Many of these D.C. hardcore bands turned toward emo in response to the over-masculinization of hardcore music. Eventually, emo allowed some bands to be wildly experimental in their song writing and intricate, sometimes even delicate, guitar-work became a part of the emo sound. As the movement spread outside D.C., many hardcore and punk scenes adopted the aesthetic and emotional focus of emo. In San Diego, bands like Drive Like Jehu, Heroin and the Swing Kids developed their own, more aggressive strain of emo, dubbed "screamo." However all emo had one thing in common: a guttural, driven approach to self-expression.

By the late '90s, mainstream media began to tout emo, but the vital years of the movement had passed. Many emo bands continued playing, but abandoned emo's trademark sound. Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids and The Promise Ring all got attention from the press, but produced music less like emo and more like pop punk, soft rock and indie pop, respectively. Regardless of their stylistic metamorphoses, however, the label "emo" was stuck on each band. As new groups sounding like these groups were born, they too became labeled emo -- regardless of the fact that their music was far removed from the origins of the term.

These days, the term emo is used to describe any band playing guitar-based music that is emotional either in approach, lyrical focus or affect. 2003 brought the diary-like hit Dashboard Confessional and since then, indie-rock cross-overs Bright Eyes and Death Cab For Cutie have become successful pop acts while maintaining -- if erroneously -- the label emo. In addition, more emotional pop punk bands like Brand New, Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday and Thursday are all ascribed the label regardless of whether they claim it for themselves. Today, "emo" can describe almost anything emotional. Even this profile. Sniffle.