Emo is a broad title that covers a lot of different styles of emotionally charged punk rock and unfortunately most people have a horribly limited idea of what emo is, simply because the most important records in the development of emo were largely released in small numbers, and with limited distribution. These were however very influential, and still the their effects could be seen today. There are a lot of kids that listen to third- and fourth-generation emo styles without even knowing it.

The mass of "emo" bands could be split into a few distinct genres. Let us explode the different phase of "emo" bands.

1. Phase one- ?emocore? style started in 1984/85 and goes strong, over the years. In the beginning, these bands consisted mostly of people who played in hardcore punk bands, got exhausted in its limited forms, and switch off to a guitar-oriented, midtempo rock-based sound with emotional punk vocals.

2. Phase two ??emo? style started in 1987/88. One of the most recognizable and universal elements of emo shows up in the guitar sound of this style: the octave chord, which allows a high-pitched, driving urgency and a very rich texture. The vocal style is usually much more intense than emocore, ranging from normal singing in the quiet parts to a kind of pleading howl to actual sobbing and crying. Lyrics inclined toward somewhat abstract poetry, and are usually low in the mix and hard to trace.

3. Phase three: ?hardcore emo? started in San Diego in 1991 with Heroin was similar to punk - faster, louder, harder, much more intense and single-minded. Most of these bands played extremely fast, and introduce the "chaos" concept to hardcore. The guitars are distorted to the point that notes and chords are hard to recognize.

4. Phase four: ?post-emo indie rock? and ?post-emo post-hardcore? musically inclines toward a lot of loud/soft interaction, but a lot of softly-sung vocals and very little screaming or harshness.

5. Phase five: ?post-emo hardcore?-were the new emo bands using ultra-heavy, ultra-fast wall-of-noise attack blending elements of grind core and Neurosis-style apocalyptic chaos with bleeding-vocal-chords screaming.

The vocal intensity of emo has also been very influential on non-emo styles, as well. However presently it has been found that some bands have amalgamated some diverse emo influences giving it a new style. ?Screamo? is that fruit of amalgamation that is being played by few new bands often used by younger fans.