The Emo Education Thread
Written by Crowquill.
A Brief Emo History
"Emo" is a shortened term for emotive or emotional hardcore. Originally, it was used mostly by kids who were faithful to the early DC hardcore punk bands like Minor Threat as a putdown to fans of bands like Indian Summer. Today, it is a more ambiguous term and describes a variety of different styles and is often misinterpreted to just mean emotional music which is obviously wrong seeing as all music is emotional from Tupac, to Bob Dylan to Mozart.
Emo is a derivative from the early 80s hardcore punk movement. The earliest band tried to deviate from the well-established and more violence-shifting hardcore sound, first evidenced in released like Husker Du's "Zen Arcade" in 1984, and later releases from Rites Of Spring and Embrace. This upcoming breed of music was characterized by more intense and passionate vocal delivery while retaining a more tranquilized hardcore punk quality.
The summer of 1985 (termed the "Revolution Summer") marked the emergence of many new bands like Moss Icon, Gray Matter, Shudder To Think, Ignition and Dag Nasty. These bands tended to have a less aggressive more melodic sound with more high to low sound transitions.
By the mid-1990s, there were many derivations of the D.C. style that appeared in different parts of the country, such as the scene in California pushed by Gravity Records. Influenced by bands of the Revolution Summer, prominent bands of this era included, Antioch Arrow, Mohinder, Heroin, Angel Hair, Swing Kids, and Indian Summer. Most of these bands retained the hardcore-influenced sound and were later termed "screamo", for their screaming vocals and more harmonized and melodic riffs. There was also the independent Delaware based label Jade Tree Record featuring post-emo (or indie-emo, indie rock emo, etc) bands such as Texas is the Reason, Jets To Brazil, Promise Ring (earlier albums were more post-emo) and quite a few Kinsella projects such as Owls and Joan of Arc. They would also release the very influential Analphabetapolothology by Cap'n Jazz. These bands held some emo elements but quite a few indie-rock elements, they were much softer with pop guitar riffs. The post-punk and post-hardcore movements had a large influence on these bands. This movement got more notice than the original emo movement and was more commercially successful, though bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and early Jimmy Eat World were more popular then bands such as Cap'n Jazz. The post-emo was movement was heavily scrutinized by loyalists of the original hardcore movement. Labeling such bands as "emo" caused more debate and separatism.
Though more recently the post-emo movement has been less scrutinized because of the clear emo influences it holds. While bands such as Panic! At The Disco and Dashboard Confessional who don't hold no emo influence at all are being credited as emo just because their lyrics are confessional and deal with relationships, or are labeled by scene kids as emo. Theres many problems with this, some of the bands that they label emo hold slight post-emo influences but a lot of those influences they have are not from the original emo movement at all, and are from that the post-emo bands drew from elsewhere. In addition to that the genre itself has no set standards, it seems to be alot of times set by the clothes the band wears or what they decide is emo. Bands they label emo have ranged from heavily prog influenced Coheed and Cambria, to singer/songwriter Bright Eyes, to metalcore act Norma Jean to pop bands like Panic! At The Disco and My Chemical Romance.
Emo
There is a lot of musical diversity, ranging from soft guitar riffs to crashing riffs and whispering vocals to screaming. The lyrics can be thought of as a unique form of poetry and are often hard to decipher. They tend to be more personal, and sometimes they can be political in nature. The songwriting has been commonly and ignorantly mischaracterized as being solely depression and sometimes suicide oriented.
Often used interchangeably with “emo”, emo-core was originally used to describe early D.C. bands and later bands that retained the hardcore-influenced sound.
Examples: Rites Of Spring, Indian Summer, Moss Icon, Nation of Ulysses, Dag Nasty, Native Nod, Embrace
Screamo
Starting in the 1990s with an emo influence, screamo has faster harmonized guitar riffs, screaming vocals, and softer and more melodic breakdowns. Gravity Records was the prominent source for this style of music. The intensified, emotional, and sometimes dramatic screaming performances have been acquired by many of today’s alternative, pop-punk, hardcore, and metal oriented bands. Inevitably, this has caused a divide between fans of this style and early hardcore loyalists. Read more here.
Examples: Circle Takes The Square, pg.99, Orchid, La Quiete, Antioch Arrow, City Of Caterpillar, Neil Perry, Ampere
Post-Emo (a.k.a. Indie Emo)
Musically, indie-based emo is a lot softer, with soften rock or pop guitar riffs. The songs range from uplifting and happy to melancholy. The vocals tend to be high-pitched, but they are not as intense as hardcore or screamo vocals. The post-punk and post-hardcore movements had a large influence on this sound, particularly Husker Du and Fugazi (Guy Picciotto and Ian Mackaye). This indie-based emo is more commercially successful and recognized than the original hardcore movement.
Examples: American Football, Sunny Day Real Estate, Cap’n Jazz, Mineral, Jets To Brazil, Texas Is The Reason, Christie Front Drive,
Links
Gravity Records
Level Plane Records
Dischord Records
Perpetual Motion Machine Records
Hyper Realist Records
Robotic Empire Records
Electric Human Project Records
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Real Emo,Screamo,Indie-Emo Bands
1905
A Case Of Grenada
Amanda Woodward
Ampere
Angel Hair
Antioch Arrow
Arse Moreira
Assfactor 4
Aussitôt Mort
Balaclava
Baron Noir
Blacken the Skies
Boa Narrow
Born Dead Icons
Breather Resist
Bucket Full of Teeth
Burnman
Calvary
Circle Takes the Square
City of Caterpillar
Clikatat Ikatowi
Cobra Kai
Conation
Corn On Macabre
Cost of An Arm
Cowboys Became Folk Heroes
Creation is Crucifixion
Crestfallen
Current
Daitro
Danse Macabre
Dear Diary I Seem To Be Dead
Die, Emperor Die!
Dispensing Of False Halos
Efra
Embrace
Emo Summer
Enoch Ardon
Envy
Evergreen
Flashbulb Memory
Former Members of Alfonsin
Funeral Diner
Get Fucked
Gospel
Harriet the Spy
Heroin
Hot Cross
Hugs
I Hate Myself
Indian Summer
I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism In Your Yearbook
I Would Set Myself on Fire for You
I, Robot
Index for Potential Suicide
Joan Of Arc
Joshua Fit for Battle
Kakistocracy
The Khayembii Communique
Kobayashi
The Kodan Armada
La Quiete
Lee Marvin Computer Arm
Life at These Speeds
Light the Fuse and Run
Louise Cyphre
Love Like... Electrocution
Love Lost But Not Forgotten
Make Me
Malady
Mannequin
Mary Reilly
Mass Movement of the Moth
Mayans
Maxamillian Colby
Memento Mori
Moss Icon
Neil Perry
Off Minor
Orchid
Palatka
Pg.99
Phoenix Bodies
Please Inform the Captain This is a Hijack
Plunger
Policy of Three
Portrait
Portraits of Past
Pretty Faces
Raein
Rites of Spring
Ruhaeda
Saetia
Sakita Sarra
Shikari
Shotmaker
Sinkthefucker
Sl's3
Sophora
Stop It!
Suis la Lune
Systral
Tafkata
Takaru
Ten Grand/The Vidablue
The Apoplexy Twist Orchestra
The Avenging Disco Godfathers of Soul
The Disease
The Holy Shroud
The Infarto, Scheisse!
The Spirit Of Versailles
The State Secedes
To Dreamo of Autumn
Towers
Transistor Transistor
Turn Around Norman
Twelve Hour Turn
Uranus
Usurp Synapse
We Fly Our Kites at Night
Whenallelsefails
Wolves
Wow, Owls!
Yage
Yaphet Kotto
You and I
Zegota
Mall Emo Bands (Not Emo)
AFI
...And you Will Know us by the Trail of the Dead
Alesana
Alexisonfire
Alkaline Trio
A Skylit Drive
As I Lay Dying
At the Drive-In
Atreyu
Bleed the Dream
Blessthefall
Blink 182
Blood Brothers
Brand New
Bright Eyes
Coheed & Cambria
Cursive
Dashboard Confessional
Death Cab for Cutie
Emery
Escape The Fate
Fall Out Boy
Finch
From Autumn to Ashes
From First to Last
Funeral for a Friend
Good Charlotte
Green Day
Hawthorne Heights
Hellogoodbye
Jimmy Eat World
Juliana Theory
Kill Hannah
Linkin Park
Mae
Matchbook Romance
mewithoutyou
My Chemical Romance
New Found Glory
Norma Jean
Panic! At The Disco
Promise Ring
Reliant K
Saves the Day
Senses Fail
Silverstein
Simple Plan
Something Corporate
Sparta
Spitafield
Straylight Run
Story of the Year
Sunny Day Real Estate
Taking Back Sunday
The Cure
The Format
The Get-Up Kids
The Mars Volta
The Postal Service
The Starting Line
The Used
Thrice
Thursday
Weezer
Yellowcard
*Almost ANY band who has ever been on any Warped Tour*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits:
Crowquill & sleepy jack fire drill of MusicBanter.com
P.E.S.O.S
youdontknowemo.tk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EMO is NOT a CULTURE...
EMO is MUSIC and a SCENE...
Yung paglalaslas, crying and fashion has nothing to do with EMO...
Hindi po kayo pwedeng maging EMO...
Kasi EMO is a GENRE, and you can never be a GENRE...
And EMO cannot be MAINSTREAM...
And masasabi ko na mas mapapadali and pag-didistinguish ng isang EMO song from other songs, kung papakinggan mo 'to...
See the LIST above...
P.S. Sana nakatulong 'tong thread sa inyo...
And hindi ako EMO, So stop calling me EMO 
And kapag may kakilala kayong SCENESTER na nagmamagaling/nalilito about EMO (e.g. They say that they are EMO & MCR, FOB, SAOSIN are EMO) Don't hesitate to EDUCATE them regarding this matter...
And please approach them in a rational & nice way...
Thanks!
