• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Goth vs Emo

wafu_vasco

wafu_vasco

Dec 2, 2008
128
48
Cornwall, UK
#1
I've hit 30 this year, which means I'm no longer in touch with "what's hip and down with the kids." As a result, could some youngsters on the site please define the difference between Goths and Emos, ideally with examples of bands in each catagory? As far as I can tell, both groups are under the impression that Twilight is good, wear black and make up a lot, but the only difference is Emos are allowed to be pretty. Can anybody explain it, please?
 
#3
I think Jester's on the right track; I'm not sure, myself, about the exact details apart from emos being more wimpy and effeminate (the male ones, at least) than doom-and-gloom goths, but as far as music goes:

Goth:
 
#5
"Emo" originated with Rites of Spring:
Invalid Link Removed
(Actually I like Rites of Spring a lot but really I love the band that followed ((Fugazi!))
 
#8
Well I think Emo was music made by people who were part of the hardcore scene but but reacted and wanted to play more emotional music which led to more melodic songs. Rites and Sunny Day being examples... How sad pop punk got the title I'm not sure; maybe the next generation of people who didn't have the background of hardcore musicality thought, "I want to write emotional music..." and it turned out to be pop punk retrospective ballads.
 
#11
Hah! I'm older than you, 39, but I have teenagers.

Goth basically means people who think they are supposed to be vampires. You'll see a lot of black leather and torn fishnets, body piercings, long trenchcoats. They generally adopt a glowering, hostile manner, but are less likely to actually start a fight or anything than your average jock or redneck. Unless they bring their automatic weapons to school and start to shoot everything up.

Emo means kids who are caught in perpetual melancholy, or who at least think that pretending to be so makes them cooler. Rather than glowering-let-me-show-you-my-fantasy-of-how-scary-I-am you get sad oh-oh-oh-oh-my-life-is-meaningless-I-hate-myself-isn't-it-pitiful-how-pathetic-I-am. Generally wearing clothes from thrift shops that are chosen to be artsy but kind of unkempt, spending a lot of time making sure that you look like you don't care how you look.

There is room for overlap between the groups -- emo vampires and all that.
 
#12
Pretty sure that todays "goths" aren't really what I remember goths being back in the day. I still remember goth as being an offshoot from punk, and you didn't f*ck with the goths, because they might have been skinny, but they were mental. These days they all seem to just be a little "wishy washy".
 
#16
Goth... The Cure is probably the most famous example. That dress, attitude, style of music, etc... is Goth. Goth kids might look odd/scary, but are a lot less likely to start something (as has already been stated). It was like kind of an offshoot from punk... although they're less likely to start something themselves, you probably don't want to mess with them.

Emo... is NOT a fashion. Emo is a type of music, and an attitude. The style generally referred to as 'Emo' is actually either Scene or Goth. 'Emo' is, again, NOT a style or fashion. It's an attitude... weather or not you agree with that attitude or state of mind doesn't matter. Scene, or even Goth fashion is what is often mistakenly referred to as Emo.
 
#17
Me being half the OP's age, i know this first hand. I think the descriptions of goth are pretty much spot on. But i see Emo as just a group of people who look and act the same, listen to all the worst (In my opinion) music possible, lots of screaming, wannabe heavy stuff (Think brokencyde) and just try and act cool, think they are indivividual but yet they are all the same. But all this is just how i see it, i personally find all the stereotyping of people just a load of stupidity, which is why i and all my friends choose not to label ourselves and buy the things everyone else is getting.

Liam
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back