Many people on this forum make consistent jabs at 'emo', unknowingly misusing the term and annoying an entire legion of people who actually like proper 'emo'.
Here's what emo actually is:
1. Emotional, heartfelt lyrics and vocal delivery - not just the emotion of anger, but other positive feelings. It runs the whole gauntlet. Often ends up sounding a tad silly to the uneducated listener. Sonic Youth: non-emo. At the Drive-In: emo.
2. Typically free from the 'rockstar' image constraints of earlier eras. Axl Rose bagging gays and being macho: non-emo. Kurt Cobain playing pro-life benefits and being sensitive: emo. (not that he played emo; I'm just using him to juxtapose Axl Rose)
3. Usually simple, poppy, catchy, yet with an edge to it that seperates it from pop. Usually a step up from pop in terms of complexity, or ideas. A typical emo album will have several distinct kinds of songs or genres on it - from a punk thrash to a gentle acoustic ballad. Dream Theatre: non-emo. Husker Du: emo.
4. Most genres have a sort of emo subgenre. For example, the Deftones are sort of 'emo metal' (but are called screamo, if you're a friggen music nerd who needs to classify every band into its own genre).
Some genius (probably a Dream Theatre fan) caught on to the emo part, thought that emotions and feelings were girly and stupid, and decided to label Good Charlotte as emo. It snowballed from there, to the point that people who actually understood what emo was had to recreate their own genre as 'emocore' - emo that is more hardcore than Simple Plan.
I think it's time people started showing respect towards emo. Too often have I seen someone leap into a 'Worst ...' topic and list 'uh emo is bad and horrible it wants to make me puke!' To me that's just like saying 'metal sucks!' (you'll notice I tread this line finely) or 'electronica blows! btw I haven't heard any'.
Now, if you want to edify yoself about emocore (yes, I have to use that bastardized name because of you wrongful classifiers, you), listen to these:
Husker Du: 'Zen Arcade' (album)
At the Drive-In: 'Relationship of Command' (a single song from it, Pattern Against User, is a good example of proper emo)
The Mars Volta: 'Intertiatic ESP' (it's one song from Deloused in the Comatorium, and the album is more progressive emo, but this is a good example of emo, by ATDI's lead singers new band)
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of The Dead: 'Source Tags and Codes' (it's an album: think 'Evol' by Sonic Youth, except without's Thurston's numb vocals)
I invite discussion/bagging of Simple Plan and Good Charlotte.
But, emo is so much fun to make fun of...Do I really have to give up my scapegoat?
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/metalvox/confused.gif[/IMG]
http://www.somethingdirectory.com/main_emo.htm
i laughed my *** off at that. it's pretty big (171 mb), but well worth the download. the best part in terms of the bands they named was that they didn't mention fugazi. i hate it when people call fugazi "emo".
Inertiatic ESP is emo? OH NOES!!1!
I think The Mars Volta are fantastic anyway, so I've got nothing to complain about. I'm currently getting Relationship of Command, too.
Axl Rose sings emo. kthx
I'll continue to insult it all I want, and I won't be questioned, because MY SISTER IS EMO. Besides, TSC, you aren't the most qualified to be talking about music in the first place. Calling Mars Volta and the Deftones is like calling Danzig or the New York Dolls punk rock - sure, they had a hand in the movement or vaguely resemble the style, or whatever, but they sure as hell aren't emo or any derivative of emo. Please, quit nitpicking. You remind me of an emo version of those metal clowns who argue about whether or not Cannibal Corpse, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, In Flames, etc. "sold out" after every single album they release, and if you could really call Slipknot "metal", or those punk rock nutjobs who whine that Rancid sold out because of The Transplants, or claim that the Misfits were the greatest punk band ever and Danzig is God reincarnated, or that Sid Vicious is innocent of killing Nancy whoever and should be made out to be the savior of the world.
The Mars Volta reminds me of Led Zeppelin on acid. The Deftones are like nu-metal for stoners.
I'll teabag emo until the day I die
i don't think i'd consider husker du "emo", but whatever.
and i actually like "relationship of command".
Why isn't Bright Eyes up there? I use them as a musical scapegoat all the time.
I don't like Emo. I never have. Just my musical tastes. I never hate anything that I don't normally listen to unless it has crappy lyrics. Hating any genre of music with decent lyrics and showing it in front of everyone is silly. Just go listen to what you like and forget.
Well, i really hate emo. To me, it just sounds like a bunch of whiny 17 year olds wailing on a microphone about how their girlfreind dumped them or about how they slit their wrists.Also, to me, all emo sounds the same... But thats just my opinion. I don't mean to impose that on anyone.
A.A. Wins the thread. proceed to close it at once.
Wow, I never realized so many people here dislike Bright Eyes. I think they're listed as some sort of Indie/Emo combination, whatever, it's still (for me) inaccessible crap that I could never, ever get into. Anyway, I dated a girl for about a year and as a result became friends with her friends, all of which listened to stuff like Bright Eyes (they practically worshipped Connor), Something Corporate, etc. I refuse to 'bag' an entire genre, but if I hear a band, dislike them, and am still exposed to them for long periods of time... I won't have the most positive of outlooks going into anything similar to that group. Call me biased or close-minded, I don't care, it's something that Ik and most people for that matter, have a tendency to do.
What TSC means is that when you bag Simple Plan-ish emo bands, you also bag perfectly decent bands like The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In that are also emo, but just not often interpreted as such. He's in no way supporting blink-182-ish bands, which is something that needs to be understood.
It's kinda funny that the term 'emo' has found its way into the Hip Hop community, known as "emo hop". Popular acts like Atmosphere, Sage Francis, and basically every rapper in the Anticon camp is considered emo. Actually, if you're a white MC then it's used even more often, that is unless you're Eminem/Cage/Necro/Non-Phixion/Beastie Boys/El-P etc; etc;. I'll agree that there are a few rappers out there who might fit the description, but it's just used so loosely that its lost much of its meaning. I don't bag on emo hop or whatever if it's done well. Hell, LL Cool J and Slick Rick have things that technically qualify as "emo" these days. It's just a retarded sub genre these new rap fans want to say for the sake of talking. Gangsta Rap/Old Skool/Underground/TripHop/Mainstream; Hip Hop doesn't need any more sub genres.
I don't think any of us needed a thread to tell us that homophobia isn't emo.
I'll diss real emo and the music that people call emo then, as I like neither.
Isn't emo that giant australian bird?
EDIT:
OH, THAT'S EMU. OKAY. I GET IT.
Emo sucks. Get over people bashing it.
Everyone else here has gotten over you saying the like about metal and prog. :p
worthy bump, because emo still sucks
Emo as TSC defines it is different to emo as most others define it. One is a hell of a lot worse than the other. Differentiate pze
Also, bumpers of three-month-old threads should be pwned.
the only emo bands that aren't total **** are coheed and cambria and rufio, and that's only because they sound badass and the whinieness is covered up by loud guitars (plus coheed sounds like Rush)
Defend metalcore. JUST TRY.
The guitars are fun and the live shows can be enteraining...
There's a difference between the real definition of Emo (which I already knew, so this topic doesn't apply to me) and what most people call Emo. Most people think whiney, complainy lyrics mixed with radio time = Emo around where I live, and I hate both that music and the real Emo.
coheed sucks complete ***. i've been raining hate upon them since 1999, when they were called "shabutie" (before their name change) and were opening shows for my friend's band (who also sucked) in synagogues in kingston, ny.
the fact that you know obscure facts about Coheed doesn't make your opinion about them sucking any more valid
Coheed sucks pretty bad from what I heard.
That wasn't hard.
Hey guys, you know what kind of music sucks?
Emo, yeah, didn't see that coming did you?
i don't think emo sucks.
I remember when "emo" was a jokey term used ironically by hipster types... "Oh that's so emo" and so forth. I still haven't worked out when people decided it was an actual serious term for a genre of music.
Also, Mozart was totally emo... have you heard his Requiem? Guy must've cried himself to sleep every night.
Waaah people don't like emo waaaah.
It's emo to whine incessently about how people don't like emo. And by emo, I mean "incredibly fucking annoying."