Emo: a definition

lastxlight

lastxlight

Active member
There is no hardcore cult, so this is the best place

I'm sick of people asking what im into and saying, Indie, Ska, some punk, and emocore, and a little bit of metal.

Then they think i like dashboard.

Real emo started in 84 and is rooted from bands like television, husker du, mission of burma, and other punk and hardcore bands. Just a few bands in DC grew sick of the violence and repetiveness of their scene, and sang about their personal anguish, rather than social anguish. Emocore means emotive hardcore, if you arent hardcore, you cant be emo.

And people are not emo, as people are not genres of music

Boysetsfire, Malady, Pg. 99(grindcore but from emo scene with emo lyric style), Circle Takes The Square, Love Lost But Not Forgotten, Pygmy Lush, The birds are spys they report to the trees, A day in black and white(Their split 7inches and my heroes have always killed cowboys only), Planes mistaken for stars(fuck with fire cd), A petal Fallen, After school knife fight, On the might of princes(post-hardcore with emo roots), Antioch Arrow(brilliant hardcore), RITES OF SPRING AND EMBRACE(ian mackaye, NOT the indie band: THESE BANDS STARTED THE GENRE) INDIAN SUMMER, MOSS ICON, Gospel, La quite(italian), The Apoplexy twist orchestra, 1.6 band(converge mentions this band at shows alot), ENVY(japan), Nervous light of Sunday (japan), 1000 travels of jawaharlal(japan), An Albatross, Assfactor 4, Black Castle, Cowboys Become Folk Heroes, Saetia, Die Emperor DIE!, Four Hundered Years, The Hated, Yaphet Kotto.

These bands encompass aa wide variety of style and sound, From softer more melodic to thrashy grindcore. If you listen to ANY one of these bands, you will hoipefully find some music that is long in history, and incredibly passionate in its fan base.

BANDS THAT ARE NOT EMO: Underoath, Taking Back Sunday, Alexisonfire, Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold, Sunny Day Real estate, etc

This is nota shot at those bands either, I have seen alexisonfire 4 times, TBS 3, and LOVE sunny day real estate.

But they are not emo

 
of course those bands are not emo, they are more like rock if anything.. i consider emo like Hawthorne Heights and Armor for sleep.
 
haha check this out...

‘Emo’ is a term now broadly used to describe almost any form of guitar-driven alternative rock that expresses emotions beyond traditional punk's limited emotional palette of alienation and rage. It not only defines a musical genre, but represents a way of life, much like the term ‘Punk’. The term ‘Emo’ originated in the mid-1980’s punk scene of Washington D.C to classify such bands of the post-punk era as Rites Of Spring, Fugazi, Moss Icon and Antioch Arrow. The term addressed both the way these bands connected with their audiences, as well as their tendency to deal more with topics of personal and relationship politics than with the standard themes of rock music.

The roots of emo can be traced back to two bands of the post-punk era – Mission Of Burma and Husker Du. Mission Of Burma’s 1983 release VS did much to expand rock beyond its original constraints while still retaining its emotional punch. Husker Du’s 1984 release Zen Arcade is considered to have defined the blueprint of emo – simple, raw guitar-orientated music with intense vocals and deeply introspective songwriting.

As this new style gained popularity, bands such as Moss Icon, Policy Of Three, Navio Forge and Indian Summer began to fuse traditional hardcore punk with emo stylings and techniques. The result of this fusion was a form of emo far more intense than its predecessor, resulting in a powerful emotional release that often left emo bands and their audiences crying or screaming at the end of performances.

However, several hardcore punk fans were often uncomfortable with such powerful emotional releases during performances, resulting in a split between what were considered true hardcore fanatics and those who affiliated themselves with emo. During this period, the term ‘emo’ was used in a derogatory manner by true hardcore fanatics and lost all reference to a musical style now considered socially unacceptable.

With the mass-market acceptance of alternative music during the early 1990’s, emo no longer differentiated from what was now considered the norm. Like other alternative genres that were now considered mainstream, emo developed even further from its origins. This development into what was labeled ‘chaotic emo’ was frontlined by such bands as Rites Of Spring and Antioch Arrow. These bands mixed chaotic rock music with abrasive, emotional screaming vocals, resulting in emo taking rock to the next level of emotional intensity and power.

Several subgenres of emo developed throughout the early 1990’s in response to its mainstream success, including emo violence, screamo and hardcore emo (‘emocore’). Emo Violence uses often very chaotic screamed vocals (usually relatively high pitched and less modified than typical hardcore or death metal vocals) and is also often recorded in low fidelity which gives it a foggier sound.

Emo Violence is often mistook for an extreme form of metal known as grindcore, due to the utilization of very chaotic off timed guitars, however the drums are much lighter, with less speed (no use of drumming machines) and significantly less usage of the bass drum, however double/triple pedals are still within the limits of emo violence. Also, emo violence is much more emotionally influenced than grindcore with occasional melodic sections sometimes including talking or even singing.

A very closely related, yet different style to emo violence is screamo, however these two subgenres often intertwine and borrow ideas and concepts from each other. Screamo has been the victim of extensive mainstream bastardization by such bands as Underoath, Hawthorne Heights and to a lesser extent, Taking Back Sunday.

Screamo bands play a thrashy brand of emo; often featuring harmonizing guitar riffing and anguished vocal screams. Because of its sheer speed and brutality, screamo bands often border on grindcore. Many screamo bands often play a slower melodic breakdown in songs. Lyrically, screamo topics are often introspective, although it is not uncommon to see a screamo band with political lyrics. An average screamo song uses imagery and metaphors to speak of lost love or failed friendships.

Hardcore emo primarily existed in the early 1990’s, however nowadays this subgenre of emo is rarely presented in its pure and intended form. The San Diego based record company Gravity Records fathered this particular subgenre, as well as others described above. Hardcore emo is often referred to as emocore, however bands that consider themselves emocore today differentiate significantly from the true hardcore emo sound that existed throughout the early 1990’s.

Later in the 1990’s, bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Elliott, Christie Front Drive, Get Up Kids, Cap'n Jazz, The Promise Ring and Mineral explored a more moderately paced form of emo that mixed the early emo sound of Rites of Spring with the post-hardcore innovation of Fugazi and Quicksand. The musical genre that best describes Sunny Day Real Estate, The Get-Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World, as well as Elliot and Christie Front Drive is ‘Post Emo’.

Although the chaotic emo subgenres were considered dead by the mid 1990’s, a ‘screamo revival’ is said to have taken place, with French Canadian bands Union Of Uranus and One Eyed God Prophecy ensuring that the chaotic emo subgenres never died. These two bands heavily influenced several bands of the late 1990’s/early 2000’s, including From First To Last, AFI, Funeral For A Friend, Alexisonfire, No Use For A Name and Thrice.

Nowadays, the term emo is incorrectly used to define the style of several alternative bands including Senses Fail, Hawthorne Heights, My Chemical Romance and The Used. Like many terms defining genres of popular/alternative music, the bands that are labeled emo are in constant dispute, since each band in existence undeniably has its own unique style and technique. However, several characteristics of alternative music today are undoubtedly emo, including introspective songwriting, powerful guitar riffs and emotionally driven vocals.

The conflicts between punk/hardcore and emo fans still exist today, with emo music often being considered homosexual by today’s younger generations due to its emotional content. Also, the term ‘emo’ has not lost its sting, with several people continuing to use the term in a derogatory manner to describe those who are more in-tune with their feelings than most.

Now if that doesn't provide clarification, then nothing will
 
"Emo", "Emo Violence", "Grindcore", "Screamo"????

Are you fucking kidding me???

Why don't you people stop worrying about how to label your "music" and just listen to it?! For fuck's sake! Stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of your music and just do your own thing...
 
oh i was referring to when he said:

BANDS THAT ARE NOT EMO: Underoath, Taking Back Sunday, Alexisonfire, Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold, Sunny Day Real estate, etc

idk, AFS is pretty emo, not saying its super harcore, but deffinately emo.
 
That is so fucking wrong

Rites of Spring was 1984 and before embrace

what the fuck

post emo is not emo, it is indie rock.

Also there is no such thing as screamo
 
go cut yourself in the shower fucking emo. People make fun of emos cause they are feminine, whiney assholes who can't cope with their problems. grow up.
 
You obviously didnt read any of this. Plus the guys in pygmy lush could rip your eyes out.

I don't cut myself, also the only people i know who cut themselves are not into emo. In fact some are into gangster rap!

I love how 2 years ago self injury wasnt THAT common and people actually got concernered when their friends do it.
 
pygmy lush?

hahaha ahh u emos make me laugh

he has a point by the way

not the cutting but the feminism (ei tight pants) and the whining

get over it dark wolf (nice name, hahahaha)
 
I wear baggy pants, dumbass

and my name has been my name for everything online since i was 11, and was from an inside joke in my nerdy days, it was a vague reference to a movie.
 
Cause no rappers ever had problems, no rockers ever did. No military generals have ever cried, no one has had issues.

You fucking twerp. Name some music you listen to, and I will find something.
 
Apparently there is no such thing as screamo anymore according to darkwolf.

I didn't know that we possessed the power to just completely remove a genre of music from the music world.

I guess I'll take away country since I don't really like it..

There's no such thing as country!
 
haha, i dont think he was being sarcastic. thats called bein called out, dont whine or youll just be a whiny lil bitch all your life.
 
No there isn't. From Rites of Spring, Embrace, and onward, have all contained screaming, that is an element of the genre.

Screamo is merely a name tacked on by kids to label pop-punk and metallic-hardcore bands that had people who scream in them.
 
i think you need to face the fact that people are going to call TBS, Dashboard, and so on, emo. you also need to face the fact that people are going to consider that a negitive.
 
Why would I let such a signifigant part of my life, and something that is so important to me be misconstrued. That is like saying because you are Islamic, you ahve to have to accept being viewed as hateful. Why wouldn't i want more people to know about something i find so powerful and beautiful in it's own way.
 
u also need to recognize that a lot of kids are and will always hate the emo image

u wont change anything in this thread

so get over it
 
Hate that image if you want, I'm trying to say that the image you are referring to is NOT emo, but is fashion punk
 
At no point in your senseless rambling did you reach anything that could be constrewed as a correct answer. Everyone in this room is now dumber having heard it. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul
 
Listen to the bands on the list to hear what emo sounds like, that was the point, or were you too dumb to get that?
 
there is an "emo" in my class who got a snakebite, has "emo" hair and buys girls jeans and t&a hoodies, he is such a fag but he is a friend, so i dont know what to think.
 
this site is made worse by posts like this about emos. let the topic die. it wasnt even funny 5 months ago where it was everywhere
 
Sunny day didnt start emo, nor are they emo. Huge connections with the scene though

and props to you for having a fucking clue, unlike the barnacles on this board
 
kids who listen to EMO don't necessarily wear girl jeans

they most likely don't cut themselves

they are however, musically educated

FEMO is fake emo

this is what the rest of the ignorant world considers emo

this is bands like taking back sunday, brand new, alexisonfire and whatever else you kids call emo these days

screamo isn't a genre

also the word faggot or gay was not meant to be used as an insult and cutting is not something that should be seen as a joke or as an opportunity to ridicule someone.

done.
 
no it really isnt

like darkwolf said there is screaming in emo therefore there isnt a need to invent a new genre in which pop-punk with screaming is considered a subgenre of emo
 
Signifigant point: Emo lyrics are often incredibly abstract, using alot of allusion and imagery, whereas femo is direct descriptions.

Emo often does not follow traditional song form, and is a free form explosion.

Pop rock/femo usually follows the standard

Intro

Verse

Chorus

Verse

Chorus

Bridge

Chorus
 
um are we ever gonna get over this shit? i mean honestly, girl pant=annoying, depressing lyrics=annoying, monotonous music style where all bands sound pretty much the same=annoying.

if your pissed of at the world, go listen to slayer or lamb of god or something. way better music.
 
To anyone who said screamo wasn't a genre, I'm sorry but it is, as much as emo is a genre because both are vague terms that everyone uses to define/sort a wide range of music into one stylistic mixing pot, since arguably all bands have their own genre, therefore these definitions should not be taken too seriously and everyones interpretation of a particular style will ultimately be different
 
You guys obviously didnit read this topic at all then

read mine, tjxdinoxsour, and go huck your selfs's statements

and lamb of god is fucking awful pop metal
 
If i listen to metal, i listen to something darker like Tribes of Nuerot, or something epic and fun like Stratovarius

not lamb of god
 
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