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| - Emo isn't just a subculture, you know. It's a form of music. Well, two forms of music. Three, if you count screamo, which is essentially emo with lots of screaming. Emo itself (the music) is typically characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It grew out of the Hardcore Punk and Post-hardcore scenes in Washington DC in the mid-eighties, with bands like Rites of Spring, Minor Threat, Fugazi, and Embrace rising in popularity as a response to the perceived violence in the punk movement. While the DC scene would fade out by the end of The Eighties, by then it had spread across the country, with bands like Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate and San Francisco's Jawbreaker carrying the torch of emo through The Nineties. Thanks to the rise of Grunge and the boom
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| abstract
| - Emo isn't just a subculture, you know. It's a form of music. Well, two forms of music. Three, if you count screamo, which is essentially emo with lots of screaming. Emo itself (the music) is typically characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It grew out of the Hardcore Punk and Post-hardcore scenes in Washington DC in the mid-eighties, with bands like Rites of Spring, Minor Threat, Fugazi, and Embrace rising in popularity as a response to the perceived violence in the punk movement. While the DC scene would fade out by the end of The Eighties, by then it had spread across the country, with bands like Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate and San Francisco's Jawbreaker carrying the torch of emo through The Nineties. Thanks to the rise of Grunge and the boom in underground music in the early part of the decade, bands later labelled "emo" first got mainstream exposure during this period. The name was originally made up by Thrasher magazine in the mid-'80s as a satire on [any word whatsoever]-core punk. Twenty years later, emerged under that name as an actual hardcore-punk-derived musical subculture. It was in the later part of The Nineties when emo began to capitalize on its increased appeal. In 1996, Weezer released their sophomore album Pinkerton which, despite being initially bashed by critics and listeners alike, is now regarded as one of the greatest albums of the decade, and is viewed as having introduced emo to the mainstream (emo bands that had gotten famous before were, at the time, mostly associated with grunge) and influenced the genre. Emo firmly broke into the mainstream in 2001, when Jimmy Eat World released their hit album Bleed American, with its hit single "The Middle". Thanks to Jimmy, a whole new subculture evolved. The emo scene, once associated with underground music, developed and evolved as a result of mainstream exposure, and out of it grew the Emo Teens. For the exact definition of an emo, go see the article. We're describing the music, not the person who listens to it. Now, for the "two forms of music" thing. The two are commonly just known as "emo". To avoid confusion, we'll name the two types: "classic emo" and "scene emo". Classic emo is essentially Hardcore Punk. This is the form you're allowed to enjoy according to anti-emos. It's uncompromising and the bands weren't very mainstream. Some of it even predicates Post Rock. Scene emo is pop-punk mixed with classic emo's lyrics. This style developed after Jimmy Eat World brought emo into the mainstream. Along with Metalcore and post-grunge, scene emo is a Love It or Hate It genre -- it is insanely popular with some groups, while the rest seem to hate it with a passion. So, there you have it. The basic history of emo. It can't be described further without either upsetting someone or making the page overly long. Right, the band list. Um... this may get a bit controversial, so refrain from making drastic edits. This topic's already likely to cause enough Internet Backdraft to destroy half the bandwidth. "Classic" emo bands:
* AFI (became this on "Black sails in the sunset" but switched to Pop Punk on "Crash Love"
* Ashes
* Beefeater
* Braid
* Brand New (their later, more "mature"-sounding music could be considered this, but their earlier stuff, especially Your Favorite Weapon, leaned closer to "scene" emo or pop-punk)
* Cap'n Jazz
* Chiodos
* Christie Front Drive
* Don Martin Three
* Embrace
* Fire Party
* Fugazi
* The Get Up Kids
* Gray Matter
* The Hated (They started out playing just plain old punk, but this was the very early stuff which is mostly forgotten today.)
* Hüsker Dü
* Indian Summer
* Jawbreaker
* Jimmy Eat World
* Lunchmeat
* Mineral
* Moss Icon
* The Promise Ring
* Rainer Maria (early stuff only, they gradually transitioned to just straight melodic indie rock.)
* Rites of Spring
* Saves the Day
* Squirrel Bait
* Still Life
* Sunny Day Real Estate
* Texas is the Reason
* Thursday
* Turning Point
* Weezer (mostly a Power Pop band, but their first album and especially the self-produced Pinkerton were a large influence on later emo bands) "Scene" emo bands (the controversial bit):
* 30 Seconds to Mars
* All-American Rejects
* Dashboard Confessional
* Fall Out Boy
* Hawthorne Heights
* Panic! at the Disco (arguably, but what we know for sure is that they left this category when they decided to be The Kinks.)
* Paramore
* Simple Plan
* Taking Back Sunday
* Tokio Hotel Have we forgotten anything? Oh yeah, screamo. Screamo is a far more chaotic and screamier of emo. Be careful when you go searching for screamo, though - it's a lot more extreme than you'd expect. In fact, a lot of it is quite close to Grindcore. Examples of Screamo bands:
* Ampere
* Battle of Wolf 359
* The Blood Brothers
* Comadre
* Circle Takes The Square
* City of Caterpillar
* Daitro
* From Autumn To Ashes
* Funeral Diner
* Hot Cross
* I Hate Myself
* Jeromes Dream
* Joshua Fit for Battle
* La Quiete
* Louise Cyphre
* Mesa Verde
* Neil Perry
* Orchid
* Portrait
* pg99
* Raein
* The Saddest Landscape
* Saetia
* The Spirit Of Versailles
* Ten Grand (Previously known as The Vidablue)
* Twelve Hour Turn
* Usurp Synapse
* You and I The following earlier bands have a screamo sound and were huge influences on modern day bands, but predate the term. Most of them even rejected the "emo" label and preferred to describe their music only as screamy and chaotic hardcore:
* Angel Hair
* Antioch Arrow
* Merel
* Heroin
* Honeywell
* Mohinder
* Portraits of Past (arguably the Trope Codifier for screamo in general, they pioneered many elements of the sound almost universally used afterwards)
* Swing Kids A few things to consider:
* Emo purists tend to be an unsatisfiable bunch. Whether a band falls under emo or screamo or either category at all is rarely universally agreed upon. Some purists go so far as to reject the label of "screamo" altogether and argue that it's all just emo.
* As noted above, most bands, at least the earlier ones were not fond of the term. What Ian Mackaye had to say about it sums it up very well.
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