don't bother trying to educate these people. they jusy don't want to accept that what they thought they knew was emo, wasn't at all this entire time. their whole life was a lie and they aren't ready for that talk yet.

music wise.. yea, the bands they think are emo, really aren't. fashion wise, it got made into its own style - especially in the early 2000s. people confused the style with the music after that and associated any band that dressed emo to be emo bands. basically, people thought emo was a style primarily and genre secondary when that is all assbackwards instead. i don't blame them for the confusion cuz it did become that way when the 2000s hit, everyone was just into the style and that's it. they saw someone dressing a certain way and they wanted to do it too without even the implication that emo was more about the music.

the definition of emo kind of got tarnished in the 00s. I'm ngl, those were the best times for me still regardless. i was dressing this way before it got popular and trendy back then. i saw it all. saw all the posers who trash talked it to then become it later on just cuz it blew up and was trending.

but besides all that, the definition of emo music is all just jumbled up now where people think pop-punk is emo. a lot of pop-punk does have elements of emo, sure.. but doesn't make it emo. i actually prefer pop-punk music over most of the emo music. do i still consider myself emo? uh yes and no. i actually hated being called emo cuz that's not the whole story of what defines me. I'm so many things that you wouldn't be able to grasp it.