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Emo

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Emo (short for emotional) is a genre of rock music. The term was originally applied to bands in the Washington DC punk scene who played a more raucous and emotional form of punk than the norm. Legend has it that the name comes from the seminal band Embrace -- supposedly at one show, a fan shouted "You guys are emo!" in the direction of singer Ian Mackaye. He hated the term, but unfortunately for him, it stuck.

The genre (or at least the classic "DC sound", pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, Gray Matter and Shudder to Think) has its roots in punk rock. Perhaps the biggest influence over the genre was Minneapolis, MN's Husker Du, whose 1984 album Zen Arcade provided the blueprint for early emo -- complex music with intense vocals and deeply introspective songwriting. The influential early emo (or, as it became known, emocore) band Rites of Spring took this style and, for lack of a better way of describing it, sped it up.

The next stage in the genre's evolution came in 1986 with bands such as Indian Summer, Moss Icon, Policy of Three, Still Life and Navio Forge. The "quiet/loud" dynamic heard often in the music of recent bands such as Saetia and Thursday was pioneered by bands such as this. Vocally, these bands took the emocore style and turned the intensity up a notch. Such bands were often left crying or screaming at the end of their performances. This led to many testosterone pumped hardcore fans putting down emo fans as wimps, or weaklings.

Just as emo added a new found intensity to the original emocore style, the style of hardcore emo brought the intensity to a climax. The scene had it's beginnings in 1991-92 with bands such as Heroin, Portraits of Past and Antioch Arrow, who played chaotic hardcore music with abrasive, emotional vocals.

After building to an absolute climax in terms of chaos and intensity with hardcore emo, emo began to slow down - literally. Bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral came forth playing a slower but still frail and emotional style of emo, mixing the early, emocore sound of Rites of Spring with the post-hardcore innovation of Fugazi.

Today, emo is a more ambiguous term than ever. With the success of bands such as The Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World and The Promise Ring, mainstream media became ever more interested in emo, labelling every indie-rock band they could think of as emo. Emo has become a catch-all term for every guitar-pop band emerging from the underground, leading to bands as diverse as Thursday and Taking Back Sunday being referred to in the same breath as Dashboard Confessional and the New Amsterdams.

Essential Records:

Rites of Spring: End on End.
Husker Du: Zen Arcade, New Day Rising.
Hot Water Music: Fuel For the Hate Game.
Lifetime: seveninches
Embrace: Self Titled.
Moss Icon: Lyburnum Wit's End Liberation Fly.
Indian Summer: Discography, Indian Summer/Embassy Split 7".
Still Life: From Angry Heads with Skyward Eyes.
Portraits of Past LP
Julia: S/T, Julia/Sunshine Split 7".
Heroin: S/T.
Jawbreaker: Unfun, Bivouac, Etc.
Mineral: The Power of Failing.
Sunny Day Real Estate: Diary.
The Get Up Kids: Four Minute Mile, Get Up Kids/Anniversary Split 7".
Planes Mistaken For Stars: Self Titled, Knife in the Marathon.
Jimmy Eat World: Static Prevails, Clarity.

Not to be confused with:

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