Before I get to my point, a short history of emo is required. For those who don't know, the history of emo is split into three (or two, depending on who you're talking to) "waves".
(BEFORE READING, PLEASE NOTE THAT MY INTENT IS TO INFORM AND ENTERTAIN THE READERS, INTRODUCE AN IDEA, AND ALLOW FOR LIGHT DISCUSSION. MY INTENT IS NOT TO BASH, OR OTHERWISE ATTACK ANY IDEA, VIEWPOINT, OPINION, OR PERSON. IF ANY PART OF THIS OFFENDS YOU, I AM SORRY, AND I AM WILLING TO EDIT IT IF IT DOES SO AS NOT OFFEND YOU.)
-First Wave of Emo-
(1985-1994)
Emo as a genre began in Washington D.C. with a couple of local artists who decided that they were going to play punk with a melodic sound, which was promptly known as Emotive Hardcore. This was shortened to Emocore, and later, even emo. While other bands before had played the Emotive Hardcore sound before them, Rites of Spring is known as the "First" emo band, simply on the basis that they were the first emo band to "tour". As the first wave of emo came closer to it's close, Dischord Records (considered to be an emo-only record company) began to sign more and more emo bands. For lack of having heard a better reason, I am going to put that the First Wave of emo ended when bands were popular enough to play emo music outside of Dischord Records (and while this is possibly true, there is no evidence to back it up. But no one seems to have a better idea, so lets go with it.)
-Second Wave of Emo-
(1994-2000)
As the 90's progressed, emo became increasingly popular as a genre. Emo bands were faced with a growing fanbase. The OTHER reason that, supposedly, the Second Wave began and the First Wave ended was the 1994 release of Diary, Sunny Day Real Estate's first album (the band even played a song of it on the Jon Stewart show, showing as a major sign of emo's growing popularity). There were a few other Second Wave emo bands, such as Far, Braid, and probably the most well known of the Second Wave bands, Jimmy Eat World. It's fairly agreed upon that the release of Weezer's album Pinkerton in 1996 was the beginning of the sunset on the Second Wave of emo (and to some, emo as a genre) because of it's releasing emo to a more mainstream audience.
-"Third" Wave of "Emo"/ Post-Hardcore/ Mainstream Emo/ The Dawn of Guyliner/ Whatever You Want It To Be Called-
(2000-Present)
The [Look three lines up] is the theoretical "third" (or not) wave (or not) of Emo (or Post-Hardcore (or not)). The point I am trying to get across is that no one can agree here. Some will tell you that emo is dead, and all those guys wearing their little sisters pants/makeup are just stumbling around in a long-past dream. Those same guys (while whining, and cutting themselves over how sad they are that their soup is cold) will tell you that emo is still thriving. Then, you have must other people, who will tell you that just about everything is emo, such as My Chemical Romance (which openly bashed emo in many of their interviews). In 2001 Jimmy Eat World released Bleed American. This album featured the hit single "The Middle", but this single is said to be more oriented towards pop, which seems to highlight this new wave of emo (or not). Many people believe this helped to attribute to the mainstream discovery of emo. This set the scene for the emergence of Chris Carrabba and his project Dashboard Confessional. Dashboard Confessional is known for it's "deep, diary-like outpourings of emotion" caused a change in the Third Wave, causing it to be even more emotional, appealing to a younger group of listeners. This is the point at which some will tell you that emo died. However, these people tend to forget bands which have the same sound as second wave bands, There For Tomorrow, Daphne Loves Derby, A Thorn For Every Heart, The Dangerous Summer, Motion City Soundtrack, and others, just to name a few. But most of those bands still play by the diehard indie spirit that emo spawned under. These people who say it's dead never seem to mention those. And who would? I mean, why look at the indie side of a genre that spawned as a purely indie genre?
Yet, even with such a history, many people are left with quite a few questions about this roughly 25 year old genre. What does it mean? Where is it now, and where is it going? Why is there so much hatred for the genre? Where did these stereotypes and fashions come from that characterize the genre so strongly? And, lastly, how can we effectively sort these bands as emo or not?
While pondering these questions, I came upon a realization, which starts all the way back at the very beginning of emo, 25 years ago in Washington D.C. So, what sort of realization could answer all of these questions effectively, and meaningfully? Well, to show you, I will begin by defining what emo means.
Emo is a genre of music which started as a sub-genre of punk. However, punk's intent as a music genre is often to shock people. So, how would emo shock people? It was a philosophy that still exists today. I believe that emo came to be when local D.C. punk artists decided to shock people on the basis that "men shouldn't show emotion". To an extent, even today this idea still exists, but just imagine how much worse it was in 1985? First of all, you still had rampant sexism, and the 80's was the period between the second and third waves of Feminism. Secondly, homosexuality was unheard of in the 80's. (I mean, come on. It would have had to be if no one realized Rob Halford was gay.) Therefore, while I can't come up with solid evidence that the 80's would have had a stronger sense of "men shouldn't show emotion (especially sadness)" than there is today, logically the reasons why this philosophy existed were stronger back then, as known fact.
Knowing that emo was an attack on the idea of a masculinity devoid of sadness, most of these questions can be answered. First of all, where is emo right now, and where is it going? As far as I see it, emo in it's true form will continue to only exist in the indie music culture. Even if pure emo were to leak into the mainstream, as opposed to just the emo that's blended with the pop culture, with such a dire resistance, how could emo ever survive as a mainstream movement? I personally don't see it happening.
The stereotypical emo is not the result of the actual idea under which emo was created, but the warping, and corruption of it. People, however, started to believe that the idea behind emo was that it was "cool" to be sad. Not that it's "okay" to be sad, which is the idea behind the movement. Therefore, people began to believe that emo was telling them that it was cool to do things like cut themselves, and glorify suicide (and in some cases, even commit it.) The fashion, however, behind emo, much like the fashion behind any music trend was set by taking single fashions from each artist, and creating a fashion that looks almost exactly like the fashions of all the artists meshed together.
This also explains the hatred of emo. There are several reasons why people hate emo. To name a few...
- What fans of it have made of it (rather than what it is)
- Opposition to the idea that men should be able to express sadness.
- The alleged "sexism" behind emo.
- The popularity of hatred for emo.
While most of these are self explanatory, the sexism is one I should go into. While I was going to reference a magazine article I had seen in a punk-oriented magazine, I can't seem to find the article itself. In a nutshell, a female rocker had come out against emo, saying that it was sexist. To illustrate what she was trying to argue, so I can debunk this misconception, it's often seen in emo songs and music videos that "the man should be the one in the band". Whether or not it's emo, a possible example of this would be in the music video for the song "Check Yes Juliet" by We the Kings. It depicts the girl in a relationship having to "sneak out" to see her love interest's band play. Anyone who says emo is sexist would say that this is sexist, and that it is the woman conceding for the man.
However, there is a valid reason why emo would use such scenarios. Because, quite simply, most emo bands are all men. Because the idea behind emo is geared towards men being able to show emotion. Also, the idea of emo is to shock people with the use of men showing emotion. If the singer for an emo band was female, it would defeat the very purpose of emo. And the idea that men should be able to show emotion (another level upon which they could be equal) is more of a feminist ideal than a misogynistic ideal.
However, I have still yet to decide how one should truely sort bands as emo or otherwise. Because the ideas of emo have spread into genres other than pop (it has been argued that the mainstream popularity of emo has caused rappers to produce more emotionally-inclined albums this millennium), it would encompass far too much to say that anything that attacks the idea that men shouldn't show emotion is emo. Instead, it needs to remain being about the sound, and not the philosophy that allows us to sort it. Which, going by sound, would tell us that emo is still alive, in the indie music outlets. As for the emo/pop mix artists floating around, we can only appropriately say that they have defected from emo into pop, as most of them show no sign of their punk roots.
Topic: The Truth About Emo (Read 1584 times)