What was the Velvet Underground then? Or Joy Division? Or Patti Smith?
Joy Division definately was emo in it's time... I never listed to the other two.. can't say...
Did manage to go to a Cure concert in it's day and the dress and style were quite simular to today's emo dress. LOL, being a country hick, I was probable the only upbeat dressed person in that crowd... I stood out like a sore thumb... but they didn't bother me. I never understood the dress the part culture of emo's... but I did enjoy some of the music.
Other groups I remember off hand from the 80's that could be classified as emo today...
Clan of Xymox
Cocteau Twins
The Smiths (Meat is Murder)
Wolfsheim