Justin Leedy
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Post by Justin Leedy on Nov 28, 2004 1:00:15 GMT -5
metal and emo are pretty close to the same thing around here. metal rocks "emo" rocks where's the conflict? If the metal you're listening to sounds like emo, then chances are, it's not really metal. Metal and emo should be polar opposites, like Iron Maiden and Dashboard Confessional. Nothing alike.
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niko
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Post by niko on Nov 28, 2004 1:34:37 GMT -5
thats not even emo...emo started way back when, it was emocore. it was hardcore guitar with more in depth lyrics, what you think "emo" is now, is just pop punk thats depressing, which is not what emo is.
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Justin Leedy
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Post by Justin Leedy on Nov 28, 2004 1:38:36 GMT -5
Even so, that's what most people think of when they think emo. Iron Maiden is what people think of when they think metal, even people that have never listened to Iron Maiden. If I have to take a history course to understand the music, it's not worth my time. Especially when it's something like a punk rocker trying to express deep emotions.
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Post by sleepyhead on Nov 28, 2004 1:38:47 GMT -5
ok, i think this may be needed here. and yes i did copy and paste.
After Minor Threat broke up in late 1983, the vibrant DC hardcore-punk scene that exploded in 1981 seems to start to run out of steam and fresh ideas within the established DC hardcore sound. The wistful, posthumous Minor Threat 7" "Salad Days" comes out in 1984 and drives the final nail into the coffin of DC hardcore punk. Bands all over the country begin casting about for new things to do : DRI and Bad Brains start going cheeze-metal, New York bands start doing tough-guy mosh, 7Seconds goes jangly U2 alternative, etc. The prevailing change in D.C. is toward melodic rock with punk sensibilities.
1984 marks the release of Zen Arcade by Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü, documenting their new mature sound combining furious, intense vocal delivery and driving guitars with slowed-down rockish tempos and more-complex, melodic songwriting.
In spring 1984, a new band called Rites Of Spring forms from members of The Untouchables/Faith and Deadline. This band retains a punk speed and frenzy, but brings a totally new vocal approach to the mix. Singer Guy Picciotto keeps an out-of-breath punk style most of the time, at times delving into intensely personal lyrics dripping with emotion and sweat. His voice breaks down at climactic moments into a throaty, gravelly, passionate moan.
The summer of 1985 becomes known as "Revolution Summer" when a new wave of rock-tempo, melody based, sung-vocal bands forms out of the DC punk musician pool with diverse rock sounds - Three, Gray Matter, Soulside, Ignition, Marginal Man, Fire Party, Rain, Shudder to Think, etc. Few bands retain the fast hardcore punk-based sound with the new vocal approach, Dag Nasty being the notable exception.
Minor Threat's singer, Ian MacKaye's, sings for a band called Embrace (compare the band name to earlier DC bands Minor Threat, Void, and State Of Alert) whose lyrics are emotional and deeply self-questioning, but still clear and unambiguous. Musically, the group (formed mostly of ex-Faith members) writes midtempo, somewhat jangly music with a lot of pop guitar hooks. MacKaye's vocals retain his trademark bold enunciation, with only occasional sparks of emotive delivery.
These bands' sound eventually becomes known as the classic "D.C. sound." Some of it is derisively labeled "emo," as shorthand for "emotional." One account has this term first appearing in a Flipside interview with Ian MacKaye. Shortly thereafter DC bands aquire the tag "emo-core."
Slightly later (1986), some bands begin to focus on the "emo" element itself. The Hated in Annapolis (near D.C.) seem to be the first post-Rites of Spring to do this. Shortly thereafter, Moss Icon appears in in the same town. Moss Icon strips the "emo" element down to the core, and adds a great deal of intricate, arpeggiated guitar melody (by Tonie Joy, later of Born Against, Lava, Universal Order of Armageddon, etc.) with a strong focus on loud/soft dynamics. The vocals, too, break new ground by building up to actual top-of-the-lungs screaming at songs' climaxes.
Moss Icon, as a relatively well-known band that toured some, introduces the punk scene to music that has core emphasis on emotion instead of punk energy. As such, I consider them the starting point for the emo movement, not Rites of Spring as is more commonly asserted. Later emo bands draw heavily from the Moss Icon dynamics, guitar style, and vocal delivery.
What are the different styles of emo? introduction: Quote: 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.
Quote: 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.
Quote: -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.
Quote: Phase three: "hardcore emo." Heroin, Antioch Arrow, Mohinder, Honeywell, Reach Out, early Portaits of Past, Assfactor 4, Second Story Window, End of the Line, Angel Hair, Swing Kids, Three Studies for a Crucifixion, John Henry West, Guyver-1, Palatka, Coleman, Iconoclast, some Merel, some Clikatat Ikatowi, etc.
-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.
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Post by sleepyhead on Nov 28, 2004 1:39:03 GMT -5
Quote: 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).
Quote: 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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Justin Leedy
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Post by Justin Leedy on Nov 28, 2004 1:47:09 GMT -5
I hope I'm never bored enough to spend that much time reading about emo. Good God, so much emo...
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Post by Forrest on Nov 28, 2004 1:47:24 GMT -5
Did I read all that? No way. I think we all know that "real" emo was punk with decent bordering on GOOD lyrics. I'll say it again: good lryics don't make you weak. WHat we're talking about here is the new emo pop-punk shit that has, ironically, NO emotion in it. To borrow a term from Andrew, they are "scene kids." I think we all fully understand that there is such a thing as "good emo," but we're discussing the newer emo. When I say Emo, I'm talking Dashboard Confessional, Yellowcard, New Found Glory, and all that other pop-punk-emo stuff.
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Post by sleepyhead on Nov 28, 2004 1:56:36 GMT -5
yes, i agree with that. i just hate people hating music i listen to because they're so genre oriented. names don't mean anything.
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Justin Leedy
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Post by Justin Leedy on Nov 28, 2004 1:59:23 GMT -5
I agree, Andrew. If I said I liked a song and actually did, and then was told it was an "emo" song, I would still like it. Changing your mind because you don't like the genre is worse than only listening to things because they fall into a specific genre.
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Post by Forrest on Nov 28, 2004 2:11:58 GMT -5
I'm glad we can all agree. Is that warm fuzzy I see over there. Oh. nevermind.. that's a rat. Sorry. But I agree with you guys completely. I listen to some stuff people call "emo." They can go die. I don't care.
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Post by heybaumer on Nov 28, 2004 3:14:35 GMT -5
wow, i never new people thought of yellowcard and new found glory as emo. hmmm...i'm pretty embedded into the whole d.c. scene though (grew up very close to it, and a lot of my good friends are in it) so i guess i have a different take on things. by the way drewish, very good history lesson. i liked it. i always like to hear about ian makaye. you know he was good buddies with a monk who used to live on kodiak. he would come and visit every summer and bring up fugazi demos with him. i never realized how bad ass it was until now. i should have taken advantage of that more than i did.
anyhow, its convenient to put music into categories for the sake of a quick description, however, don't be an asshole. just because its called emo, don't bash it. for instance, i'm not going to say that metal sucks, i love iron maiden, but i will say that i don't care for dave mustain and whatevertheshit makes up megadeath. and unfortunately, i think that its people that listen to music like that who are partially the reason that we are stuck with bush in office for another four years...but that is a whole 'nother thread. i'm serious, i think it would be interesting to compare i.q.'s to music preference, i have a feeling that "emo" kids would blow the metal kids out of the water. i bet the metal kids hover right around 75...one of you metal kids are name forrest, aren't you? thats pretty funny.
peace
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Post by Forrest on Nov 28, 2004 3:26:09 GMT -5
I have an IQ of 165 and Justin's is probably higher than mine, Andy Schmitt also has a high IQ. Lets not throw judgements shall we? Not at all neccesary. I thinkt he point we were makign was that we KNOW that good emo exists, and that the new stuff isn't really "emo," but liek you said, that's a convenient label for it, and when I say EMO SUCKS I am not talking about the original stuff. Good lyrics don't make you weak. Most of the stuff I listen to I lsiten to BECAUSE it has good lyrics, except fo rmost of my metal, which I listen to for the sheer enjoyment of musical ability. Yet again my entire point has managed to elude people. Maybe I'm not being pointed enough:
WHEN I SAY EMO, I MEAN NEO POP-PUNK OR WHATEVER IT'S CALLED.
Thank you.
Also, I am named Forrest. Way to be infantile, asshole. I just lost all respect for you, seriously.
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Post by Schmitt Industries Inc. on Nov 28, 2004 4:23:20 GMT -5
I think it's quite safe to say that it takes a couple tries to get stuff into this hombre's head, maybe we should just make an emo thread and just let this one fall by the wayside, cuz I mean, we already got the metal thread.
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niko
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Post by niko on Nov 28, 2004 13:12:31 GMT -5
o wow, this flared up real fast. i just want to say a few thigns before this thread turns into a huge war over whos smarter than who and who listens to what and what tha effects how smart they are. heybaumer - what a terrible judgement to make. terrible. there are pefect examples of stupid people that listen to every type of music period. swiging the bat at someones knees like that is only gonna pick up flack. forrest - he never said you, justin, or andy were dumb. he made a general statment over a genre of music, dont take it so personaly you know you're smart, thats all that matters. justin - for the good of everyone on this board, and so nothing like this happens again, dont call "new emo" emo at all. call it what it is. would you like it if someone put new age heavy metal, like slipnot an mushroomhead or whatever into the same category as iron maiden? and assumed they were the same music becuase they have the same music genre? call the music what it is, by calling pop punk emo, is exaclty what everyone in the mtv world is doing, so dont live by their rules. im locking this thread for nothing good can come from it anymore. make a new thread if you wish but get your genres right and remember that attacking someones music, is only going to cause a retaliation. ktown vice-president nic lechner
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