When Emo Hits Hawaii, You Know it’s Everywhere

I don’t know if I quite get emo kids, but I try. It’s kinda fas­ci­nat­ing how much the word ‘emo’ has pen­e­trated into our cul­tural dia­logue, yet so many people can’t agree on what ‘emo’ actu­ally stands for. I mean, by some accounts, straight emo music is dead. What hap­pens when some­one decides to label Weezer, a very suc­cess­ful melodic rock band, emo? Or when very good bands, try des­per­ately to attach them­selves to the emerg­ing bandwagon?

And yet, it affects cul­ture — in music and style. It’s hard to ignore the real­ity that the Gap last fall looked more like a retail punk rock glam store than the usual bland pastel plaid shirts and acid-​wash jeans store. Maybe I have an urban bias here, but it seems to me that no one wants to dress like fred dirst. Don’t dis­miss that obser­va­tion as obvi­ous — it’s not obvi­ous given the dom­i­nance of the Limp in the music scene of the past few years (is Creed still number 1?!). But, even the Gap has moved on. Even Hon­olulu has Emo kids now. I’m sure Peoria and Duluth do too. Isn’t that odd?