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If you're
confused about what Emo rock is, your not alone. Although it's immensely
popular, no one seems to know what it is! The following is a synopsis
of the genre called Emo....U Guys Suck!
*What Is It?
The short and simple answer
is that Emo is Hardcore Punk music with sensitive and emotional lyrics.
The music is epitomized by post-Grunge, edgy rock with explosive energy
mixed with sensitivity. Emotional lyrics about sadness, love and even
anger are common lyrical themes. There is also a subculture of young people
that are considered Emo. The casual Emo garb is faded blue jeans or slightly
oversized work pants accompanied by a secondhand T-shirt Distro with an
out of place logo, bad Heavy Metal tees work well too. Good shoes would
be Converse Chuck Taylor low-tops or old skool low-top Vans. The more
extreme clothes of choice would include horn-rimmed glasses, cardigan
sweaters, dorky polo shirts, pants that are a bit too short and hair that
is spiky or messy in the back with straight cut bangs.
*Where It Started?
Emo was born out of the
ashes of the Hardcore punk band Minor Threat. They were a Straight Edge
Punk band, meaning that they promoted clean living (no drugs, alcohol
or sex combined with antiestablishment politics). When Minor Threat broke
up in 1984, members formed other bands like Embrace, Rites Of Spring and
later Fugazi, which were the first Emo bands. They still played hardcore
punk music, but the lyrics were more expressive and emotional instead
of being focused on politics and disenchanted youth (like most punk).
Other early influences came from Husker Du and The Descendants and All.
*How It Progressed?
As time went on, bands
began toning down the Hardcore aspect of the music, making it much more
appealing to the average listener. Christie Front Drive infused pop sensibilities
like catchy melodies and hooks into the music and kept the Emo style lyrics.
This formula would prove to be very successful and influential. After
the hype of Grunge died down in the mid 90s, artists like Sunny Day Real
Estate burst from obscurity into the spotlight and became a blueprint
for the style. Weezer took it a step further and created a Pop-Punk /
Emo hybrid.
*Today...?
Emo is one of the most
widespread and hottest genres. Although it's moved far away from it's
Hardcore beginnings, it still has it's independent spirit intact. That
said, major record labels have taken notice and released albums by Jimmy
Eat World, At The Drive-In and Weezer just to name a few, and many more
are surely in the works. However, many newer bands are coming dangerously
close to losing credibility by taking the music too far into the Pop/Punk
realm of bands like Yellowcard, Story Of The Year,Taking Back Sunday,Save
The Day,Further Seem Forever, Dashboard Confessional and Your Bands?
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 on on vinyl, in small
numbers, and with limited distribution. These were however very influential,
so nowadays you have the situation that a lot of kids listen to third-
and fourth-generation emo styles without even knowing it. I hope to expose
such people to a wealth of great preceding music that's getting easier
to find all the time...
I'm going to split up the
mass of "emo" bands into a few distinct genres. Like any categorization
effort, there will be exceptions, crossovers, and tangential relations.
That's fine. The intent is only to lay out some general trends, general
notes on sounds, musical and lyrical themes, and how to listen for them.
Some notes on nomenclature.
There isn't a real consensus on what "emo" and "emocore"
are, or if they are even different. It's pretty clear these days what
you're talking about with terms like "punk," "postpunk,"
"no-wave," "hardcore punk," "old-school/new-school,"
etc (although the difference between "hardcore punk" and "hardcore"
is lost on a lot of people - "hardcore punk" is punk rock made
heavier, faster, louder; "hardcore" is what happened after the
hardcore punks realized they didn't have to sound like punk rock anymore
- still heavy, fast, loud, but with a different foundation.) I hope to
draw clear distinctions between my categories, assign them names, and
use them consistently. That's all that language is.
Phase one: "emocore." Rites of Spring, Embrace, Gray Matter,
Ignition, Dag Nasty, Monsula, Fugazi kind of, Fuel, Samiam, Jawbreaker,
Hot Water Music, Elliot, Friction, Soulside, early Lifetime, Split Lip/Chamberlain,
Kerosene 454.
Starts in DC in 1984/85
and goes strong, spreads to the SF Bay in 1989, then explodes all over
the Midwest, Florida, and Northeast shortly thereafter.
The "emocore"
style has become broader over the years. In the beginning, these bands
consisted mostly of people who played in hardcore punk bands, got burned
out its limited forms, and moved to a guitar-oriented, midtempo rock-based
sound with emotional punk vocals (i.e., no posed soulful crooning like
pop music). The central aspect here is the guitars - distorted, strummed
mostly in duo unison, with occasional catchy riff highlights. This becomes
known as the classic "D.C. sound," along with the octave chords
that show up in later "emo" music. Later bands bring in more
pop elements, like catchy-riff based songs, pop song structures (listen
to Jawbreaker's "Chesterfield King" to illustrate this), and
less-punk, more-smoothly-sung high-register singing (less yelling, straining,
throatiness). Listen to Elliot or Chamberlain for an example of how alternative-pop
this music has become. Yet those bands are undeniably still emocore. Also
note most emocore bands play Gibson Les Paul guitars, with a few SGs,
and use mostly Marshall JCM-800 amps.
Phase two: "emo."
Moss Icon, the Hated, Silver Bearings, Native Nod, Merel, Hoover, Current,
Indian Summer, Evergreen, Navio Forge, Still Life, Shotmaker, Policy of
Three, Clikatat Ikatowi, Maximillian Colby, Sleepytime Trio, Noneleftstanding,
Embassy, Ordination of Aaron, Floodgate, Four Hundred Years, Frail, Lincoln,
Julia, Shroomunion, some early Unwound, etc.
Started in the DC area
in 1987/88 with bands inspired by that area's post-hardcore acceptance
of new, diverse sounds within the punk scene. Moves onward to New Jersey
and California, then onward to Philly, Richmond VA, a bit in Canada, a
bit in Illinois, and not much else.
Musically there's a lot
dynamics between ultra-soft / whispered vocals / twinkly guitar bits and
full-bore crashing / twin Gibson SG guitar roaring / screaming vocals.
One of the most recognizable and universal elements of emo shows up in
the guitar sound of this style: the octave chord. Octave chords give this
style a high-pitched, driving urgency and a very rich texture. The Gibson
SG / Marshall JCM-800 guitar combo and Ampeg 400 bass amp is the classic
emo gear. Solid-state amps are unheard of.
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 gut-wrenching screams to actual sobbing
and crying. Straight-edge boys tend to hate that part, and much derision
is levelled at emo bands on this point. Most emo bands tend to have some
epic-length songs that build up very slowly to a climax where someone
cries. If you're receptive to this kind of thing, it can be extremely
powerful and moving, since it's very hard to fake that kind of pure emotion
convincingly.
Lyrics tend toward somewhat
abstract poetry, and are usually low in the mix and hard to decipher.
Record inserts have lyrics, but often so disorganized and haphazard that
they're very difficult to read [unless the record was released on Ebullition
Records, in which case there are many inserts on small, brightly-colored
papers containing poetic writing from the label owner and all his friends
about disillusionment, anger, and things that happened when the writer
was four. Such writing is known as emo writing, and there are many, many
zines just like that]. Said inserts are almost always done with antique
typewriters or miniscule hand-lettering, containing no punctuation or
capitalization. Often the only information about the band listed is the
band members' first names. Another trait of really emo records is to have
no information whatsoever about song titles.
Artwork, too, tends toward
abstract black-and-white photographs of rusted/broken things (especially
machinery), drawings of flowers, and pictures of old men, little boys,
and little girls. Lots of live photos indicates the band is probably from
the East Coast, and probably listened to straight-edge at some point.
Live emo bands tend to
play with backs to the audience during the quiet parts. During the loud
exploding parts, the musicans have a tendancy to jump and shake unpredicatable
and knock things over - especially mike stands. Combine this with the
fact that the singers often fail to make it to the mike in time to sing,
and decide just to scream at the absolute top of their lungs wherever
they are when the time comes, means that often entire shows will pass
without the audience being able to hear the vocals. If, however, the band
has a lot of screaming during the quiet parts, this can be an extremely
powerful tactic.
The is a particular emo
dance sometimes seen in the audience at emo shows. It's known as "the
emo tremble." The trembler clasps his/her hands together (wringing
them from time to time), leans forward, bounces quickly on the balls of
the feet, and shakes the upper torso in time to the music. Once in a while
the trembler will grab the back of the head and rock back and forth. The
more the person likes the band, the more he or she will double over. Also,
a reader submits: "i think you forgot the "emo chest tap"
or just "the chest tap". this goes on a lot in the northeast...i
particularly remember lots of chest tapping occuring at shotmaker shows."
Commercialism is very much
repressed in this emo scene. Few bands make t-shirts. Most records are
put out on very small, home-run labels or on the band's private label.
Records are sold cheap (the classic pricing scheme was $3 7"s, $5
LPs, and $8 CDs. Inflation has driven these prices up in recent years).
Shows are univerally $5 or less, and touring bands often are lucky to
get gas money (despite the promoter usually not paying local bands).
There is also a bias against
digital technology within most bands. Emo recordings tend to be analog
only, cheaply done, with a tendency toward mostly live tracking with few
overdubs. Equipment is heavily weighted toward tube gear. Until recently,
most emo records were made on vinyl only. CD reissues of broken-up bands'
discographies are becoming common, though.
Lastly, emo bands tend
not to last long. It was not uncommon an emo band's only recording to
come out posthumously and much delayed. Obviously, this puts a damper
on the distribution of the records since no one in the band puts much
effort into promotion.
A modern perspective: the
term "screamo" is used a lot nowadays to describe bands that
are based most heavily on this kind of music.
Hinted at in New Jersey
in 1990 (Merel, Iconoclast). Starts for real in San Diego in 1991 with
Heroin, comes to SF Bay in 1992 (Reach Out, Mohinder, Honeywell, Portraits
of Past, John Henry West), hits Philly, Florida, New York, and the rest
of the East Coast a little bit.
Similar to punk vs. hardcore
punk - faster, louder, harder, much more intense and single-minded. Most
of these bands play extremely fast, and introduce the "chaos"
concept to hardcore. This is extremely abrasive music, with vocals screamed
at the physical limit of the vocal chords. The guitars are distorted to
the point that notes and chords are hard to recognize - although often
the guitarists don't even play notes, instead making piercing, staccato
bursts of noise, squeals of deafening feedback, or a wash of strummed
dissonance. The bass often has quite a bit of distortion as well, unlike
straight emo. This is everything emo done more so - sometimes so totally
over the top that the band 's songs are not even recognizable when performing
live. Antioch Arrow, for instance, thrashed about so much on stage that
they sounded less like a band than a giant amplified blender. After each
song, they had to retune every string, and usually had knocked over a
good fraction of their equipment. These shows tended also to be quite
short for reasons of the band's physical endurance.
All the other notes about
emo records, shows, economics, etc. apply to hardcore emo too. It's very
much simply a subset of emo. In my eyes, this was the ultimate expression
of the form. There was a frantic, primal quality to a band like Heroin
that could just reach through your ribcage and squeeze your heart like
in the Temple of Doom. I never found that in any of the other types.
Phase four: "post-emo
indie rock" and post-emo post-hardcore. Sunny Day Real Estate, Christie
Front Drive, Promise Ring, Mineral, Boys Life, Sideshow, Get-Up Kids,
Braid, Cap'n Jazz, then later Joan of Arc, Jets To Brazil, etc. Lots of
Caulfield and Crank! Records bands, more lately a lot of stuff on Jade
Tree for instance.
Anyone that claims to like
both straight-edge and emo is probably talking about this kind of emo.
Starts out near Colorado and Seattle, explodes all over the Midwest, then
onward to New York, etc. In fact an early term for this kind of music
was "midwest emo," as these bands seemed to come out of nowhere
towns in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado...
Musically, tends toward
a lot of loud/soft interation, but a lot of softly-sung vocals and very
little screaming or harshness. Lots of catchy, poppy guitar riffs, happiness
or at least melancholy, and a particular fascination with off-key, cutesy
boy vocals. This is where the phrase "twinkly guitar parts"
comes from - lots of pretty major-key arpeggios, light drumming, and some
amount of crooning. It sounds like a recipe for cheeze, and sometimes
is. I remember reading a review of the early Christie Front Drive 12"
that said, "this is what emo kids listen to when they make love."
It was a nice alternative to a steady diet of hardcore.
There is a valid element
of emo in the vocals here (along with occasional octave chord). It's not
as easy to identify as the mournful screaming in the original emo style,
tending to consist more of greatly drawn-out phrases detailing very emotional
lyrics with ironically light and poppy singing.
Sunny Day Real Estate came
up with a very original post-hardcore meets emocore at an indie rock show
sound. This inspired a spawn of imitators even more shameless than the
Fugazi and Quicksand clones. Which leads one to observe: post-hardcore
emerged when the hardcore scene tired of the same seven-year-old sounds
inspired by a few innovative hardcore bands. A few innovative post-hardcore
bands come out with a totally new sound out of nowhere (Fugazi, Quicksand,
SDRE, Drive Like Jehu), and spawn legions of imitators. Basically straight
out of Thomas Kuhn's theories...
By 1999, this type of music
had achieved a fan base far larger than any of the original emo stuff.
In fact, that's what prompted me to write this website in the first place
- the glut of info on the web about this and the lack of a historical
perspective. Statistically, you the reader are most likely to be familiar
with this type of emo. In the years since then, it's only grown far, far
bigger. Jimmy Eat World and Thursday are in regular rotation on MTV and
many corporate alternative radio stations, and sappy music like this Dashboard
Confessional fellow is pulling in a whole new audience. This is well on
its way to becoming a major demographic market, soon after which we'll
see a lot of new bands with zero real connection to the original underground
scene (unlike for instance Jimmy Eat World, who used to open at every
emo show in Phoenix way back in 1994).
Phase five: post-emo hardcore?
The "emo" style detailed above has been dead since around 1995,
when new emo bands stopped forming and the old ones broke up. Most people
in bands nowadays seem to regard pure emo to be overstated and quite cheezy
(of course, this opinion has had its adherents all along...). The "emo
scene" since has taken a few different directions. One is the ultra-heavy,
ultra-fast wall-of-noise attack blending elements of grindcore and Neurosis-style
apocalyptic chaos with bleeding-vocal-chords screaming: Jenny Piccolo,
Union of Uranus, One Eyed God Prophecy, Makara, Living War Room, Orchid,
Reversal of Man, Usurp Synapse, To Dream Of Autumn, etc.
Another trend has been
to explore analog synthesizers and mod/goth/new wave sounds - post-emo
style-rock? Das Audience / The Vue, VSS, Slaves, Crimson Curse, etc. Mostly
a California thing originally, this has ballooned and is one of the vibrant
growing scenes in indie music as I write this. The Faint, The Hives, The
White Stripes, Milemarker, and even some mainstream music like The Strokes
are reviving late 60s/early 70s rock and roll (Lou Reed and Velvets style,
maybe a bit of Rolling Stones) with the emo fashion sense and a cynical
underground sneer.
The vocal intensity of
emo has been very influential on non-emo styles, as well. It has crept
into new-school metallic hardcore quite a bit: Downcast, Struggle, Groundwork
(AZ), Converge, Threadbare, Unbroken, Guilt, Botch, Fall Silent, Cable,
Time in Malta. The chaos, power, and bleeding vocals of hardcore emo have
similarly influenced non-emo ultra-hardcore bands: Jihad, Coalesce, Dillenger
Escape Plan, etc.
Traditional East Coast
hardcore and straight-edge has always been the most derisive critic of
emo, befitting the male-oriented macho reputation of that scene. However,
a few harcore/sXe bands have integrated emotional lyrics, octave chords,
and a softer vocal delivery into their music. For example, listen to the
later Turning Point, Endpoint, and early Lifetime records, as well as
newer groups like Falling Forward, Split Lip, Shai Hulud. Many people
with only a hardcore/sXe background consider these emo-inflected HC/sXe
bands to be "emo" bands, but recognize the "emocore"
category as detailed above as poppier and more rock versions of hardcore.
They also tend to classify straight emo and hardcore emo as simply punk
(based mostly on the low production values and the lack of heavy rhythms
present in all HC/sXe). "Emo" is a catchall category for this
scene - they classify almost all indie rock (Seam, June of '44, Codeine,
etc.) and post-hardcore (Quicksand, Shift, Texas Is The Reason, Sensefield)
as emo as well!
Screamo - I mentioned this
under the "emo" section, however in recent years some bands
have sort of re-integrated some diverse emo influences. With the band
Saetia, for instance, you'll hear heavy fast screamed hardcore parts,
with abrupt starts and stops and guitar focus more from the classic emo
side, and quiet, twinkly melodic parts in between. "Screamo"
has become sort of a catchall modern category for all of this for the
few new bands playing this style, often used by younger fans who weren't
around when the screaming vocal thing was new and unique
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