Emotional Rescue

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Adolescents can be divided into two categories: those who pretend to feel nothing and those who aspire to feel everything. The latter make up the emo demographic. Think Lisa Simpson: she values her individuality and brainpower while bemoaning the loneliness that goes along with being smart and artistic. As for emo's particular style, consider a pair of sample questions from an "Emo Purity Test" circulating on the Internet: Do you own a pair of horn-rimmed glasses? Do you buy T shirts at Goodwill that are too small for you?

--EMO IS SPECIFIC

When Howard Greenfield wrote the lyrics to Breaking Up Is Hard to Do in 1962--"Don't take your love away from me/ Don't you leave my heart in misery"--he was clearly in some pain. But listen to Neil Sedaka sing the song--the up-tempo chorus, the sugary vocals--and you would think Sedaka was falling in love, not getting booted out of it. As with all good pop music, the contrast between the delivery and the lyrics makes the song abstract and thus accessible to lots of listeners, including those not in the midst of a breakup.

Emo is the antipop. It shuns abstraction to drive home a single point: woe is me. Carrabba went through an agonizing breakup and put it down more or less unfiltered in his songbook. "Take a lyric like 'Ooh I love you and only you,'" says Carrabba, creating an example of what he sees as typical pop emptiness. "Yeah, it's a love song, but where does it touch you?"

Carrabba's songs don't just touch; they aim to throttle. Screaming Infidelities, Carrabba's breakout hit about breaking up, includes the lines "I'm cuddling close to blankets and sheets/ You're not alone, you're not discreet/ You make sure I know who's taking you home." His guitar is mournful, his voice strained. The song isn't about being cheated on; it's about Carrabba's being cheated on. An average listener can empathize only so much before tuning out. A fragile teen being broken up with for the first time will wear the repeat button down to a nub.

--EMO BANDS HAVE FUNNY NAMES

Most emo band names blend irony and sincerity as if they were the same thing (which, in the current adolescent idiom, they are): Sunny Day Real Estate, This Beautiful Mess, Dead Red Sea, the Get Up Kids, Saves the Day, Boys Life, Jenny Piccolo, Living War Room.

--EMO IS INDEPENDENT (FOR NOW)

True to its punk roots, emo has a self-sufficient community that functions outside the mainstream. While dozens of emo bands have signed with major labels, the great majority remain on independents like Deep Elm and Jade Tree. These labels put out CDs and compilations like The Emo Diaries on the cheap, and they don't have major record-store distribution. Kids buy albums directly from the label websites, then huddle online at diaryland.com makeoutclub.com and the emo postpunk Web ring to bare their souls and trade reviews.

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