What is EMO: A Basic Guide to Emotional Hardcore

Contrary to popular belief, Emo is not short for Emotional, at least not really. It is not a style, either. It has nothing to do with cutting yourself, or boys with swooping haircuts taking pictures of themselves. Emo is not about whining about your problems. It’s got nothing to do with your girlfriend breaking up with you. If you believe that, you’re exercising your right to do so. This does not, however, make you correct.

emo


Emo is short for emotional hardcore. Say it. Say it again. Say it a third time. Keep doin' that. If emo just stood for emotional, it wouldn't make sense. All music is emotional in one sense or another.

What if an Emo band got popular? Would it stop being Emo? No, it wouldn’t. In the recent times, Circle Takes The Square has gotten somewhat popular, thank god.

However, people need to understand that Emo is essentially DIY punk. It cannot be mainstream. It can be as popular as it can possibly get. But it’s still not mainstream. When we say DIY, we mean it gets where it gets without corporate promotion, and it’s produced independently. What happens if you happen to see a Circle Takes The Square album at Wal-Mart? You stop taking drugs. This wouldn’t happen. You’re probably only going to find their album at, say, an independent record store. Even those don’t always carry what you want. It’s usually best to go with a distribution (or ‘distro’) website. You’ll notice that those sites rarely charge very much for music, and they usually carry vinyl as well.

Emo started in the 80’s, with a little band by the name of Rites Of Spring. While this is arguable, as the Husker Du album Zen Arcade, which is said to have started the style, came out before Rites Of Spring’s End On End album. But I digress. Rites Of Spring were only together from the spring of 1984 through the winter of 1986, but in that span of time, they set the stage for the shape of punk to come. The term Emo started when people at Rites Of Spring concerts started yelling “You’re emo!” at them. This is part of why people say Rites Of Spring started Emo. I tend to go with this, partially because I don’t like the thought that an album started the genre. It makes more sense that the band themselves did.

Emo sparked and faded a bit, until the legendary band Moss Icon came along. In my personal opinion, while Rites Of Spring started the genre, Moss Icon perfected it. Their album Lyburnum is widely considered one of the best Emo albums around, as it’s the ideal album. In my experience, the music on the album is perfect for beginners, as it’s not too loud, but it’s not quiet, either.

After awhile, the sub-movement of Screamo began. Bands like Palatka and Swing Kids were the new norm. It was loud, fast, and it could easily kill you, if you weren’t careful. This kind of music has become the new norm for Emo bands, but the unfortunate thing is that, nine times our of ten, it sounds like random syllables being screamed.

One thing that I don’t like is that people talk about “the waves of emo”. This doesn’t work, because it usually includes what’s considered Emo today. Yes, genres do change as the years go by. Rock has stopped being about sex and drugs, and started being more about that and more about relationships. Rockers have started talking about “making love”. But genres do not become the polar opposite. Does it really make sense that a bunch of guys screaming could really evolve into one guy with an acoustic guitar? I don’t think so. Sure, Pg. 99 is a vastly different band than, say, Moss Icon, but the two are in the same genre because of their sound and their content. Sure, Pg. 99 was a band with songs that make your vocal chords bleed just to listen to them. Sure, Moss Icon sounds more like one of today's louder Indie bands, at times. But the two are, inherently, the same, because of their sound and their content.


Real 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 * Shikar * 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.