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Emo is a style of Rock Music . Since its inception, ''emo'' has come to describe several independent variations of music, linked loosely but with common stylistic roots. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate. In its original incarnation, the term ''emo'' was used to describe a subgenre of Hardcore Punk which originated in the Washington, DC Music Scene of the mid-1980s. In later years, the term ''emocore'', short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the DC scene and some of the regional scenes that spawned from it. The term ''emo'' was derived from the fact that, on occasion, members of a band would become spontaneously and strongly emotional during performances. The most recognizable names of the period included Rites Of Spring , Embrace , One Last Wish , Beefeater , Gray Matter , Fire Party , and, slightly later, Moss Icon . The first wave of emo began to fade after the breakups of most of the involved bands in the early 1990s. Starting in the mid-1990s, the term ''emo'' began to reflect the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi , which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas Is The Reason put forth a more Indie Rock style of emo, more melodic and less chaotic in nature than its predecessor. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the late 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted to mainstream styles. As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the more mainstream style, creating a style of music that has now earned the moniker ''emo'' within popular culture. Whereas, even in the past, the term ''emo'' was used to identify a wide variety of bands, the breadth of bands listed under today's emo is even more vast, leaving the term "emo" as more of a loose identifier than as a specific genre of music. HISTORY The first wave (1985-1994)
Where the term ''emo'' actually originated is uncertain, but members of Rites Of Spring mentioned in a 1985 interview in Flipside Magazine that some of their fans had started using the term to describe their music. By the early 90s, it was not uncommon for the early DC scene to be referred to as ''emo-core'', though it's unclear when the term shifted. Within a short time, the D.C. emo sound began to influence other bands such as , Soulside , Shudder To Think , Fire Party , Marginal Man, and Gray Matter , many of which were released on MacKaye's Dischord Records . The original wave of DC emo finally ended in late 1994 with the collapse of Hoover . As the D.C. scene expanded, other scenes began to develop with a similar sound and DIY ethic. In San Diego in the early 1990s, Gravity Records released a number of records in the hardcore emo style. Bands of the period included Heroin , Indian Summer , Drive Like Jehu , Angel Hair , Antioch Arrow , Universal Order Of Armageddon , Swing Kids , and Mohinder . Also in California, Ebullition Records released records by bands of the same vein, such as Still Life and Portraits Of Past , as well as more traditional Hardcore Punk bands, all having various social and political themes in common. At the same time, in the club scene in New York, itself a response to the violence and stagnation in the scene and with the bands that played at CBGB s, the only other small venue for hardcore in New York at the time. Much of this wave of emo, particularly the San Diego scene, began to shift towards a more chaotic and aggressive form of emo, nicknamed '' Screamo ''. By and large, the more hardcore style of emo began to fade as many of the early era groups disbanded. However, aspects of the sound remained in bands such as Four Hundred Years and Yaphet Kotto . Also, a handful of modern bands continue to reflect emo's hardcore origins, including Circle Takes The Square , Hot Cross , City Of Caterpillar , Funeral Diner , and A Day In Black And White . Following the disbanding of Embrace in 1986, MacKaye established the influential group . "Jimmy Eat World Message Board - FAQ: The Band" Early emo's influence In California - particularly in the . Also in the early 90s, bands like Lifetime reacted in their own way to the demise of Youth Crew styled straight-edge hardcore and desired to seek out a new direction. While their music was often classified as emo, it was also considered to be Melodic Hardcore . In response to the more metal direction their hardcore peers were taking, Lifetime initially decided to slow down and soften their music, adding more personal lyrics. The band later added a blend of speed, aggression, and melody that defined their sound. Lifetime's sound, lyrics, and style were a virtual blueprint for later bands, including Saves The Day , Taking Back Sunday , and The Movielife . The second wave (1994–2000) As Fugazi and the Dischord Records scene became more and more popular in the indie underground of the early 1990s, new bands began to spring up. Combining Fugazi with the Post-punk influences of Mission Of Burma and Hüsker Dü , a new genre of emo emerged. Perhaps the key moment was the release of the album '' Diary '' by Sunny Day Real Estate in 1994. Given Sub Pop 's then-recent success with Nirvana and Soundgarden , the label was able to bring much wider attention to the release than the typical indie release, including major advertisements in Rolling Stone . The heavier label support allowed the band to secure performances on TV shows, including '' The Jon Stewart Show ''. As a result, the album received widespread national attention. As more and more people learned about the band, particularly via the fledgling World Wide Web , the band was given the tag ''emo''. Even where Fugazi had not been considered emo, the new generation of fans shifted the tag from the earlier hardcore style to this more Indie Rock style of emo. It was not uncommon for Sunny Day and its peers to be labeled with the full "emo-core". However, when pressed to explain "emo", many fans split the genre into two brands: the "hardcore emo" practiced in the early days and the newer "indie emo". In the years that followed, several major regions of "indie emo" emerged. The most significant appeared in the Midwest in the mid-90s. Many of the bands were influenced by the same sources, but with an even more tempered sound. This brand of emo was often referred to as "Midwestern emo" given the geographic location of the bands, with several of the best-known bands hailing from the areas around Chicago , Kansas City , Omaha and Milwaukee . The initial bands in this category included Boy's Life and Cap'n Jazz . In ensuing years, bands such as The Promise Ring , Braid , Elliott , Cursive , and The Get Up Kids emerged from the same scene and gained national attention. The area around Phoenix, Arizona became another major scene for emo. Inspired by Fugazi and Sunny Day Real Estate, former punk rockers Jimmy Eat World began stirring emo influences into their music, eventually releasing the album '' Static Prevails '' in 1996. The album was arguably the first emo record released by a major label, as the band had signed with Capitol Records in 1995. Other bands that followed the "indie emo" model included Colorado's Christie Front Drive , New York's Texas Is The Reason and Rainer Maria , California's Knapsack and Sense Field , Baltimore's Cross My Heart , Austin's Mineral , and Boston's Piebald and Jejune . Strangely, as "indie emo" became more widespread, a number of acts who otherwise would not have been considered part of the "indie emo" scene began to be referred to as ''emo'' because of their similarity to the sound. The hallmark example was Weezer 's 1996 album '' Pinkerton '', which, years later, was considered one of the defining "emo" records of the 90s.Edwards, Gavin. "Weezer: Pinkerton" ''RollingStone.com''. December 9, 2004. As the wide range of emo bands began to attract notoriety on a national scale, a number of indie labels attempted to document the scene. Many emo bands of the late 90s signed to indie labels including , At The Drive-In , and Jawbox , among others. With the late-90s emo scene being more national than regional, major labels began to turn their attention toward signing emo bands with the hopes of capitalizing on the genre's popularity. Many bands resisted the lure, citing their loyalty to the independent mentality of the scene. Several bands cited what they saw as mistreatment of bands such as Jawbox and Jawbreaker while they were signed to majors as a reason to stay away. The conflict felt within many of the courted emo bands resulted in their break-ups, including Texas Is the Reason and Mineral. By the end of the decade, the word ''emo'' cropped up in mainstream circles. In the summer of 1998, Teen People magazine ran an article declaring "emo" the newest "hip" style of music, with The Promise Ring a band worth watching. The independent nature of the emo scene recoiled at mainstream attention, and many emo bands shifted their sound in an attempt to isolate themselves from the genre. In the years that followed, Sunny Day Real Estate opted to shift to a more prog-rock direction, Jejune aimed for happy pop-rock, and The Get Up Kids and The Promise Ring released lite-rock albums. While "indie emo" almost completely ceased to exist by the end of the decade, many bands still subscribe to the Fugazi / Hüsker Dü model, including Thursday , The Juliana Theory , and Sparta . The third wave (2000-present) At the end of the 1990s, the underground emo scene had almost entirely disappeared. However, the term ''emo'' was still being bandied about in mainstream media, almost always attached to the few remaining 90s emo acts, including Jimmy Eat World . However, towards the end of the 1990s, Jimmy Eat World had begun to shift in a more mainstream direction. Where Jimmy Eat World had played emocore-style music early in their career, by the time of the release of their 2001 album '' Bleed American '', the band had downplayed its emo influences, releasing more pop-oriented singles such as " The Middle " and " Sweetness ". As the public had become aware of the word ''emo'' and knew that Jimmy Eat World was associated with it, the band continued to be referred to as an "emo" band, despite their objections. Newer bands that sounded like Jimmy Eat World (and, in some cases, like the more melodic emo bands of the late 90s) were soon included in the genre.DeRogatis, Jim. "Emo (The Genre That Dare Not Speak Its Name)" . 2003 saw the success of Chris Carrabba , the former singer of emo band Further Seems Forever , and his project Dashboard Confessional . Despite musically being more aligned to the singer songwriter school, Carraba found himself part of the emerging "popular" emo scene. Carrabba's music featured lyrics founded in deep diary-like outpourings of emotion. While certainly emotional, the new "emo" had a far greater appeal amongst adolescents than its earlier incarnations. DeRogatis, Jim. "True Confessional?" . October 3, 2003. With Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World's success, major labels began seeking out similar sounding bands. Just as many bands of the early-to-mid 1990s were unwillingly lumped under the umbrella of " Grunge ", some record labels wanted to be able to market a new sound under the word ''emo''. At the same time, use of the term "emo" expanded beyond the musical genre, which added to the confusion surrounding the term. The word "emo" became associated with open displays of strong emotion. Common fashion styles and attitudes that were becoming idiomatic of fans of similar "emo" bands also began to be referred to as "emo". (For further discussion, see Emo (slang) .) As a result, bands that were loosely associated with "emo" trends or simply demonstrated emotion began to be referred to as ''emo''.Popkin, Helen A.S. "What exactly is 'emo', anyway?" MSNBC.com. March 26, 2006 In an even more expanded way than in the 90s, ''emo'' has come to encompass an extremely wide variety of bands, many of whom have very little in common. The term has become so broad that it has become nearly impossible to describe what exactly qualifies as "emo". Appropriately or not, ''emo'' has been used to describe such bands as AFI , Alexisonfire , Brand New , Bright Eyes , Coheed And Cambria , Death Cab For Cutie , Fall Out Boy , From First To Last , Funeral For A Friend , Hawthorne Heights , My Chemical Romance , Panic! At The Disco , Senses Fail , Something Corporate , The Starting Line , Story Of The Year , Taking Back Sunday , Thursday , The Used , and Underoath .Community site last.fm tags all bands listed as emo or screamo [http://www.last.fm/tag/screamo . Silverstein categorizes themselves as emo on their MySpace page. Many of the other bands listed such as Taking Back Sunday [http://www.vh1.com/artists/interview/1490565/08262004/taking_back_sunday.jhtml and My Chemical Romance [http://designermagazine.tripod.com/MyChemicalRomanceINT1.html] reject the emo label. The classification of bands as "emo" is often controversial. Fans of several of the listed bands have recoiled at the use of the "emo" tag, and have gone to great lengths to explain why they don't qualify as "emo". In many cases, the term has simply been attached to them because of musical similarities, a common fashion sense, or because of the band's popularity within the "emo" Scene , not because the band adheres to emo as a music genre. As a result of the continuing shift of "emo" over the years, a serious schism has emerged between those who relate to particular eras of "emo". Those who were closely attached to the hardcore origins recoil when another type of music is called "emo". Many involved in the independent nature of both 80s and 90s emo are upset at the perceived hijacking of the word ''emo'' to sell a new generation of major label music. Regardless, popular culture appears to have embraced the terms of "emo" far beyond its original intentions. In a strange twist, screamo, a sub-genre of the new emo, has found greater popularity in recent years through bands such as , Guitar World Magazine , November 2002 The term '' Screamo '', however, was used to describe an entirely different genre in the early 1990s, and the new screamo bands more resemble the emo of the early 1990s. Complicating matters further is that several small scenes devoted to original screamo still exist in the underground. However, the new use of "screamo" demonstrates how the shift in terms connected to "emo" has made the varying genres difficult to categorize. The difficulty in defining "emo" as a genre may have started at the very beginning. In a 2003 interview by weren't emotional? What - they were robots or something? It just doesn't make any sense to me." BACKLASH See Also: Emo (slang) As the music increased in popularity, emo became more and more a target of derision. As certain fashion trends and attitudes began to be associated with "emo", stereotypes emerged that created a specific target for criticism. In the early years of the "third wave", the criticism was relatively light-hearted and self-effacing. In September of 2002, web developer ''. September 2003. In ensuing years, the derision increased dramatically. Male fans of emo found themselves hit with homosexual slurs, largely a reflection of the style of dress popular within the "emo scene" and the displays of emotion common in the scene. Complaints pointed to the Histrionic manner in which the emotions were often expressed, not necessarily to the emotions themselves.Peotto, Tom. "The relentless force of 'emo'". ''e.Peak''. February 27, 2006. In October of 2003, '', Issue 56. contemporary bands approached relationship issues by "damning the girl on the other side ... its woman-induced misery has gone from being descriptive to being prescriptive". Regarding the position of women listening to emo, Hopper went on to note that the music had become "just another forum where women were locked in a stasis of outside observation, observing ourselves through the eyes of others". Critics of modern emo have argued that there is a tendency toward increasingly generic and homogenized style.Jacobs, Justin. "Emo Not Fatally Wounded" . ''Pitt News''. April 19, 2006. Many popular bands have attempted to disassociate themselves with the "emo" tag; some have adopted the genre designation Post-hardcore . Despite the criticism, the modern version of emo has maintained mainstream popularity. However, given the disfavor of the term "emo", the question of whether new bands will openly associate with "emo" leaves the future unclear. SEE ALSO REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHY EXTERNAL LINKS
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