Finding Emo

The Only Difference Between Emo And Non-Emo Is Media Coverage

2006-05-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

For those of you into Panic at the Disco, sorry for the stolen and very very lame title.

I tried a short experiment with my friends. Below are the lyrics to three famous songs by three different bands. One band is renowned as emo and the other two bands are commercially famous in mainstream pop culture. Of the five participants in my experiment, only two could choose which lyrics belonged to the emo band. Can you?

[Please ignore spelling mistakes and punctuation as these lyrics are from Lyrics On Demand (http://lyricsondemand.com).

Song #1
When you refuse me
You confuse me
What makes you think I'll let you in again
Think again my friend
Go on misuse me and abuse me
I'll come out stronger in the end

And does it make you sad
To find yourself alone
And does it make you mad
To find that I have grown
I'll bet it hurts so bad
To see the strength that I have shown

When you answer the door pick up the phone
You wont find me cause I'm not coming home

You do not know how much this hurts me
To say these things that I don't want to say
But have to say them anyway
I would do anything to end your suffering
But you would rather walk away

[x2]
And does it make you sad
To find yourself alone
And does it make you mad
To find that I have grown

I'll bet it hurts so bad
To see the strength that I have shown

[x3]
When you answer the door pick up the phone
You won't find me cause I'm not coming home

Song #2
My friends are so depressed
I feel the question
Of your loneliness
Confide..., 'cause I'll be on your side
You know I will, you know I will

Ex Girlfriend called me up
Alone and desperate
On the prison phone
They want... to give her 7 years
For being sad

[Chorus:]
I love all of you
Hurt by the cold
So hard and lonely too
When you don't know yourself

My friends are so distressed
And standing on
The brink of emptiness
No words... I know of to express
This emptiness

[Chorus]

Imagine me taught by tragedy
Release is peace
I heard a little girl
And what she said
Was something beautiful
To give... your love
No matter what

[Chorus]

Song #3
carry this picture for luck
kept in a locket
tucked in your collar
close to your chest
make it a secret
shown to the closest friends
and meet me at quarter to 7
the sun will still shine then
at this time of year
we'll head to the inlet
and we'll share a bottle there

and color the coast with your smile
its the most genuine thing
that I’ve ever seen
i was so lost
but now i believe

and follow me south of the big docks
they teather the boats
the rich men revere
as so important
they hire our fathers to steer
and down to the edge of the water
where we'll spill our guts
and we'll name our fears
i'll give you this picture
keep it and dont
be
scared

and color the coast with your smile
its the most genuine thing
that ive ever seen
i was so lost
but now i believe
and the coast
your smile is the most genuine thing
that ive ever seen
i was so lost
but now i believe
and i believe
now i believe
now i believe

Now, the songs and their artists will be slowly revealed (if you don’t know them already). Keep reading!

I found that all three lyrics above could be perceived as emo without knowing extra information such as the tune or who the artist is. I believe that the classification decision (as emo or not) heavily depends on the general perceptions of the band themselves and whether they have achieved fame in the mainstream culture (eg. commercial radio airplay) or not. In short, I propose that non-commercial bands with emotional lyrics (and other homological emo characteristics) are more likely to be classed as emo than a mainsteam band with similar lyrics.

For example, song #1 is ‘Not Coming Home’ by Maroon 5. They have generally slow or soft music with emotional lyrics. However, they are more often than not classified as “non-emo” because they have a clean cut pop image and receive a lot of airplay on mainstream radio stations.

Song #2 is ‘My Friends’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Emotional lyrics once again, however, why are they classified as non-emo by most music goers? For one thing, I believe people see them as popular and mainstream. Secondly, they have a diverse portfolio of musical sounds and cannot be pinned down as emo in genre. Thus, the emo elements of this and other Chili Peppers song have been diluted in this portfolio. Finally, the band’s fashion is far from typical emo gear (especially as they usually don’t know where they left their shirts). As you can see, consumer perceptions of the band can strongly influence their subcultural classification even if their lyrics and sound have all the right ingredients to be emo.

Song #3 is ‘Carry This Picture’ by Dashboard Confessional. For those of you who haven’t heard of the one man band, he is Chris Carrabba. He is (for some reason) seen as one of the new-wave emo acts that have shaped the direction of the genre and subculture. Personally, I don’t Dashboard is emo but I am running with the opinions/perceptions of many here. There are many reasons why I would not classify Dashboard Confessional as an emo artist: (1) he is one person, not a band; (2) he doesn’t dress emo, he dresses like a rich skatie; (3) emo usually constitutes a punk act yet he is an acoustic artist, only seen as punk because of his semi-nasally vocals. Despite this, Dashboard Confessional is seen as emo by most keen music consumers. He has emotional lyrics, but I believe that his emo classification is due to the circle of punk and emo bands he is often associated with in concert and in punk/emo media publications. Finally, there is little radio play or media exposure of Dashboard Confessional compared to that of Maroon 5 and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band has yet to be accepted and embraced by mainstream culture and until then, I think that Dashboard Confessional will continue to be perceived as emo.

Overall, I think that emotional lyrics are an essential ingredient for emo acts, however they are not a defining element. Subcultural classification requires a holistic homological basis, and so emotional lyrics must be connected with other factors such as fashion sense in order to be classed as emo.

[A final point, is that there are emo bands such as Simple Plan and Bowling for Soup which have been accepted by the mainsteam and receive abundant media exposure and radio play. They have emotional lyrics and a punk look/sound. So they must be emo right? Maybe. Like I said, it call comes down to perceptions and different people may seem them as emo or not. In general, these bands are often criticised by ‘genuine’ emos as being inauthentic or ‘wannabe’ punk acts. They are often seen as sellouts or are deemed to have manufactured lyrics which do not reflect genuine feelings. The argument runs in circle, however, maybe everything I have discussed hints back to the origins of emo, in that genuine modern emo artists have an underground or anti-commercial orientation.]

Emo or not?

2006-05-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

I was thinking…What are the underlying factors/reasons of someone being classified as emo? I have CD’s from the new wave of emo bands such as Something Corporate, New Found Glory, The Used, Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Matchbook Romance, Story of the Year, SR-71 and Our Lady Peace. But does this ‘make’ me emo? Anyone who knows me would say, “No!!!” and I would agree. But how exactly does this classification come about? I asked some friends of mine who work at a local music store. Their responses are as follows:

“You don’t dress emo.”

“You listen to a lot of music, and only some of it is emo.”

“You don’t buy into the lyrics and get all depressed. You like the sound, and don’t take the lyrics seriously.”

“You aren’t dressed like an emo, don’t have a ****y haircut or piercings. I think your music taste is more alternative than emo.”

From these statements, it would seem that Hebdige’s (1997) ideas of bricolage and homology are actuating in a real life situation. The emo subculture attributes its own meanings and identifications to objects and concepts including dress and hair fashion, music genre and lyrics. This is known as bricolage. Furthermore, these objects tie together as a whole to form meaningful holistic relationships between emo participants and these elements. This is known as homology. Here, it appears that classifying a person into a given subculture stems from that person’s fit and identifications with the underlying homological elements. Here, I did not particularly identify or at least was not perceived to identify with the dress, music preferences, lyrics and physical grooming in the same way as emo members may.

On second thoughts, I may consider myself or others may consider me as partially emo, and partially from other musical subcultures too. The truth is that I do appreciate so-called emo bands and their lyrics, yet I am not going to commit exclusively to classifying myself as emo. While I have emo albums, I have albums from artists such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Stabbing Westward, The Arcade Fire, Panic! At the Disco, Kasabian, Happyland, Apollo 440, Tom Waits, Avalanches, Ben Folds, Fiery Furnaces, Tom Waits, Hilltop Hood and The Herd. Here you can see I relate to several different musical styles, not just of the emo subculture.

As Andy Bennet (1999) suggests, in modern society, it is not unusual for a given person to identify with two or more subcultures. This takes into consideration temporal factors, such as when and where. For example, I may dress more like an emo if I went to a Story of the Year concert. On the other hand, if I went to a hip hop show, I would dress much differently, use a different vocabulary and maybe even walk differently. However, I relate to both subcultures and do not limit myself to choose an exclusive loyalty towards one or the other.

Where did the hate come from?

2006-05-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

I was wondering why Emo’s have such a bad reputation. I noticed people in my tutorial pay emo’s out whenever they can and I know a lot of people who freak out when people ask if they are “emo”. I know a good handful of self-confessed emos and I know that they aren’t the stereotypical rich teenagers who hate life, hate socializing and try to slash their wrists to end their miserable lives. Yet they are often insulted with these claims. Emo was born from a stream of underground hardcore punk bands, so I was wondering how emo’s earned themselves a reputation as effeminate, depressed, and suicidal people who complain about insignificant things. I decided to do some research to find out where these pessimistic perceptions began.

As you probably know, emo is the abbreviated term for ‘emotional’ or ‘emotive’ music. Emo stemmed from the underground punk scene in Washington DC during the 1980’s. This didn’t include mainstream bands such as the Clash, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Cheap Trick or whoever most people might relate to punk. It began with bands such as Minor Threat and Rites of Spring, and soon harvested a heavy following of bands playing similar emotionally charged punk rock at skate parks, school halls and anywhere they could.

Their sound was loud and fast, with angry vocals and emotional grunts and screams thrown in here and there. The one thing that these underground punk bands had in common was their anger about politics or their personal life which reflected in their lyrics. As you may imagine, the musical sound is very different from modern emo. The underground status has generally been lost and emo may be considered a part of pop culture.

There has been a new wave of emo bands in the last ten or so years, including New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday, The Used and Dashboard Confessional. New listeners of these bands are often quick to judge their music and write it off as whiney complaining, depressing or suicidal in sound and lyrics. On this website (http://pubpages.unh.edu/~agh3/pages/fourthpage.html) it is claimed that this started a negative stereotype and widespread discrimination in highschools and colleges in the United States. Anyone dressed in black jeans or looked like they listened to indie music of any sort were labeled ‘emo’ along with all the harvested negative connotations. This prejudice against the emo subculture seems to have continued on, spreading and growing into what it is today. Today, emo may be seen as feminine or poor attempts at musical poetry, but few people realise that it was born from an angry political and personal hardcore punk scene.

Finding Emo

2006-04-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

I worked it out??

Finding Emo

2006-04-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

Finding Emo IS THIS HOW I POST STUFF???

The beginning

2006-04-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am coming to get you!