quote:
Originally posted by: Me, elsewhere
Emo is originally a sub-genre of Hardcore. Emo is actually a short way of saying "Emotive Hardcore". When it first started back in 1984, it was almost identical to DC hardcore except the lyrics were more emotion oriented, as opposed to hardcore lyrics being about society/politics. As time progressed, so did Emo, and revisions were made. There were bands like Indian summer, taking it in one direction, and bands like Heroin, taking it in the other. Indian Summer focused on the "Emotive" part, and Heroin focused on the "Hardcore" part, both were still emo, but now emo was a broader genre.
Emo is a type of music involving mostly screaming, with loud heavy distorted metal-like riffs, but also more complex. the guitar seems to almost be not in key most of the time, due to the complexity of some songs. When not screaming, words are spoken, not sung, to add an atmosphere of disfunction. This all takes place in verse. Singing can, and often does take place in chorus, though. Yaphet Kotto is a good example of a band that does that.
Most emo lyrics are about emotional things, such as suicides, depressions, relationships etc. Quite frequently imagery or personification is used, and that's when it's hard to determine the difference between Metalcore, Hardcore, or Emotive Hardcore. HORSE the band does that a lot.
When in the soft parts of songs, live emo bands play with their backs turned in to the audience. Lots of post-hardcore bands do the same, and more popular bands such as Thursday recreate this old emo tactic.
Emo songs can be short, under a minute long.. but still be played with the same complexity as 4 minute long songs. These are usually the very hard and fast ones. The softer, slower ones can get quite long(Indian Summer - Woolworm).
The most famous emo label is Level-Plane records
The best known, and probably most listened to emo artists are Saetia, You and I, Orchid, Indian Summer, Embrace , and Rites of Spring.
There are bands that aren't emo persae, yet a number of songs by them will seem emo. These are bands like Fugazi and Husker Du(the band credited for creating the first emo album ever).
People's assumption of what emo is is totally distorted from the original definition. This is due to the fact that there are very little emo records on cds, most are on rare vinyls that were never re-released.This is also because a lot of people think "Emo" is just short for "Emotional", which means any band could be emo, since all music is emotion driven.
People often mistake pop-punk bands such as Taking Back Sunday and brand new as emo when in fact they are merely pop-punk. Their lyrics may seem "emo" at times, but in reality they possess none of the qualities emo represents. There is nothing "Hardcore" about them.
The mass-media has made up a screamo genre by composing bands like vendetta red and poison the well, which are really just mall metal. The concept of screamo was to be "emo with screaming", but since emo already is mostly screaming, that would just be saying "screaming music with screaming" and that's pretty redundant. If screamo were a real genre, a band like Orchid would fit in.
Then people make the assumption that indie rock or indie punk bands such as Alkaline Trio or Bright Eyes are emo. This is also false.
Bands such as Dashboard Confessional, Rocky Volotalo and Homage To Catalonia are what is known as post-indie technically, or more simply, Acoustic Pop Ballads.
Moreonto the fact, a lot of the newer bands are gettin ginto really good instrumentals, so if you're interested check out Yaphet Kotto and Envy(envy has been described as a cross between Yaphet Kotto and Mogwai), though you won't understand Envy unless you speak Japanese.
