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To be blunt the only real differences i notice between them without stereotyping because i dont believe in it are Goth is darkest, Punk is differnent kind of dark and emo is really light music. I speak of the main genres and yes i consider Goth its own main genre despite its roots in Punk. Also the average person that listens to each is different although i wont specifically generalize people that listen to any paticular genre so look elsewhere.

Yes, these subcultures are different, both in style and in music.

We'll start off with

punk

Oh, look, a random picture of a punk

Surfaced in the 70's, stood for anarchy, distopia, disillusionment, antidisestabishmentarinism.......ok, decide on the last for yourselves, and some didn't really actually stand for anything per se.... In short the 70's teenager's way of rebelling. Shave part of your hair off, dye it an unatural colour, make it into a mohawk, listen to some (not too well made) music, eg Sex Pistols, Ramones (both excellent examples of the 3-chord punk band by the way), wear lots of demin, chains and peircings, say ******** a lot, have a fascination with safety pins, et voila a punk you have now made

goth

Oh, look, it's a goth with static hair. No wait, it's back combed

Punks that decided they liked black a lot. Developed a brooding, calmer, darker, less agressive form of music (not necisserily in that order, I have the slight problem of not being born before the 80's, this surfaced in the late 70's). These crazy kids backcombed their hair, dyed it black, wore mostly black, said boo alot. (ok, that's tongue in cheek). This species can usually be seen wearing velvet, silk, other high quality fabrics. Mostly in black. Has a fascination with posing...(and no, I'm not dealing with the ten thousand different breeds of goth you can find lurking around)

emo

Oh, look, an emo boy with make-up, who'da thunk it?

Also spawned off of punk, the modern kid's way of rebelling in a dark alternative manner. Emo is short for emotive, no swearing with emotional allowed. Music characterised by whining nowadays, but emo music can be about anything, not just about how much your life sucks, you can have happy emo songs, it's just that the majority of well known emo bands wallow in self pity. The whole point of emo in it's purest form is to express feeling deeply, be it hatred, depression, love, happiness. Usual modern emo wears tight black drain pipe trousers, striped top, gallons of hair gel, dyed black hair. Has been known to pose a lot. Too.

Emo has turned into an insult because it's the most recent scene, just as numetal got a load of crap, and grunge, and just about any other new type of music when it first emerged. Give it a couple years, the backlash will move onto the next newest scene, and emo will either have died a death like so many other alternative music scenes or soldier on like so fewer music scenes.

That is such a great post it deserves to be put as an article in some kind of underground newspaper thing....that should be given to every goth or punk or emo that has ever dissed another for anything about being punk, emo, or goth.

I've actually put this post into another thread, so if you'd like to go into an extended discussion on this issue please follow this link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=6657039