“Emo” as practiced/defined is “Emotional” IE anything these wastes of life that can come up with to make them sadder, more distraught/suicidal etc is good. The further down the spiral they can get, the ‘happier’ (paradoxically) they are.
It came from a bastardized form of “Goth”. But where Goths generally just keep their cliques and don’t bother anyone, Emos have to drag you down with them. They are mostly bisexual (a ‘plus’ in their world) and if one isn’t, then they are not ‘Emo” enough and ridiculed, which (again paradoxically) they like.
Think of the ultimate masochist in the mental and sexual sense and you have ‘Emo’ in a nutshell...and that shell is nothing BUT nuts.
Why? With all the ritilan and antipsycotics given out like candy for the last 20 years, need one ask? Add in ‘modern hip’ single parent homes and no control over the kids and there you go.
And LOTS of peer pressure.
The several kids that I knew when they were in elementary school (and became Emo in high school) did come from divorced families. The parents also didn’t have a lot of control. I guess they felt that this was a “stage” of “discovering your identity”. One exception: Mom and Dad pulled her from the school and put her in an all girls, Catholic high school. They also enrolled her in softball. She is a happy, well adjusted 19 year old today.
"Hurt me," said the masochist.
"No," smiled the sadist.
Your experience with emo sounds more suburban Edvard Munch than what I have seen out here in amishland...they come across more pythonesque here such as the teen girl in the movie Local Hero.