Emo
Emo is a sub-genre of punk rock. It is thought that the term emo was derived from the fact that, on occasion, members of a band would become spontaneously and strongly emotional during performances. Though it originally emerged in the mid-to-late 1980's, the genre has recently gained popularity thanks to bands such as: Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, and many others.
Contents
Early Days
"Emo-Core"
In 1983, the DC punk scene began to lose popularity and many of the bands of the era had started to break up. In 1984, the band Husker Dü began the slow start of the early emo movement with the releaso of their album, Zen Arcade. The album featured melodic songwriting, intense vocals, and punkish guitars. Soon afterwards, bands such as Rites Of Spring and Embrace began to perfect the "DC Sound" with their music. Later on, this style of music begins to be referred to as "emo-core".
"Emo"
In 1987, several new bands inspired by the "emo-core" bands of a few years before began to emerge in several areas around North America. These bands added their own unique sound to the genre, including softer and sometimes whispered vocals, louder guitars, screaming vocals, and the most recognizable element of the genre, octave chords. The vocal style for this genre could range from normal singing, to screaming and even crying at some parts.
Much of the lyrics for this genre were somewhat abstract poetry which were often inaudible because of the volume of the instruments. When playing live, many bands would keep their backs to the audience while playing the quiet parts and would jump around and knock things over and scream at the top of their lungs during the loud parts.
There was almost no commercialism at all for this genre as most bands did not make t-shirts and only sold records at their shows.
Most "emo" bands would only be around for a short time. Many bands only released their first records post-humously.
Criticism
As emo has become more popular, and especially since the Columbine shootings, there has been increasing criticism of the pro-suicide, anti-religion sentiments of many emo groups.
