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Emo Is Not A Genre
But some people like to pretend it is!
Emo supposedly started in the early 80's. I really don't believe this at all. Just because some guys were dressed like girls and made music, they're emo? It seems like people actually started caring about emo around 2002. Then, they're like, "hmm, let's explore this concept more", and before you know it, people who were just playing punk rock with sad lyrics [and lyrics affecting genre is being constantly debated, but us intelligent/music-making folk know that it's 100% bullshit] are suddenly making emo music. You cannot write music in the "emo harmonic" scale. You cannot play your guitar like an emo hero. You can, however, write many songs about your lost dog, which would be deemed "emo" by people who don't know that the words "touching" or "deep" could actually exist in reference to a song. But my main issue is not that peoples' lyrics are being called emo, it's the music! Panic at the Disco. Okay. They wear makeup. They... kinda talk about sex a lot. That's pretty much all people could call them emo for. Their dress is flamboyant, which is why, I'm assuming, people are saying they're emo. They never talk about cutting themself, or their poor dog, or anything. Their music so far has been divided as much as their CD was:
The first part is techno, the second part (which followed a lovely intermission, might I add) is what you call "baroque" music. Baroque, for the most part, refers to music with accordians and old little piano's and many other lovely elements like that. The beats are usually slower, and to dress in a baroque way would be very extravagant and mostly very showman-like. Tophats, canes, very nice vests. In essence, it's a very refined genre to play and you can read about it on Wikipedia or something. The techno stuff is just absolutely not emo. He has a song or two written about his drunk dad. All who call that emo should promptly burn in Hell.
But can emo music be made? It's absolutely possible for emo to be a genre! This is based on how "goth music" was made. If these so-called emo bands can stay emo long enough, to the point where they "coin" a sound, then it'd be exactly like how goth music was founded. Some people will argue that since there was one bad of homosexual and depressed people in 1980, that's when emo started. Unfortunately people only started caring around '02, including the uprising of emo itself. Goth has been cared about since even a little before the 80's, and people refer to movies and art as gothic. It's a definition that's set in stone. And do you really think people will refer to art and movies as "emo"? In short, emo has to work harder and stay longer. Goth's obviously here to stay, while emo is just kind of a knockoff goth, that is likely not here to stay. (but if it does, might actually detach itself from goth's nipple and be a real subculture one day) Update: I've found a terrible site called emo-corner.com :O This is a classic example of not taking everything you read on the internet as fact. One person that actually knows what he's talking about, but has kinda bad english, says: Recently one of your viewers wrote to us and said... I would like to ask you to read this comment. yeah, fob, mcr p!atd and all the stuff has pretty NOTHING to do with emo. the guy who says indian summer, the rites of spring, dag nasty, fugazi were emo is completely right. but its not dead yet. emo and screamo, theres no big difference. the guy forgets to mention bands like circle takes the square, funeral diner, i would set myself on fire for you or comadre. havin' an awful hair style and looking like a dork has nothing to do with emo too and being suicidal and depressed has nothing to do with emo aswell, its the music which matters. the most of the modern "emokids" are what is in their name: "kids". they dont event know what it means to be suicidal. maybe they think its cool too say. but its NOT a cool feeling to be depressive, it sucks! if you are that, you dont even care to behaver like an "emokid" anymore.and excuse my bad english, just wrote it by feeling lucky ;) But, listening to these bands, I don't see what's emo about them. Rites of Spring sounds like a regular punk band, Fugazi just a modern rock band of the 90's with poor audio quality, and (the genre) hardcore vocals. Ugh, it feels like I can write forever about this stuff because it really seems there is no definitive answer as to what "emo" is. I've narrowed it down to being "emotive hardcore". Looking at the emo page on Wikipedia says... Emo (pronounced /'i?mo?/) is a style of rock music which describes several independent variations of music with common stylistic roots. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate. In the mid-1980s, the term emo described a subgenre of hardcore punk which originated in the Washington, DC music scene. In later years, the term emocore, short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the emotional performances of bands in the Washington DC scene and some of the offshoot regional scenes such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Gray Matter, Fire Party, and later, Moss Icon. (In more recent years, the term "emotive hardcore" entered the lexicon to describe the period.)So it's like, what the hell. It's a subgenre, of a subgenre, and even then, there's nothing to define it, the damn article for it even says "As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate". Gothic rock, you can at least tell the characteristics of! (and really, it shouldn't be gothic rock, because I've heard of goth electronica too) All I'm saying is that... alright, go to the "steampunk" article on Wikipedia. It says, "steampunk music". But really all you would do to classify that would be stuff that "sounds like" steampunk. Listening to their examples they gave in the article, those bands were just more eclectic electronica. I'm not going to pretend steampunk will ever be a genre, but I will absolutely say that there can be music for steampunks. The general thought I'm picking up from people who do state emo music exists, is that there was the old emo, and the new emo. They're different from each other in that the new is the whiney kids, and the faggy bands, and the old is... well, I've already stated it's pretty hard to put a finger on it. =/ To finish with that quote from above... I don't know about the cutting-yourself thing. Goths originally did it for a while, and I'm quite certain some still do, but it seems like cutting yourself just falls into the, oddly, trendy thing to do? Being a goth myself, I've talked to many other goths, read forums and posts and blogs, magazines, etc. etc. I've found that the people who were cutting just, grew out of it, and some of them, and it's so so so common with these sub cultures, just stopped being goth. You feel bad, so you dress darker. It's something in the human mind, something that says that people wearing darker clothes just look more mysterious. And you do carry yourself by how you feel, which thus has an impact on how you dress. Honestly the emo kids don't even look dark, I'm just saying, in general. I mean really, how long can you live your life cutting yourself? Eventually, you gotta be a big kid and go on with life. And it's at that moment you realize that a subculture is not for you. Not to say that any subculture DOES encourage cutting. Thank you for your time.
I'd also like to add that I tried not to offend goths, but it just feels like I did. Goth-talk mode here: we just call the poseur-goths. *sagely nod* And yes I'm aware, snotty bitches, that emo kids are not instantly gay. But you don't know enough about your own subculture if you don't know that even the poser-emo's all say they're "bisexual"!
I'M NOT OKAAAAAAAAAAAAAY,
Vael
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