the music we listen to. Emo Rock is a genre comprising hardcore punk rock and confessional lyrical writing. Emo culture ever since its early days has been stereotyped by its signature fashion and music.

Emo was always about discussing your inner feelings and bands usually concentrated on loss, grief and other similar concepts. The unprecedented rise of the emo culture was the reason for its stigmatization and backlash. It was the media’s fault and their presentation of this genre.

The most used criticism by media said that the emo culture promoted self-harm, depression, hate for the society, and Satanism. The Emo culture attracted a huge fan base at its prime and nothing in it had to with the above said things.

The reason the Emo culture attracted teenagers towards it was that it exposed the rising stress levels in teenagers and young adults and brought it out in front of the world. Its honest, hard-hitting lyrics combined with the beauty of grunge music made it relatable and provided a much-needed escape to rising pressures on young minds. It talked about the much ignored mental health of young minds and emo’s emergence is one of the main reasons that mental health is openly discussed nowadays.

The misinterpretation on the media’s part has caused the emo culture much damage and ridicule over the decade and countries like Iraq went to the extents of executing teenagers who identified themselves as emo. In conclusion, if the media hadn’t panicked and calmed down, this stigma would never have existed in the first place.

There are some people who say that being emo is just an extension of the songs that people love to listen to. How true is this? There is a social stigma that emo people are just depressed and troubled people who do not know how to express their emotions in another way. Some say that emo people are usually hurting themselves.

These are things that may not necessarily be true but those who dress emo are already being judged that way even when they are not supposed to. People cannot help but become reminded of the emo stereotype every time they see someone who dresses emo.