So you see? It's not all about slitting wrists after all? Hope this changes your mind on the genre, and if not, then jimmy crack corn and I don't care!
[last edit 4/18/2011 7:53 AM by Valkyre - edited 1 times]
Once things get political, they want us to stop shooting and start dancing. I don't dance.
I'm glad this thread was made. The association that emo is all about suicide and neon colored hair and eyeliner is kindof a shame. Algernon Cadwallader, Braid, Capn Jazz, that stuff is pretty sick.
grit your teeth in the face of fear. self repression is the true sign of a coward, toss your inhibitions to the wind.
Im surprised the Get Up Kids hasn't come up here yet. probably one of the pioneers of emo.
Hey daddy-o, i don't wanna go down to the basement, theres something down there, i don't wanna go, hey romeo "I don't wanna go down to the basement"-The Ramones
Posted by willskith I'm glad this thread was made. The association that emo is all about suicide and neon colored hair and eyeliner is kindof a shame. Algernon Cadwallader, Braid, Capn Jazz, that stuff is pretty sick.
Algernon Cadwallader are so twinkly and amazing!
Once things get political, they want us to stop shooting and start dancing. I don't dance.
Posted by Rather Scarce I'll admit, I was disappointed not seeing bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Gray Matter, or Rite of Spring mentioned in the original post.
But there are quite a few good emo bands out there.
Not a fan of midwestern emo, though...
I LOVE Sunny Day Real Estate! There are too many bands to mention in 1 post! Also, American Football is pretty emo too!
Once things get political, they want us to stop shooting and start dancing. I don't dance.
I never bought into all the emo jokes. I simply don't get the music. Could be my age.
I have changed my personal exploring ethics code. From now on it will be: "Take only aimed shots, leave only hobo corpses." Copper scrappers, meth heads and homeless beware. The Jonsered cometh among you, bringing fear and dread.
A little off topic, but who's into pop punk? Another misunderstood genre that gets a bad rap mostly cos of it's name and association with mainstream radio bullshit. There are lots of great DIY upbeat punk bands that call themselves pop punk, and lot's of them have way noodly, emo-inspired guitars
the chorus in this makes me shit myself
more noodly/twinkly
fast as fuck
they're doing reunion show this year and I'm pumped
grit your teeth in the face of fear. self repression is the true sign of a coward, toss your inhibitions to the wind.
Myself being someone who grew up in the punk scene, I also grew to detest emo music and those who subscribe to that scene. You would get a bunch of emo kids from the suburbs trying to act hard at punk shows, utterly being dicks. No better than skinheads. I don't mind violence. I love it. But man, they took everything so seriously. I would be slamming in the pit, to a punk band, and god forbid I accost their fragile pride by knocking into them. Trying to pick fights, for reasons so asinine, I dare not repeat them lest I lose a few more brain cells.
The music?
The wiki states the link between Emo and Hardcore. I have this to say: There is a link, but only so far as punk is related to blues. My personal opinion of the music is that it is weak, and has nothing creative to say. To me, emo is the equivalent of 50's love songs. One can hear only so much emotion before wanting to slit one's own wrist. What's the worst part of the music? The fucking sadness. I want music to uplift. Be it some to dance to, something that gives me something to think about, or something downright angry. And I'm not talking screamo here. Screamo is angst. Emo globs onto leftist issues, only as a source of more angst. Granted, I don't listen to mainstream emo. All I know is the bands who I saw play. That and I do happen to like Embrace. And the issue of globing onto leftist issues also exists in punk as well, and I don't really like that tendency in punk either.
All that said:
He seemed to move among very delicate objects, on ground mined with goodness knows what precious explosives. ~ Jean Cocteau
What's this about emo kids trying to act hard or getting mad over someone not respecting their space at a show? I've only ever seen punks act that way. Insinuating that there is a negligible link between hardcore and emo? When I saw Algernon Cadwallader they were playing a show that Negative Approach was headlining. Oh, and there were tons of kids stage diving during Algernons set and nobody got mad. Smiles all around, everyone was raging.
The generalizations you make would be no different than someone stating that punk is weak and uncreative because it tends to adopt one of two extremes: nihilism or politically correct leftism. It would obviously be an entirely mislead statement, but no less accurate than yours stating that emo = sadness. Just because a lot of what many emo bands (popular ones, at least) write about is personal issues doesn't mean that they aren't able to focus on aspects of humanity deeper than "my girlfriend dumped me." There are lots of upbeat and posi emo songs. Very well written ones, at that, whether you like the music or not.
I honestly don't like lots of emo since it is often too slow/downbeat for my tastes. However, adopting the stereotype that emo is nothing but miserable bullshit is just as much a disservice to the genre as assuming all skinheads are racist, that all spiky punks sniff glue, or that straight edge is a militant gang. Punks have very polarizing (and arbitrary) labels for everything, much of it is very misused.
[last edit 8/1/2011 8:21 AM by willskith - edited 1 times]
grit your teeth in the face of fear. self repression is the true sign of a coward, toss your inhibitions to the wind.
Posted by dirt Myself being someone who grew up in the punk scene, I also grew to detest emo music and those who subscribe to that scene. You would get a bunch of emo kids from the suburbs trying to act hard at punk shows, utterly being dicks.
What you think Emos are:
What it really is:
Your perception of 'emo' is just as poor, narrow and bad as anyone else who thinks the genre is about slitting wrists and listening to 'My Chemical Romance'.
Once things get political, they want us to stop shooting and start dancing. I don't dance.
