what exactly does the term EMO mean and why are some teens so eager to label themselves this term? ********************************************* 09-21-05, 03:44 PM Dwight Try this site
09-21-05, 04:41 PM DorianGreyed Definition 3 has been around since the 50s at least. Often, bad poetry is involved, and usually someone says, "I just need to finish the music, then I'll make a record(CD)." (Alternate quote: "I just need to finish the last few lines (of the poem) and ...") As with almost every group of teens/youth who are in some way rebelling from the norm and want to be different, they become the norm in their own group, and show disdain for anyone different from their group.
09-21-05, 04:47 PM jusork Oh boy. I was waiting for this question to get asked soon. Let's see. Where to begin.
First of all, the term 'emo' is thrown around a lot. Within the last few years, the term has gained major popularity. The uninformed popular music press and music promoters who know little about music terminology have probably perpetuated the bastardization of the term more than anybody. Style/genre terminology is misused the most because the sound of individual styles and genres can be hard to distinguish and it usually takes active exploration into the style to know just what makes it a certain style. So popular music press sometimes just slaps false labels onto artists with little research when they think it's necessary. The information that the popular press writes goes all over the place, and most people learn about music from this information. And this is how style terminology can be so easily abused and misunderstood.
Right now in pop culture, the term 'emo' has a connotation with a unique fashion style and a vague musicial sound.
The fashion style is narrowed down pretty easily to a variety of particular things: here's a website that describes the particulars. Putting it like an authoritative emo guide book is meant to be humorous and to show how pointless the style is. But "emo kids" certainly don't usually follow some guide. Most aren't over-the-top. It's just that there's always a few of these particulars and either they consider those particulars to be something "emo" or someone else notices those particulars and figures they're dressing "emo." Like most fashion styles, there's no real basis to it. Some people will wear a studded belt and tight jeans and considers himself to being wearing something emo, but doesn't intend to be emo. For some people, particular fashion characteristics are nothing more than the feature of choice. Then other people just have some kind of urge to dress in some special style which then causes them to consider themselves as a part of the scene and/or culture. There's also plenty of people who define it in such simplistic ways as it being based on sorrow, or even just vaguly linking it to emotion and leaving it at that. The point of this fashion style and why it followed the rise of the term emo in music so strongly is beyond my knowledge. You seem to have a pretty good understanding, I think, DG. You effectively explain the basic idea quite simply.
Again like most fashion styles, there's often a cluster of the people who dress a certain way to listen to a certain style of music. When the fashion becomes tied into the music so heavily, people start blending the two together and fitting them under a broad (sub)culture term. In this case, it's the music term.
Right now in pop culture, emo as a musicial term has a popular connotation which basically consists of high-pitched vocals (and some people will notice a weird/unique name and/or odd, seemingly meaningless song titles and consider it a connotation). Since the popular usage of the term is so vague, other than how the band dresses, the vocals are pretty much the one conotation which people have that defines the musical style across the board. (Side note: since sounds and looks that are slapped with an at-one-time-genuine term are continuously misused and redefined due to its uncommon understandings, the style that rises out never truly has any guidelines to make the term really descriptive And so semi-subjective conotation ends up pretty much being the only way the style can be attempted to be defined for people.) Most often, though, the term is considered to refer to light rock or medium-heavy rock as diverse as Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, Yellowcard, My Chemical Romance, and, most recently, Fall Out Boy. Other people think of the term as refering to heavier bands with lots of screaming such as bands as diverse as Glassjaw, At The Drive-In, The Used, and Alexisonfire.
Now for the traditional, original usage of the term emo. To begin, it may help to begin first with what the term punk means. Punk is a style of rock music which flourished in the late '70s and is based mainly on a Do-It-Yourself, independent music outlook and attitude. In time, bands with this attitude began forming new individual styles. Hardcore punk, straight-edge, anarchist punk, post-hardcore were some of these. And by the late '80s, the style known as emo became one of them. Initially an outgrowth of hardcore punk, it began in the ashes of the Washinton, D.C. punk scene with bands like Rites of Spring, Ian MacKaye's Embrace, Dag Nasty, and Fugazi (to name a few), and the style was characterized mainly by its distinction from punk due to it's significantly more prominent usage of emotion. After awhile, emo began moving toward a lighter sound, most notably in Sunny Day Real Estate. Following Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate in the early '90s was the next step in the popularity of emo. Emo bands continued into the '90s without that much notice. Then around 2000 and 2002, tons of bands suddenly started popping up. (The Used was the first big one I remember.) Some of them popped right into major labels and found a lot of commercialization. This really severed any ties those bands had to uncommercial-focused punk attitude and, in turn, any ties to genuine emo. The sound is, in general, based on something of the same original sound, but it's most relevent characteristic isn't. The bands on the major labels are the ones who are able to get the most exposure and since they're called emo by the press, people think of them as emo, despite the distance they are from the significance of the word's meaning. I prefer calling it pop-emo. The distinction between pop-emo and emo is very small, but I think it's worth noting.
Along with pop-emo also came what is vaguely termed "screamo" by popular media. These are the heavier bands which I menioned above. The bands under the popular usage of this broad term actually can be separated into a number of individual sonic styles. The sound that most people hear is called post-hardcore and I prefer to refer to the non-punk based post-hardcore-sounding bands as post-hardcore-pop (despite being clunky; I made these terms up if you can't tell. I think they make sense though). Post-hardcore has it's own history (although it also includes Fugazi). Basically, post-hardcore happened when punk bands wanted to make more complex punk-influenced music (thus it has roots in DIY focus, too).
Although some people have given up on emo, there are still lots of bands who I'd consider genuine emo enough to call genuine emo. Plenty of emo-styled kids are attentive to the underground scene and plenty of bands are getting loads of word-of-mouth exposure thanks to these kids. (The same with screamo fans and bands.) Really, in terms of proportion, I'd say the underground emo and screamo scenes are getting about as much notice from music fans right now as the popular versions are. So that's refreshing.
Urbandictionary can be helpful, but it sure can be ranty and sarcastic with such definitions. I hope I kept it more fair and objective than definitions like #3.
And I consider this site to be very informative on all this (along with Allmusic, of course.) How fortunate for the uninformed people that it appears as the very first site in a search engine search, before all the less informed sites that come after.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: jusork, 09-21-05 06:29 PM
09-21-05, 09:36 PM jusork And of course feel free to ask for clarification on anything.
01-21-06, 02:30 PM Bialor These days, if somebody says emo they probably just mean a type of person who dresses a certain way (eg tight dark jeans, small t-shirts, dyed black hair in a certain style) and listen to a certain type of music. The stereotype is somebody that is overly emotional, cries a lot, writes sad poetry and possibley cuts their wrists etc. That is just a stupid stereotype and not the original meaning of the word, but thats what its come to mean among teens.
People want to label themselves emo so they fit into a group, although where I come from it is usually an insult to call somebody emo (especially guys, because emos are seen to be very feminin and possibly gay...again just a stupid stereotype)
01-21-06, 04:29 PM jusork Yeah, the stereotypes definitely seem to play a large part in how people see the term.
01-23-06, 01:30 PM gerry
quote: Originally posted by jusork: And of course feel free to ask for clarification on anything.
The Master of Music and Style has done himself proud again! Nice detailed response! Cool
01-23-06, 05:39 PM jusork *bows* Thanks. Thanks for reading.
01-26-06, 06:58 PM gerry
quote: Originally posted by jusork: And of course feel free to ask for clarification on anything.
I just asked my 12 year old 7th grade grandaughter if she had ever heard of EMO. Of course she had(and so had my 9 year old!). I asked her if she was EMO, and she said she was a combination EMO-PUNK-INDIE. Roll Eyes OK, so what's 'Indie'?
Indie has been used in a different ways lately as well actually. Traditionally, indie music means independently made music (i.e. music not affiliated with the big four record labels). The biggest type of indie music is indie rock. And 'indie' has, thus, also been used as being short for indie rock. Indie is a different musicial term because instead of describing the sound, it describes the status.
The past few years, however, has seen a kind of indie popularity, especially with indie bands who go mainstream and are able to get more of an audience. With it has come an association with the term as a particular sound, a kind of down-to-earth feel and a making-genuine-music-for-music's-sake kind of feel. Such attitudes can pretty much be found in many of the more serious-type of indie rock, but certainly not a definitive trait in all independent music. A popular major label band right now that gets called indie would be Death Cab for Cutie . They recently went mainstream with their latest album, Plans.
01-27-06, 07:44 AM gerry Jusork Thanks! You have a quite impressive knowledge of this stuff.
Back in my day (late 50's), all we had (and needed)was rock and roll (and a host of very memorable 'slow ones'). The most popular style for the boys was a cheap short sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up a notch and a pack of Lucky's tucked in underneath. The girls liked the mousketeer 'Annette Funicello' look. Very simple.
Could it be that life was so much simpler then, or has Time rewritten every line? Wink
01-27-06, 06:26 PM Karrow
quote: Could it be that life was so much simpler then, or has Time rewritten every line?
Ah yes gerry, but......
If we had the chance to do it all again Tell me, would we? Could we?
01-27-06, 06:59 PM DorianGreyed I think Karrow's gruel has fermented.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
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