debunking myths about emo + scene

Since I started dressing more emo about 2-3 years ago, I've seen lots of people who are uneducated about this subculture and they have lots of misconceptions. I know some of them just want to be mean and don't plan on actually knowing about them, but others are just unaware of its history. So I wanted to make a blog listing some fake statements about the emo/scene subculture and explain why they're wrong.

This could be useful for people who recently discovered they want to be emo or scene, or just for anyone who wants to learn about them.

WARNING - EVEN THOUGH I'M NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT THIS IN DEPTH, I AM GOING TO MENTION TOPICS LIKE DEPRESSION, SELF HARM AND SUICIDE. IF YOU ARE VERY SENSITIVE TO THIS, YOU CAN LEAVE. 

So here we go!

• MYTH #1: "Emos are always depressed/sad, it's a part of their mindset"

I think this is one of the most common fake statements about the emo subculture, and some people think this because a lot of its imagery is centered around topics like heartbreak and "bad" emotions like sadness or anger. 

The truth is, the word "emo" comes from "emo-core", which is short for "emotional hardcore", a subgenre of hardcore punk that has more introspective lyrics that talk about human emotions, unlike the very political and aggressive classic punk. This music subgenre wanted to show people that they aren't alone, and more people have the same problems, and this is also similar to the emo ideology. 

Like most alternative subcultures, emo has its own ideologies, but they're not being depressed and suicidal like a lot of people seem to think. We believe that you shouldn't be ashamed of who you are or what you feel. That's why lots of emos always seem to be sad, because a big part of our mindset is that you shouldn't hide your feelings to please others. Usually emo people are sensitive as we tend to focus more on the bad side of things and that makes us sad, but as I said emo is about being who you are so you shouldn't fake your personality to fit in with a group of people. 

This is also related to the myth that all emo and scene people do self harm or are suicidal. I'm not going to talk about this a lot because it's such and old belief and I think nobody has this idea anymore, the people who say it aren't trying to understand us and they just want to be hateful. But anyways, these myths are some of the biggest about scene/emo people because of the way we dress, the imagery of our aesthetic and the fact that we usually wear arm warmers, long sleeves or bracelets that cover our arms. Not all emo people self harm and not everyone who does it is emo. And I feel like all of this has created such a bad stereotype about us and also people who truly are depressed, suicidal or who harm themselves. 

• MYTH #2: "You don't have to dress scene to be scene, just listen to the music"

Even among alternative people, this seems to be a common idea of what scene is; and it makes sense, so it might be surprising to hear that even if you listen to things like crunkcore or metalcore that doesn't necessarily make you scene. 

To explain this, I like to say that scene is to emo what mall goth is to goth: people who dressed the part and claimed to be a part of that subculture, but didn't listen to the music or care about the history, so they were excluded from it and as a result of this they made their own subculture. The first people to be called scene were people who dressed like emos but didn't listen to emo music. Later, those people started reclaiming the term and made their own fashion style. These people were basically the "I'm not like other girls I'm quirky" teenagers, they started dressing emo just to be different but then they made their own subculture because emos excluded them. That's why a lot of scene kids act "quirky" or "random".

So if it's not music, what do you need to be scene? 

Very simple: look scene. It's true that there are scene music genres like crunkcore, neon pop punk, metalcore or deathcore, but you don't need to listen to them to be scene. If you break the scene look down, basically all you need is the hair because it's the most iconic part of the aesthetic, if you pay attention there were scene kids in the 2000s that dressed quite normal but they looked scene because of their hairstyle. I already have a blog talking about emo and scene fashion, so if you don't really get this part I recommend you to check it out. 

• MYTH #3: " You can't be emo/scene and [insert political view], you must have [insert political beliefs]"

This is a new statement, and for some reason it's very popular now, but it's wrong as emo and scene were never political. 

This night be controversial, but I think that the only alternative subculture where you need to have a specific political view is punk, as it's not just a music subculture, but a whole social movement. People who think that emo and scene are political usually use the argument that they're derived from punk, and honestly that's a great point, but emo is not punk and punk is not emo, so even if they have similar roots they're still different things. 

Like it or not, scene and emo have never been and will never be political. People who say this are usually the same people that believe in myth #2 because for some reason people on tiktok chose to spread misinformation about alternative subcultures and made people believe things that were never true. I think this misunderstanding comes from people thinking that saying "every alternative subculture has its own mindset" means that said mindset is inherently political, and as I explained before the emo and scene beliefs have nothing to do with that. 

The reason why scene and emo don't have a set of political views attached to them is that most emo/scene people are teenagers who don't care about that. Also, for some reason lots of scene kids in the 2000s were racist as fuck, so if you say that scene has a specific political view then it should be being racist, and I don't even have to explain why this is fucked up. If someone that happens to be emo or scene is racist or homophobic or whatever, that has nothing to do with them being alternative and all to do with them being a piece of shit person. 

• MYTH #4: "Emo started in the 2000s. Emo music is pop punk from the 2000s"

This isn't inherently a harmful thing to believe, it just means that you don't know much about the subculture, probably because you're new to it or you're not a part of it at all. If someone thinks this is true, we shouldn't get mad at them and call them a poser, we should try to teach them about the subculture so it becomes a better place for new people. 

It's true that emo as a subculture started in the early 2000s, but its origins go back to the mid to late 80's emotional hardcore scene. The first band to be labeled as emo was embrace in 1987, but rites of spring is considered the first emo band because their released their first EP in 1985, two years before. Then there was also a screamo/skramz scene, which is a specific music genre and is NOT any alternative music with harsh screams like a lot of people believe, and then in the 90s, the infamous midwest emo scene was born. Bands like american football or sunny day real estate are bands that the "real emo only consists of" people seem to hate because they're "poser garbage", but their fanbase believes they're the epitome of what emo is, as their music reflects teenage angst, sensitivity and lots of emotion and intensity. 

Emo was considered a bad thing to be called until the mid 2000s when the subculture gained more popularity, so these bands refused to call themselves emo at all. Even my chemical romance denied it at first. 

When people say that emo is pop punk from the 2000s, they aren't referring to "real emo" music but to emo pop, also called mall emo. To explain what emo pop is, I usually say that it's usually pop punk music that borrows none or very few aspects of "real emo" musically, but is considered emo socially because of the impact they had on society. Some examples of emo pop bands are my chemical romance, fall out boy or paramore. This doesn't mean that if you like these bands you're not emo, in fact I like them myself and I even add them to my emo playlists, because let's be real: even if they're not "true emo", what emo kid in the 2000s wasn't screaming the lyrics to helena or misery business? Also these bands among others were the ones who popularized the subculture and influenced on its fashion. 

• MYTH #5: "Emos and scenes are posers, they are trying so hard to be metal/goth/punk"

I won't deny that posers exist and that there are emo/scene people claiming to be a part of a subculture they're not, but saying that the subcultures as a whole are pretending to be something different is just wrong. This was believed by many metalheads, punks and goths in the past when emo was more popular, but sadly there are still some people who believe this. This myth is kind of different from the other ones I've talked about because this doesn't come from uneducated people inside of the subculture or people who are just trying to understand us, the people who say this clearly don't want to learn about us and they're mad because there's a subculture similar to theirs that is much more mainstream. 

As I said before, emo/scene is not punk, same goes for goth and metal. I'm going to explain the reasons why some people in the emo/scene subcultures claim to be a part of these and why these people think we are trying to copy them. 

The biggest confusion between alternative subcultures is probably between emo and goth, due to the apparently similar aesthetic. Emo fashion is obviously largely influenced by goth, but the subcultures have nothing to do with each other. Again, I won't deny that there are emo people claiming to be goth because they wear black, and from experience it doesn't matter how many times you explain to them that being goth is not wearing black because they aren't willing to listen, and this is why some goths used to hate emos. For the people who are claiming to be goth and don't know shit about it, goth, like emo, is a music based subculture. Some goth music genres are post punk, darkwave, deathrock or ethereal wave, and the subculture has so much more to it than just black clothes and a spiked choker, so if you're interested in it I recommend researching about it because goth has such a long and interesting history. 

Even though metalheads have hated emos since the subculture exists, I think that most of the hate came in the late 2000s and early 2010s when the deathcore and metalcore scenes gained popularity among emo and mostly scene kids. Again it's true that some scene kids are claiming that bands like black veil brides or suicide silence are metal, but instead of calling them posers and telling them to go cut themselves, you should explain to them what metal is, and why the music they like is not metal, but a different genre with a different culture that is largely influenced by metal. Also, I didn't think I had to say this, but you can be in more than one subculture at a time. I am emo but I'm also a metalhead because obviously I love metal. I love both emo music, metal and also deathcore, but I understand the differences between them. The poser part doesn't come from how you dress or the music you listen to, it comes when you're claiming to be something you're not, and the same goes for any other subculture. 

Honestly, the way punks hate emos and say they're posers while not being aware that they're the ones who created the subculture will always be funny to me. In case you didn't know, Ian mackaye, singer for minor threat, which is one of the most important hardcore punk bands and the creators of the straight edge movement, was also the founder of embrace, which as I said before was the first band to be called emo, and in general all the emocore bands from the 80s were in the punk scene because they were emotional HARDCORE. Instead of hating on other people for being posers who don't know anything, focus on learning about your own subculture first. 

• MYTH #6: "Scenecore and scene are the same/scenecore doesn't exist"

It's very obvious that these last years the scene aesthetic has made a comeback, but there's also a new fashion style that borrows elements from scene and that's called scenecore. Now people's perception of what is scene has changed a lot and sometimes it's hard to tell apart these two styles, but in my opinion it's pretty easy if you actually care about what scene is and don't go around calling anything with rainbows scene. Music is also very different, while as I said before scene music is crunkcore, metalcore, deathcore, neon pop punk and some electronic music, the music related to scenecore is hyperpop like 6arelyhuman and kets4eki, and although there is some more scene hyperpop like s3rl, the music styles are very different even though none of the subcultures are necessarily music based. 

As I said before, the most important part of the scene look is the hair. Scenecore doesn't have this hairstyle, usually they have something like short fluffy hair, and I think that the hairstyle is the easiest way to tell them apart. Other big differences are that while scene sometimes uses kandi, checkerboard patterns, cartoon characters or rainbows, scenecore overdoes this resulting in a even more obnoxious look than scene. They also sometimes wear boots, and scene kids usually wear sneakers. I won't go more in depth about scene fashion because I have another blog about it which also talks about some differences between scenecore and scene.

I understand where people who say that scenecore doesn't exist are coming from but I think that they should at least be aware that there's a new style that borrows elements from scene and mixes them with modern tiktok styles like kidcore, but isn't really scene. I think that people who say scenecore is not real mean is that it doesn't have anything to do with scene and is just kidcore or some other modern style, and I agree with this, but what I don't agree with is when people say "it's not called scenecore, it's called scene" when someone mentions the style, implying that these new scenecore people are scene. It's true that some people get the two terms wrong and start calling actual scene scenecore because of the pinterest and tiktok obsession of adding -core to any word, but this scenecore style is not the same as scene and I wish people would finally be aware of this. 

• MYTH #7: "Emo music is sad. Being depressing is what makes a song emo"

As I explained in myth 4, emo music comes from emotional hardcore. Hardcore punk is very angry and aggressive while emocore focuses more on human emotions, sadness being one of them but not the only. If you listen to original emocore, you will notice that it doesn't sound like you stereotypical post hardcore emo music with some guy singing about how he is depressed, it sounds more like melodic punk, which is basically what it is, and it kind of surprised me at first because I wasn't expecting that at all. 

The argument that having sad emotional lyrics makes a song/artist emo is so dumb because using that logic almost any artist can be emo. Literally any popular artist that you can think of has at least one emotional song with a sadder atmosphere and deep lyrics but that doesn't mean that artist is emo. Another example, take dsbm, a black metal subgenre known for its lyrics about things like depression, suicide or self harm and its dark and gloomy atmosphere. Even though it has all of these characteristics, this doesn't mean this type of music is emo, because it's black metal. 

I guess that's all I'm going to talk about for now. Feel free to leave a comment or suggest more myths to debunk! :)