BF2S Forums What is emo?

7.      emo     
    4721 up, 2741 down    
   

"Emo" is not short for "Emotional." "Emo" does not mean Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional, despite what MTV has lead you to believe in the last few years. "Emo" is not sidebangs, tight pants, and male vocalists who sing like little girls about their failed relationships. "Emo" is not the use of diluted, meaningless metaphors and similes such as "My arms are like pinecones," and most definitely is not the rampant use of words such as "autumn," "heart," "knife," "bleeding," "leaves," and "razorblade."

I just thought I'd clear that up after all of these "definitions" in which I have encountered an unbelievable amount of people who try to pass off their blatantly false pretenses as fact, and are slowly infecting others with their high-horse, holier-than-thou bullshit. Because honestly, with your ridiculous definitions, Beethoven, George Gershwin, and Britney Spears are/was "emo bands."

Now, onto the real definition.

In the early 90s there was a movement in the hardcore genre that came to be known as "Emotive Hardcore," spearheaded by Rites Of Spring. Harder-core-than-thou kids, who swore by Dischord Records a la Minor Threat, actually coined the term "Emo" as something of a put-down for the kids who really liked Rites Of Spring, Indian Summer and this new wave of "Emotive" Hardcore bands. That's right, "Emo" was once not something kids called themselves. The field exploded outwards from there - Level-Plane Records has always been the most famous Emo label. Acts like Yaphet Kotto, I Hate Myself, Saetia, Hot Cross, A Day In Black And White, Funeral Diner, I Would Set Myself On Fire For You, You And I, and hosts of others came in the next decade. Most emo bands have since broken up, but there's still the occasional hold-out (again, the majority of Level-Plane Records' roster has been a procession of emo acts). Like most DIY hardcore/punk of the time, a majority found its way onto vinyl and not much else. Some people consider bands like Fugazi, and later Sunny Day Real Estate, a progression of emo, but personally, I don't quite follow that philosophy.

Often, more recently, this gets intertwined with post-hardcore, and understandably so - that's nothing to make an issue of, since well shit, at least it's close.

Since the late 90s, though, bands have been emerging in the vein of Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, and the thousands of their clones. As far as I can tell, some lazy journalist somewhere, writing an article about them, decided "Well, fuck, no one knows what emo is anyways, so I'll call these bands "emo" - sounds more appealing than bubblegum pop rock..." and the spiral continued downwards into the current amalgomation of bands MTV has told everyone is "emo."

Somehow, people decided that "emo" meant "emotional," which is obviously bullshit, as 99% of bands make music to illicit emotion, which would make "emotional" a completely all-encompassing genre from classical to opera to pop to rap.


Hope that helps.

Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail, and My Chemical Romance falls under the "horrible pop rock" genre, not the emo genre.

Rites of Spring is emo.

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THERE YOU GO

No.  Emo is emo.  Beethoven, Bach, Mozart etc, were Classical or Emotional. 

Emotional is not Emo.  Emo means washed up, suicidal, little, crybaby, bitch.

Your an idiot
did you actually read the whole definition?
its not fall out boy or dashboard confessional its hardcore bands wh oare more hardcore than most bands today

THERE BROKEN UP ITS DEAD read the definition idiot

tF-voodoochild wrote:

I'm not going to get into this whole 'emo' battle, because honestly I couldn't possibly care less.

However, I do enjoy me some irony, so I must point out the hilariousness of this paraphrased statement from the initial post, "Emo is not short for Emotional. It's short for Emotive."

Let's look up the two words here, just to clarify...

e·mo·tion·al - adj.
1. Of or relating to emotion: an emotional illness; emotional crises.

e·mo·tive - adj.
1. Of or relating to emotion: the emotive aspect of symbols.

All in all it is just a musical genre, hardly something to get all hot and bothered over...

i have just one word for that entire post

good go cut yourself

BolvisOculus wrote:

tF-voodoochild wrote:

I'm not going to get into this whole 'emo' battle, because honestly I couldn't possibly care less.

However, I do enjoy me some irony, so I must point out the hilariousness of this paraphrased statement from the initial post, "Emo is not short for Emotional. It's short for Emotive."

Let's look up the two words here, just to clarify...

e·mo·tion·al - adj.
1. Of or relating to emotion: an emotional illness; emotional crises.

e·mo·tive - adj.
1. Of or relating to emotion: the emotive aspect of symbols.

All in all it is just a musical genre, hardly something to get all hot and bothered over...

i have just one word for that entire post http://www.synthtech.com/pix/pwned.jpg

Okay when you post a 'Pwned' picture, someone actually has to betting pwned.

And yes, I've known this emo thing for a long time now, I'm very particular about musical genres.

Same goes for this bullshit they call 'R&B' nowadays.

Emo is all around you even in this very cadillac



NOT!

Last edited by alpinestar (2006-07-10 19:25:48)

you guys are idiots.

spawnofthemist wrote:

T0rr3nt wrote:

you guys are idiots.

i'd like to quote what alpha might say here:

^*AlphA*^ wrote:

Your post is considered spam. Please refrain from posting that kind of content.

FTW!

way to show your maturity in your own thread

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

spawnofthemist wrote:

T0rr3nt wrote:

you guys are idiots.

i'd like to quote what alpha might say here:

^*AlphA*^ wrote:

Your post is considered spam. Please refrain from posting that kind of content.

FTW!

is FTW the only think you have to say in these forums?

I am an Em0 NOOOOOOOOOOOO! [I sometimes sing like a girl to] In the shower when i'm sad and alone,
or if i see a big spider i sometimes scream like a little girl. It's really sad but true xD

Last edited by acidkiller187 (2006-07-11 09:27:02)