Some bands you just can't get into.....

(sitting WAAAAYYYY in back in the remedial section of the classroom and raising my hand)
Can someone tell me what "emo" is?

(sitting WAAAAYYYY in back in the remedial section of the classroom and raising my hand)
Can someone tell me what "emo" is?

Musically speaking, it's a genre of music a lot like punk. The only difference is, punk usually just deals with anger while emo short for emotional rock, talks about all emotions.

Musically speaking, it's a genre of music a lot like punk. The only difference is, punk usually just deals with anger while emo short for emotional rock, talks about all emotions.

And this is differnt from 99% of the music that's out there,... how???

Musically speaking, it's a genre of music a lot like punk. The only difference is, punk usually just deals with anger while emo short for emotional rock, talks about all emotions.

And this is differnt from 99% of the music that's out there,... how???

It's not really, it's just a subgenre of punk that deals with more emotions than punk does.

Here's an example of emo. My Chemical Romance, probably one of the more famous emo bands out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p0X0rWRQuk&feature=related Some mild language in this video.

(sitting WAAAAYYYY in back in the remedial section of the classroom and raising my hand)
Can someone tell me what "emo" is?

If the band members wear skin tight pants, have bangs that cover one eye and have really long song names, they might be "emo"

(sitting WAAAAYYYY in back in the remedial section of the classroom and raising my hand)
Can someone tell me what "emo" is?

If the band members wear skin tight pants, have bangs that cover one eye and have really long song names, they might be "emo"

lmao :lol:

(sitting WAAAAYYYY in back in the remedial section of the classroom and raising my hand)
Can someone tell me what "emo" is?

If the band members wear skin tight pants, have bangs that cover one eye and have really long song names, they might be "emo"

Does that mean bon jovi is like, two thirds emo?

I remember when emo fashion was op shop sweaters, beard and nerdy glasses.

Ah how things change.

PS that is probably the best description of emo i have heard in a long time grungey :D

anyway this is all mostly irrelevant, just me getting defensive of an often misunderstood thing that i kinda dig.

You would probably be more accurate to call me a jazz-o than an emo these days tho. Or just a punk kid.

*edit
Although technically the name was originally coined for emotional hardcore, hardcore itself being a subgenre of punk, but this doesn't really apply anymore as most emo is now not overly brutal, and a lot of what is is now called "Emo-core" or "Screamo"

this is probably one of my favourite emo songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvYLQM_fMMw
It's like new school metal infused emo. How good is the RnB breakdown?

Then theres stuff like this as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvd-4N4l7Zc&feature=related
Pretty true to the stereotype but still quite affecting music.

In reading through this whole "emo" thing, I kept saying to myself..."yeah but....yeah but..." as if I was trying to get a word in when reading. SO I hHAVE to include it in this post. Here's the deal (as far as I'm concerned) Calling these bands emo screamo, bleedo or whatever doesn't make them or the music they play any different than the bands that have come before them.

If you take a band that fits into whatever you classify as "Metal", for example. I can point to any song from that band and say "See, they are putting EMOtion into it". I would say the same goes for any other genre. So, being a full fledged member of the "I'm over 45 and any music you punks come up with can never match or be better than the stuff I grew up with " club, I would say that I just do not understand how any of these bands can claim an emo tag or be assigned one. Or how it even makes a distinction.

Does that make me officially old? (Shoot me now if I sound like my father)

Does that make me officially old? (Shoot me now if I sound like my father)

My stepfather never put that much thought into it, he just said stuff like "What the hell is that noise? They look like a bunch of girls. Etc."

Whenever people start labeling music, people tend to fall into 4 different groups:
1. The Late Bloomers - those who don't hear about that sub-genre until there are several artists that have hits, but act like they discovered an new planet. They say things like "Dude, I got the new Good Charlotte CD this weekend, you definitely need to check out some punk rock"
2. The Snobs - those who were into the early artists of a new thing and start hating the sub-genre as soon as it shows up in the media. They say things like "Grunge died the day Pearl Jam's 'Ten' was released."
3. The Scientists - those who must specifically classify all the different sub-sub-sub-genres. They say things like "The Black Crowes aren't rock n' roll, they are southern dirty blues rock with a little weed."
4. The Evolutionists (a blend of Snobs and Scientists) - as soon as the sub-genre makes it into the media, they declare that the current artists classified as "prog punk" aren't really "prog punk" since "prog punk" originally referred to 3 bands 15 years ago, who influenced 2 bands that were "hardcore prog punk" and another band that was "soft prog" and what the media is calling "prog punk" is really "melodic softcore speed folk"

In reading through this whole "emo" thing, I kept saying to myself..."yeah but....yeah but..." as if I was trying to get a word in when reading. SO I hHAVE to include it in this post. Here's the deal (as far as I'm concerned) Calling these bands emo screamo, bleedo or whatever doesn't make them or the music they play any different than the bands that have come before them.

If you take a band that fits into whatever you classify as "Metal", for example. I can point to any song from that band and say "See, they are putting EMOtion into it". I would say the same goes for any other genre. So, being a full fledged member of the "I'm over 45 and any music you punks come up with can never match or be better than the stuff I grew up with " club, I would say that I just do not understand how any of these bands can claim an emo tag or be assigned one. Or how it even makes a distinction.

Does that make me officially old? (Shoot me now if I sound like my father)

It's all a bit silly really.

Having the term emo just gives the ever pigeonholing society another yardstick to measure things by.

Grunge sunset had the right idea, its basically just punk, but dealing with more than just fighting the man and the gaovernment sucks and the whole world is *#@!'d. The term is more in reference to an alternative lifestyle choice made by a lot of the people who create and listen to it. It is a very complex and multi tiered term that i could write about five or six thousand words on and still not really encompass it.

Probs best just to leave it alone to do its thing and get on with life as we know it.

In reading through this whole "emo" thing, I kept saying to myself..."yeah but....yeah but..." as if I was trying to get a word in when reading. SO I hHAVE to include it in this post. Here's the deal (as far as I'm concerned) Calling these bands emo screamo, bleedo or whatever doesn't make them or the music they play any different than the bands that have come before them.

If you take a band that fits into whatever you classify as "Metal", for example. I can point to any song from that band and say "See, they are putting EMOtion into it". I would say the same goes for any other genre. So, being a full fledged member of the "I'm over 45 and any music you punks come up with can never match or be better than the stuff I grew up with " club, I would say that I just do not understand how any of these bands can claim an emo tag or be assigned one. Or how it even makes a distinction.

Does that make me officially old? (Shoot me now if I sound like my father)

Like I said it is a SUB GENRE of PUNK that deals with emotions other than angst and rage. You can point to metal but metal is normally pretty angst ridden. Even if it isn't, it is NOT a sub genre of punk.

It's like saying the blues shouldn't be called the blues because it's not the only genre that includes ballads. It also has to do with history, which I'm really not sure of, attitude/style of the band and of course our human minds liking to put labels on things/

It is a way of classifying music and I doubt the genre, or it's musicians are claiming they are the only ones using emotion. It's just to define a sound.

I feel really guilty for steering this thread away from it's original course, but hey, people are having fun so meh...
It is actually a little offensive to call it "Bleedo' That's kind of akin to racial and sexual stereotyping for a lot of people, and can be taken pretty seriously.

But hey lets all hold hands and dance through some meadows or something and go back to bands we CAN'T get into.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that i think Steve Vai is super pretentious and whilst i understand where he is going and appreciate his technical proficiency, super fast lydian licks a good song does not make.

labels and classifications should never be thought of as negative. it is merely a way of communicating. a label is an abbreviation for a deeper conversation to take place. there is a lineage in all things. be it art, literature or music.
we do not live and create in a vacuum.
for me, it is interesting, fun, enlightening and important (as an artist) to be aware and informed of from where things come.
as a painter if I were making dark moody landscapes encrusted with layers of paint, I had better know about Albert Pinkham Ryder if some one asked me about his work.
as a musician, whose default is blues, I had better understand it's beginning and evolution. if I cop a lick I should know the original and never claim it as my own.
when in undergrad school I was fascinated with the origins and connections of words.

jwmartin...love the list. very accurate and playfully cynical.

on a personal level, I do not care for emo music. the content is fine. it is with the production I have problems.
there is no punctuation. to my ears it
ALL SOUNDS LIKE UPPER CASE. THE SONGS GOES ON AND ON AND ON WITH CONSTANT
VAGUE HINTS AT DEEPER EMOTION BUT NO IMPACT BECAUSE AS WITH CONTINUAL UPPERCASE IT
WEAKENS ITS VERY INTENT AND MEANING. just as I typed.

Radiohead is in my headlights. I could run them over. when I first heard them I liked what they were trying to do. then it all began to sound the same. now there are many copycats. like Radiohead, it becomes too formalized.

fair call. i should also say that i do have tremendous respect for Steve Vai as a player, tremendous discipline and chops, and he is certainly more prolific than i as a songwriter, i just think there are better songwriters in that particular style of melodic shred. Joe Satriani for example, writes amazing songs, and then gets some pretty crazy legato and whammy work in the mix as well. And tapping. I dunno, it almost feels like a lot of those guys are trying to prove themselves as the supreme shredgod, where satch is kinda just comfortable knowing hes good, and focuses on the cool rhythms and melodies.

Anyone care to comment?

Vai's music does tend to lean more towards what most people call shed. Being very familiar with his stuff and, as dogbite said, the origin, I have a bit more background on where he's coming from/going. Vai cut his teeth in the Zappa school. That said, he's really more about being unstructured. (mixing different tempos and time sigs during the same measure) I never saw his playing as shred..but can see how it is preceived as such.

(side note to spides...dude, no one is taking shots at emo or what you listen to. I certainly did not mean to offend you by anything I said. Most of it was ":tongue in check" anyways... Frankly, I never understood the need to label music. Even as a child, I never got why people do that. :wink: )

Having listened to Vai since he's started playing with Zappa 100 years ago..(wait, I need ot look at Jeff's list to see how I am clasified by these statements...You missed one dude. I did not fit into either category. Therefore I'm calling myself a Snobolutionist.)... I'd say he's really trying to emulate Zappa in a lot of ways. So, I am therefore creating a new submulticulturalunderground genre. Vai belongs to the ProgFussionSatirist genre. He's a PFS.

I saw Satriani in NYC back in ....80? was it??? Not sure. Always liked him. Always will. He is in no genre. He's just Joe.

Ok...I am going to cross-pollinate threads here. This is a band/artist that I always got into but was afraid to admit and you most likely just can't get into...ready?....Lyle Lovett. Elecktrablue, Where are ya? Back be up here babe.