I absolutely abhor violence. But if I didn't, the Mexican fad of beating up fans of Emo for the dual purpose of catharsis and knocking some sense into them might be something I could get into. But only if the recipients of the tough love were helped and not hurt by the experience, mind you. They riot in Mexico over Emo. Have you ever heard whinier, wimpier, crappier anti-rock rock music (listen here, or don't, for an example) in your life? Poseurs! You know Emo? Fall Out Boy? Panic at the Disco? The Mexicans really hate Emo, and I do too. "Instead of asking for tolerance, they should make a huge campaign with psychologists and psychiatrists to find out what is happening to these kids who call themselves emos," one Mexican opined. An anti-Emo video, playing off the faux-suicidal adolescent melodrama, announced: "Emos, why don't you just kill yourselves." One website not fond of Emo put it simply: "Parental Advisory: Emo Is Gay." And it's this last sentiment that has fueled the idea that the anti-Emo movement is homophobic and in some way political. Here in the United States, we've been there, done that. Remember the Disco Sucks movement that culminated in the Disco Demolition Night at Comisky Park? It was deemed racist, and given political connotations. But, like Mexico's anti-Emo riots, the Disco Sucks movement was ultimately a reaction against the airwaves being invaded by horrible music. Don't hurt anyone, my Mexican anti-Emo brothers. Just shut your ears and this too will pass.
If I had the hair, I'd definately by an Emo. I'd look kind of funny in skin tight high wader black jeans though.
'Emo'? I had to look it up on Wikipedia. Of the hundred or so bands listed, I only recognized two names: Jimmy Eat World, and (one of the albums by) Weezer. Though I've heard songs by Jimmy Eat World, I couldn't tell you what they were. As for Weezer, the article describes their 1996 album Pinkerton as "one of the defining 'emo' records of the 90s." I havn't heard any of the songs off that album, but according to the article, it was completely different in style from their (brilliant!) Blue Album. In my opinion, Weezer is one of the best bands of the last 20 years. The Green Album and Make Believe are excellent, and they're getting ready to realease another album. I guess their 'emo' phase was short-lived; or are any of these considered 'emo'? If so, I'm an 'emo' fan to the extent that I love Weezer.
I like both Jimmy Eat World and Weezer enough to own albums by both. I don't consider them Emo and don't know anyone who does, but I, too, caught that Wikipedia entry and was caught off guard. I think when a genre sucks, the fans of that genre try to claim credit for a few groups that may be tangentially related to the genre but don't suck. It may also be the case that just because I like something, I want to discard the possibility that it might be Emo. I did this with hair metal acts from the '80s. Anything I liked (Def Leppard, GnR, Motley Crue) automatically became hard rock and not hair metal.
I think Def Leppard and Motley Crue would have to be classified as 'hair metal.' Just compare the mid-80s personas of Vince Neil to, say, James Hetfield, not to mention the music of Girls, Girls, Girls to, say, Master of Puppets, and the difference is obvious. (What's also obvious is that the latter was/is superior in every way.)
Early GNR was not quite Metallica (of the 80s; not to be confused with 'The Band Formerly Known as Metallica' of recent years), but Appetite for Desruction is very hard (my personal favorite being "Mr. Brownstone"). I think that album alone justifies putting them on the hard side of hard/hair rock.
Ok.
The whole "emo" classififcation is really strange these days.
The term first came into use in the late 80s to describe an offshoot of punk rock/American hardcore and the definitive band back then was considered to be Rites of Spring.
Rites of Spring
To hear what they sound like (and I love them) check this myspace page:
Now, in the early 90's "punk broke" into the mainstream of American pop culture, Green day, etc. And the way big studios work is they over-produce the sh-t out of everything to make it as catchy and poppy as possible to influence pre-teens and teens to part with their allowances and adopt a "lifestyle" or "chic" that can be sold in mass quantities at American Apparel and the like. So this whole "emo" thing as it is now known became an offshoot of corporate sugary pop-punk.
It *seems* to me to have largely replaced the trend of Goth (or at least expanded much of the style to people who hate the Goth music). It has the same basic chic (slighlty less black) combined w/ less industrial sounding music. It goes a poppier way (probably to boost the numbers of females involved or more likely a result of the influence of homo males). So now you get things like the "emo emu" who "would cut himself if he had arms" coming out of the "emo" scene:
So the bottom line for me personally as a punk rock youth from the 80's is that I used to be able to categorize the bulk of my listening tastes thusly: "post-punk-emo-indie-rock". But now I don't know that I can use the term emo as a qualifier for some of the bands I like. For example I personally would describe Jimmy Eat World as "emo-pop-punk" but am hesitant to do so these days.
Speaking of obnoxious "music", how about a Rap Demolition Night?
i wish my lawn was emo....
then it would cut its self
