As guitarist, IMO, emo is just cleaned down punk, modernized into a form of contemporary pop rock music. Power chords, pa mute-mute, pa pause-pause, to make the bagsakan dynamic and interesting. Sa gitara yun.
Un lyrics, any form of rock music has "emotional" lyrics. Please dont equate the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and other earlier artists/bands to these new acts, they are ROCK.
Ok naman ang Emo, music pa rin, cool sa mga kids, uso e. May ilang acts na ok at nag sh-shine, but im afraid the many copycats kinda cheapens the art of the genre. Personally, ok sa tenga ko ang dashboard and paramore. Locally, typecast has the coolest guitar riffs around.