Akademik

(EE-moh)

n.

A music genre that features a heavy, guitar-based sound and melodic, emotional tunes. — emo adj.

Jimmy Eat World makes "emo" rock, one of those know-it-when-you-hear-it genres that seems as much an attitude as a type of music. "Emo" bands, which have done plenty of late to push amplified guitars back up the charts, tend to keep it simple instrument-wise, and they produce a grunge-inspired racket with a careful sense of verse-chorus songcraft. . . . Along with the geek-rockers of Weezer, Jimmy Eat World is probably the most popular emo band out there, with a couple of bona fide radio hits and a few critically acclaimed albums to its nonsensical name.

— David Segal. "Jimmy Eat World: Love And Angst Over Easy," The Washington Post, June 7, 2002

The opening Samiam semi-scored with a mostly grinding, intermittently soaring set, with singer Jason Beckout mixing rage and introspection and the band straddling the punk/metal line. "You can't exactly call it punk rock," said drummer Victor Indirizzo, after the set. "But it's in that vein. Some people call it 'melody-core' or 'emo-core,' for emotion."

— Jim Sullivan, "Bad Religion stays too faithful to itself," The Boston Globe, November 17, 1994

Here's the earliest use I could find for the shortened emo form:

This three piece does the loud, melodic emo (short for "emotional") punk thing kids seem to dig so much these days, accented by sudden speed shifts.

— "1997 New Times Music Awards Showcase," Phoenix New Times, April 17, 1997

Today's word seems to have begun its linguistic life as the phrase emo-core, which is short for emotional hardcore.