Last night, I was flipping through channels and I caught part of that not-so-awesome UPN show "Girlfriends." In the episode, one of the main characters was auditioning to be the singer of some rock band and described her vocal style as "emo." She then went on to give some outrageous vocal performance that mirrored Cat Power.
Now the concept and usage of "emo" in the English vernacular is about as overused as the word "the," but it's still really weird to hear it used, especially on primetime television and on a show that has nothing to do with the pop-punk/indie rock subculture. Hearing the word used in that context was uncomfortable, not in that "giving a speech" sort of way, but in that "getting a colonic" sort of way.
I'm assuming now that "emo" has hit a low-tier network like UPN, we can expect it popping up in Time, Redbook, and the mother of all out-of-touch publications, Rolling Stone.
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