How did the whole emo thing start?

How did the whole 'emo' thing start I mean I know it was first a genre of music but I want to know how it started to become what people are?

Ugh not sure but I really wish it hadn't. I used to listen to (and still do) older emo bands like Texas is the Reason and Rites of Spring. The genre really started to pick up in the early 1990s in DC and then spread. I got sucked into the music in about '95, when I was 12.

Somewhere in the past 5 years or so, kids started wearing tight pants and getting ugly haircuts and calling it emo. I blame Chris Carabba, personally :P

hehehe...my friend the answer is in (drunk) idiots that love music...somebody just connected cutting your self whit music ...badabing badabank there you go EMO

thanks honestly I love music but until I found this site I had never even heard of EMO before even as a genre of music man im way out of the loop LOL

It started in the 90s.

undont cut your self to be emo..thats completely different. people are getting called 'emo' because they are different and they like to listen to that type of music..'emo' is a genre...it started in the early1990s

the bottom line is
emo is emo
self harm is self harm
2 completely different catagories
I wish people would stop being so simple-minded about it
emo actually started around the 80's beleive it or not
its been around a long time
but as time moves on, genres borrow things from other genres and change a bit
nowdays hot topic crap is considered punk, which it really isnt
and nowdays people have very different opinions of em
its borrowed things from the genres punk, goth and scene...adding its own twist yet again
but it has nothing to do with self harm or depression
its true that some emo people have those problems but those are completely diferent to a genre
how you feel and what you do to your own body doesnt come in to a genre or sterotype
but emo is short for emotional, just not the kind of emotional a lot of people think about

well I guess that like people just started saying to eachother stuff like 'your an emo' or 'go cut urself' and blah blah=P...s0o overtime it just kept increasing and kinda became a 'FASHION'...lmao...but emo's got cool hair...heheh^^^...

Thanks for bringing this up. I have a negative thing to say about this. I'm going to post a question right now.