Emo: The battle rages on
It’s nothing new that Emo is a term used to disparage a type of punk-based music that you don’t care for, usually because it’s made by whiners or pussies or poseurs or whatever you want to say. And that it’s often brandished in the face of music that doesn’t bear any similarity to emo at all. But perhaps recent years are the first time that the emo proponents seem as ignorant of the kind of music they want to defend as the people attacking. What I mean: kids who love “emo” don’t necessarily love Emo these days.
But it’s also nothing new that any facet of music – especially a facet of punk – will be vehemently defended by those with some actual knowledge behind them. Hence this here website that attempts to explain what emo “is.” Just passing a link along, here, people, so don’t post your bile in my comments unless you’re willing to have a conversation.
Yes, it’s pretty well-researched and nicely thought out, but you’ll notice this guy seems to exhibit a music nerd’s tendency to over-classify, while at the same time seemingly applying his own categorization system to all these “sub-classes” of emo.
I could simplify his timeline pretty easily:
- The genre started out when music press started applying the term to Dischord’s “Emotional Hardcore” bands who came up during the Revolution Summer era like Embrace or Rites of Spring.
- It splintered, as most musical movements do. Some stayed in the same vein, some got angrier (Antioch Arrow), some got more melodic with standard indie rock influence (Sunny Day Real Estate and the blueprint they provided for a million followers and a billion copycats), and a few took the basic sound and expanded it with mod soul (The Nation of Ulysses) or drew it out into a zen mantra (the mighty Lungfish).
And now, there is a new breed of bands who will be called “emo” whether the guy behind this website likes it or not. They are popular, have a commercial sound, and are rooted more in the pop-punk of the 90s than the emo of any of the previous two decades. Just as history is written by the winners, music history will be written by the music press, and these bands (and some of their spiritual cousins playing metalcore) will be labeled as “emo.” Pretty sure it’s time to get over it.
Am I right? Does it matter? Shouldn’t we just listen to the music we love? Or should those who love a form of music defend its integrity against ignorance surrounding modern pop-punk bands like My Chemical Romance or whoever, as this guy seems to think? And what happens, after all, when we impose such strict limits on what we love?
- Mike
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:45 pm
If you want to get technical, the emo influence has been around since the begining of the beatles. Mop-tops, refusing to dance and romantic songs. But like you said, no one should really go into detail of it. All I’m saying is that this new ‘image’ is a modern adaptation of something completley different, As well as the music.
Think about it, “Crying, hoping, waiting”, “I wanna hold your hand”… they didn’t quite get it, but that sounds pretty damn emotional to me.
July 27th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Sure. I suppose that sums up what I’m trying to say about inventing your own arbitrary types and sub-types: It never ends. I suppose you could go further and say the blues is emo too. And really, some jerkoff journalist in the 80s invented the term anyway, and who cares what they have to say?
September 8th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
The thing about genre tags is everybody feels it should be define by their own personal interpretation. Oddly enough few people ever ask: who coined the phrase and what were they thinking? So you end up with a bunch of kids defining genres and relating different bands together by the wrong queues. It’s the same for any underground genre that receives media attention. Be it Industrial, Post-Rock, or Mash-Up (which is apparently any DJ mixing where you recognize the samples now).
September 25th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Andrew, you nailed my feelings on one of my favorite genres, Industrial (or “Industrial Music for Industrial People,” as TG called it). Bands making rock music with guitars and such are hardly anywhere near Gristle’s aesthetic – in fact TG hoped to destroy that rockist attitude – but since the Wax Trax era they are called Industrial. And now I suppose that’s happening to Emo.
However: Some people are of a mind that genres’ names and meanings should be allowed to mutate since, after all, music doesn’t really stay the same. Not sure how I feel about that, which is why I usually end up saying “labels are dumb” or some such noncommittal sour-grape-ism and dumping the whole discussion.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Personally, my beef isn’t with emo this vs. emo that, so much as it’s my absolute hatred for these screamo bands. I don’t see the appeal of these bands, unless one is really into the idea that a poor imitation of a monkey being savagely beaten counts as a “lyrical style”.
Then again, I sound like a crotchety old man when I say that, and what do I really know in this case, as I not only take pride in bending the definitions of “punk” on a regular basis, I also happened to really dig the Wax Trax guitar-based industrial stuff?
November 28th, 2007 at 12:07 am
This is probably the most intellectual essay on emo I’ve seen for a while. I don’t necessarily agree with everything you say, but it’s nice to see someone propose a well-composed and, more importantly, original view on the whole problem.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
by the way Gerard Way isnt bloody EMO so get a grip and stop calling him that! he hates the term EMO and what it has become so leave him alone you sick people with no feelings!!!!!!!! who cares if some1 is emo or not its up 2 them! my chemical romance has helped me through so much! if it wasnt for them i would be dead! you can call me EMO i dont care i love that band so back off them and emo’s coz they rock!
January 26th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
“powerchord,” that’s probably the most well-written piece of spam I’ve seen in a long time. But it makes me laugh so I left it and just took your link away.
Gee-aholic, I would respond to you but you’re obviously 8 and you didn’t read my blog post.
That said… I’m real glad that MCR stopped you from dying, I’d like to hear the story. Did they come to your burning house and pull you out of the flames? If so, my hat’s off to them.
At any rate, it doesn’t matter whether I call you emo, the point of my post was…
what the fuck am I arguing this for anyway? might as well be yelling at a tree. You didn’t read the post, you probably won’t read this comment, and you may never go buy that Rites of Spring album that helped a bunch of people “through so much” quite a few years ago.
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
does it really matter? i like everything from falloutboy to meshuggah, lol.i was a ‘geek’ and i hated it, so i adopted the whole ‘emo’ style. why do so many people have such a problem with the whole emo scene? without the influence of this music, i would not be half the person i am today, and as much as i hate the abuse i get fom some idiots, the whole ‘emo’ thing has raised my confidence within myself tons! gee-aholic, i agree with you, personally i think MCR are brilliant, but the only thing i would catagorise them as is MCR, lol.
peace out, love your fellow neighbours, all that sh*t, etc…
=P
March 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
super to emo to moje życie
April 1st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
i think is gerard way becouse he say he is not emo so i think he is emo
bye
April 26th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
For a long time I have tried to find the true definition of emo. I have talked to so-called emos as well as people who have little clue to what an emo is. I’m not an emo myself, but I lovve the sound of their music. I have come to the conclusion that there are really two generations of emo. The first gen were the true “emotional” emos- people who harmed themselves, thought about death, etc etc etc. The second gen is what we mostly see today. These new wave emos have no interest in suicide or any of that crap. Most of the emos I know are thoughtful, intelligent, and above all, kind people. They just try to seperate themselves from the mainstream, which means rebeling against tradition, thus the wierd styles of dress and music. I guess you could call them latter-day hippies. So the term “emo” has pretty much shifted its position, just like political parties. In truth, there are no “emos” left, but the term still applies.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Actually, New Epoch, the first wave would have had nothing to do with cutting, suicide, etc. Regardless of the lyrical content which may have been on the down side, the bands and fans of the original were part of an overall very positive scene: DC hardcore’s “revolution summer” period. I just can’t see killing myself to Embrace, Rites of Spring, or any of those first-gen bands.