What the hell is emo?

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People like Funeral For A Friend, Further Seems Forever and Dashboard Confessional.
It's just people singing about heartbreak and love and pain, with a very accented American voice.
Can't stand it myself.
 
It's short for "emotional". Many hate being slapped with the emo tag because it has such a negative connotation, partially due to stereotypical emo fans.
 
Nerd rock. Think skinny white boys, converse allstars, pimples, brown frame glasses, low self esteem, songs all sounding the same.
 
emo bands have been producing the best new music for many years now. some of the best musicians out there... some of them are too depressing and whiny...but most of them are really innovative and inspiring. check out the new album by jimmy eat world called futures ... probably the best album so far this decade.
 
a few essential emo/"screamo" albums:

The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down
Brand New - Deja Entendu
The Used - The Used
*one of the greatest songs ever: Something Corporate - Konstantine (not really an emo band but definitely an emo song)

check out those albums and tell me emo is bad...i dare you!

p.s. "screamo" kind of denotes those bands who have escaped the "emo" title because of the hard rock nature of their songs

p.s.s. to edit my last post, jimmy eat world - futures is the best album so far this decade until Nov. 23, 2004 :)
 
if it wasn't just as trendy as being emo is, i'd own one of those "emo sucks" shirts.

but in all seriousness, there are bands that are labeled "emo" that are decent. hell, sparta? that is good music (i will bite you if you tell me they sound like u2, though, so beware. and i've got sharp teeth) regardless of what genre it's been put into. hell, an arguement can be made that the bouncing souls have been going down a more emo path over the last 3 albums. but "anchors aweigh" is still my favorite thing they've released.

there's good music and bad music in every genre :shrug: but i also think that most emo (or the stuff i've heard) is a horrible, pathetic excuse for music.

The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down
Brand New - Deja Entendu
The Used - The Used
Click to expand...

the used and brand new are simply awful. if that's the new jimmy eat world, i haven't heard it yet because i didn't really like the last one that much. it had it's good points, but overall listening to it too much made me want to break some whiney kids' glasses.

the get up kids...i don't like them, but i've got a bit more respect for them than someone like the used. i still can't stand to listen to them though.

you know who sucks? midtown. they suck dead donkey ass. and yet i like(d) --not sure since it's been a few years since i've heard it--one of their songs.

so go figure.
 
If you want to hear stereotypical emo check out anything by the band Bright Eyes.Emo is pretty much the music you listen to if you are a teenager who enjoys crying all the time.
 
I have never even heard of any of these bands except the Jimmy one. And the Dashboard one. But I don't think I've heard much of their music. What I've heard of the Jimmy band I remember not liking, but I can't remember what it sounded like.

I guess I'm not missing much, then.
 
do they have tunes?, so do the lyrics have meaning?, can the guitarist play damn good?, probably not then stay away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Berto87 said:
If you want to hear stereotypical emo check out anything by the band Bright Eyes.Emo is pretty much the music you listen to if you are a teenager who enjoys crying all the time.
Click to expand...

Bright Eyes isn't emo :|
or is it?
 
Jack In The Box said:


Bright Eyes isn't emo :|
or is it?
Click to expand...

funny you should say that, alot of "Emo" kids often have alot of trouble deciding what is emo and what isn't
 
bright eyes is a lot better than half of the emo bands

but then again i actually like dashboard confessional

so obviously my opinion doesn't matter
 
Bright Eyes gets slapped with the emo label, which is unfortunate because that automatically turns so many people off. I love Bright Eyes. They are incredible, and Conor Oberst is one of my favorite lyricists and singers...though his voice is not for everybody.
 
I always thought emo was short for emo rock. Erm. Isn't it rock that does a whole lot of descending chords with lyrics like "I'd die for you" (oops that's Bryan Adams isn't it). Is Where The Streets Have No Name a more successful predecessor of emo? :sexywink:

foray
 
Emo - isn't that what Elmo from Sesame Street sings? :wink:

Seriously, I've heard a couple songs from bands I've heard described as "emo" and the moment they end I can't remember a thing about them. However, I did see Bright Eyes on the Vote for Change tour last month and was very impressed.
 
Berto87 said:
If you want to hear stereotypical emo check out anything by the band Bright Eyes.Emo is pretty much the music you listen to if you are a teenager who enjoys crying all the time.
Click to expand...
Interesting never heard of Emo before. That description reminds me of listening to The Smiths/ Morrisey in the 80s as a teen:D Am I close?
 
Berto87 said:
If you want to hear stereotypical emo check out anything by the band Bright Eyes.Emo is pretty much the music you listen to if you are a teenager who enjoys crying all the time.
Click to expand...

I am not sure if you meant this to be funny or not but I certainly laughed.
 
I don't like emo singing. It's all whiny.

Every single emo song is about one of six things:

- My parents hate me for being who I am
- My girlfriend left me
- Life sucks
- I hate my job/school
- I hate the world
- I hurt myself skateboarding

:down:

The only emo bands (and I'm not sure I'd call them emo) that I could tolerate are Alexisonfire and Brand New.
 
We own a few "emo" records in this house I like it well enough, but I also don't like to judge music just because it's sold in a certain section or it has a certain "label". Blender magazine has classified Jimmy Eat World - Futures a great "emo" album, and I'd have to agree. Some of my other favorite "emo" or "scremo" albums are:

The Used - The Used

Jimmy Eat World - Futures

Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism

While we were listening to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb today, my brother kept on saying "this is SO emo!" I'd have to agree with him to a degree, but then I told him that of course it was "emotional" because U2 has always poured their hearts (Bono th emost on this album) into the music they make. "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" is a very emotional and moving song...would you call that emo?
 
Wanted to add to the album list in that last post, but instead of clicking on edit...I clicked on quote....woops! So anyway, I forgot to list:

My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge

I consider them punk, but they are labeled as Scremo and even just emo. I think they are a little "heavy" for emo, but whatever. I absolutly love this album...I don't care what it is, to me it's awesome.
 
Last edited:
all of you non-believers ... download 23 by jimmy eat world and tell me you don't like it. i dare you... also, all of you badass guitar fans ... download futures by jimmy eat world. i would have to agree with whoever said they didn't like jimmy's last album ... i think it's good..but nothing great. however the new album "futures" is beyond phenomenal. for those struglling with the definition...emo is more about the song structure than the actual singing or lyrics. that said, many bands who are definitely not emo have emo songs. a typical emo song structure is verse1, verse2, verse1, verse2, chorus, chorus ... or verse1, chorus, verse2, chorus, extended bridge, verse1. it's all about building to a climax somewhere in the song (chorus in the first example...extended bridge in the second example). in most songs, every chorus is sort of a climax. in emo songs there is usually one grand climax, either in the middle somewhere or at the end. bad would be an example of an emo song. another would be pictures of you. clearly u2 and the cure are no where near being emo bands....but the song structure has been out there for decades. some think "only in dreams" by weezer (on the blue album) was the first popular emo song. but there are so many styles of music that can fit into these types of song structures, that it's really hard to give an example of one band that is like them all. thursday is very hard rock, jimmy eat world is very alternative, dashboard is kind of adult contemporary, the new amsterdams can sound countryish sometimes, and the used can be seen as neo-punk. however, people can claim that all of these bands are emo by looking at the theory behind their songs.
 
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