Content Starts Here
Emo Biography
EMO BIOGRAPHY
Emo
Emo, emotional hardcore, emo-core, post-punk, pop-punk...call it what you like, this guitar-driven music bed for the anxious teens of America and beyond has arguably come so far from its supposedly 'underground', alternative beginnings as to become part of the current mainstream. By the late-90s, Emo had become part of the lingo, the 'latest thing' according to 'Teen People' - probably causing many of the movement's exponents and followers to shudder with self-conscious angst. (If an updated, slightly gothier version of Harry Enfield's 'Kevin the Teenager' was to have a soundtrack, it'd probably be 90% emo...)
Emerging through various Washington DC bands in the 1980s, 'emo' was originally synonymous with hardcore punk, but the term has latterly been used to describe the 'emotional hardcore' music of famous bands such as Fugazi, Weezer and Jimmy Eat World. Seeking to define the emo sound, the New York Times summed it all up quite nicely in 2005: '...punk that wears its heart on its sleeve and tries a little tenderness to leaven its sonic attack. If it helps, imagine Ricky Nelson singing in the Sex Pistols.'
Must we? Anyway...as an offshoot of the increasingly violent and aggressive hardcore scene, emo was more of an emotional form, albeit no less confrontational and angry, the lyrics being intense and personal...and the navel-gazing hitting on what so many of the teenaged fans on the scene felt they were all about. Added to this was a more experimental approach to arrangement, jangly melodic guitars and harmonies (remember them?) challenging the norms of the punk genre. Several sources seem to think that Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü's 1984 release 'Zen Arcade' provided something of a road-map for the emo movement that was to follow, raging self-abusive vocals and melodic hard rock meeting in bizarrely harmonious circumstances.
The torch originally lit by DC bands Moss Icon, Rites of Spring and Embrace was passed on to groups in other cities, expanding the scene in San Diego (where Gravity Records was the imprint in the early 90s releasing emo stuff). As well as spreading across California, over on America's East coast another comparable scene was growing, particularly in New Jersey. Not content with having unleashed Bon Jovi upon the world, the Garden State can now lay claim to being responsible for acts such as Saves the Day, My Chemical Romance and Jimmy Eat World, more recent groups daubed with the emo tag - predictably so, given both groups' penchant for guitar music and 'life-sucks' outlook - maudlin American complaint-rock, here we come.
However, it seems that the emo tag is one that few people seem to want - clearly, as soon as a scene gets a label from the mainstream media, its cover is blown - and My Chemical Romance's front-man, Gerard Way, was once moved in an interview to describe emo as 'a pile of shit'. Whether or not he was talking about the tag or the music is up to you, really.
Related Links
Font size
Mail
My account
Help
Community
Print now
Send to a friend
Related articles
Related products
