Emo, A fad or not? Options

[feck off!]

Emo or emotive hardcore. Born out of a mixture of 1980's (predominantly) American punk bands such as Minor Threat, leading to bands such as Rights of Spring' and Fugazi. They had a melodic punk sound, with lyrics describing emotions other than anger and violence. Nowadays its a term used to describe MTV fodder with repetitive themes generally along the lines of being dumped.

Personally I'm not a big fan of either 'wave' of emo, though I can listen to earlier examples without too much complaint as, in my experience, the lyrics are less whiney. Urban dictionary describes it as ‘Punk music on oestrogen’ which seems to sum it up in my mind.


What is your take on it? A fad soon to die, or a movement with the ability to go underground and re-surface years later in a mutated form?

[maian]

I think that the form of the genre that we are now seeing will be around for a while since it is water-down and mainstream enough to keep selling records, but people will outgrow it and new fans will emerge.

I don't hate it as a form of music, some of it sounds rather nice and I do like a bit of Fugazi, but most of it really annoys me.

[Jinx]

Does Quicksand count? If so then they were good. Slip was excellent.

[Crutch]

Emo's okay with me. It's funny and not as much stress as punk. Except for fatseff. And I don't think it will really die. I think it somehow fits into the world of today. But I'm less into the music than I'm in punk. But I think it is some kind of its own music.

This post has been edited by Crutch: Apr 30 2006, 10:08 PM

[DOD-MDK]

I am not an emo fan at all. How many emo kids does it take to change a light bulb? None..... They all sit in a corner and cry about it.

This post has been edited by DOD-MDK: Apr 30 2006, 10:35 PM

[Zoe]

Fugazi

and Sebadoh - those were the days.

[maian]

and Sebadoh - those were the days.

Would you count them as first-wave emo? I'd not thought of them as such. Great band though.

[Zoe]

I'm not sure, I just remember listening to them both quite a lot at the same time. They're inextricably linked in my head with being 14 and moody.

[maian]

Fair enough. I need to listen to more Sebadoh and Fugazi. It's been a while since I've listened to them much.

[whixie]

Emo has mutated. And only in the last two years or something. Fashion-wise it's now a mixture of goth, punk and rockabilly. Music-wise, it's gone from things like Jimmy Eat World (was never a huge fan but it's better than some of the other crap) to whiny, nasal-voiced bands like Coheed & Cambria (who have one good intro to one of their songs but that's it), Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, The Used...all of these bands are (to my mind anyway) this new emo shit. This is just my opinion of what I've seen in York, which is about six months to a year behind places like London music- and fashion-wise.

To us, new emos are the new scally. They're everywhere and they look ridiculous. Anyone seen the 'I must be emo' video doing the rounds? Sums it all up quite well.

Not sure if you have to have a myspace (Emo Breeding Ground) to watch this but here is a link: a link

[Nonus Aequilibri...]

It's just the new "nu-metal" isn't it?

[kill_the_queen!]

i am not sure where Emo will go, i mean, some bands/ fans are very temperamental and are subject to change, sooo i dunno!

[Silky]

I hope it goes away soon.

[Nonus Aequilibri...]

I hope it goes away soon.

It'll only get replaced by something else you don't like though. It's just what happens. Kids want to be associated with something "extreme" because they think it makes them look good, like metal or hardcore, but the problem is, they don't actually like extreme stuff, so they make their own watered down version that barely resembles what they started off trying to imitate.

[zeden]

I cant get the video to work on my comp at work but this should be it-I must be emo
If its the song that goes-

Cut my wrists and slit my throat
I must be emo
I dont dance around when I go to shows
I must be emo

A few of my mates I know through my bro like emo music but are dead against the fashion and attitude that goes with it.Dont mind some of the stuff, the occasional song will haunt me for days. I, my brother and our mates sit and joke about the crybaby attitude of the whole fad.

Ultimately, I'd rather be an emo than a chav, so they're not that bad.