Emo

Emo, short for Emotional Hardcore, is a rock genre and youth subculture that began in the mid-1980s Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene as a reaction against violence and hyper-masculinity, built instead on emotional expression, introspection, and nonconformity. The subculture's most recognizable visual era peaked in the mid-2000s, with My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Panic! At The Disco driving the look. Skinny jeans and tight band t-shirts anchored the dress of those years, cinched with a studded belt and finished with Converse or Vans. Black wristbands, heavy eyeliner, and black fingernails became common over the same stretch. Hair was a defining element too: jet black, straightened, side-swept into a long fringe covering one eye, often streaked with color.