Emo
History & Origin
I¡¦ll summarize
emo history in a nutshell
first. At first it grew from
punk music in the 80¡¦s. Then
during the 90¡¦s, large record
labels made it into a more
mainstream music. That¡¦s when
emo started to become a fashion
trend. From the 2000¡¦s forward,
it was a full blow trend in
music and fashion, but of
course, the style was changed to
fit mainstream audiences. This
was also around the time when
emo became associated with
negative labels such as whiners
and wrist cutters.
Below, I¡¦ve organized emo into
eras. In each era, there was
important changes in the music
that affected the emo subculture
or emo scene. For each era,
we¡¦ll divide things up into ¡§The
Music¡¨ and ¡§The Scene¡¨ so you
can see how the music affected
the scene in each time frame.
This will give you a
comprehensive emo history.
80¡¦s to early 90¡¦s
At
first emo was more about the
music. All people
who dressed up emo at this time
were very hardcore about the
music.
The Music
Emo started as a movement
in Washington DC. as an offshoot
of the hardcore/punk scene.
Music around this time was very
community oriented and
politically charged, but
pioneers including Ian Mckaye
began to turn the music towards
a more personal introspective
direction. Other bands like
Rites of Spring in 1984 began to
form and would go even further
with introspection about a whole
range of emotions such as
romance, nostalgia, and
desperation. In the 90¡¦s, Sunny
Day Real Estate, which started
in Seattle of 92¡¦ became very
influential in terms of the emo
movement. They started a loyal
following with fans. Bands such
as
Drive Like
Jehu,
Saetia,
and the
Swing Kids
from southern California
developed their own, more
belligerent
and chaotic version of emo,
known as "screamo."
The Scene
The kids at this time were
closely tied to punk. These few
existing "original" emos dressed
like nerds with sweater vests
and dress pants.
90¡¦s to mid 90¡¦s
Around the early 90¡¦s, the
record labels were just
beginning to see a glimpse of
the possible success with emo
music. With the gaining
popularity of the music by large
record companies, the fashion
began to catch on as a trend.
The Music
¡§In early
1992 Nirvana hit the top of the
chart¡Kwithin a year the band had
sold 10 million copies of their
debut¡K¡¨ Nirvana gave record
labels and garage bands
everywhere a dream that they
could find or become the next
big thing. ¡§Everywhere music
critics spoke of the search for
the ¡¥next Nirvana.¡¦ After
Nirvana left Sub Pop, they
continued to look for new ground
breaking talent. They discovered
a Seattle band Sunny Day Real
Estate and released their first
full-length album in 1994. It
was with this album ¡§that emo
began making waves outside the
hardcore community¡¨
The Scene
As
the popularity of the music
grew, so did the number of kids
dressing up as emo.
Emo kids around
this time wore tight shirts and
old, cut-up jeans. They had
messenger bags and carry around
a notebook to write poetry. They
had black rimmed glasses and
were "over-emotional" but NOT
whiny. They began to explore the
turmoil and heartbreak of
relationships. They enjoyed the
arts and read in-depth books.
They have many opinions and
often talk about them. They
usually hung out in coffee shops
and listened to sophisticated or
acoustic music. The scene was
not yet really influenced by
corporations as of yet.
Mid 90¡¦s to early 00¡¦s
The Music
Around the late 90¡¦s,
big record companies wanted to
profit off of
emo bands. But the
bands often broke up before they
got anywhere mainstream.
Finally, in 1997, emo
compilations of unsigned bands
were released by a record
company. Included were such acts
as Jimmy Eats The World, which
later went on to sign with Dreamworks Records to be one of
the first emo bands to go
mainstream and even go platinum.
Eventually many more bands would
follow suit and make emo music a
profitable business for record
companies. Bands like Save The
Day were even performing with
Blink 182.
Screamo made a
comeback around this time also.
It was mainly used by younger
fans who weren't around when the
screaming vocal thing was new
and unique. Many of the newer
bands actually combine the
dynamic screamo sound with the
softer post emo indie rock style
and add further elements to the
mix. These could include
Thursday,
Underoath, and
Silverstein.
The Scene
By
this time, as the music became
more mainstream, the clothes
started to become more
mainstream as well. Jet black
hair, often worn over in front
of the eyes, and eye liner are
not uncommon. Converse All Stars
are a favorite as well as pants
that are either awkwardly tight
or life threateningly loose. As
the stereotype indicates, any
Hot Topic clothes are a
possibility. Multiple piercings
are a given and ear "gauges" are
very popular and for the older
crowd, plenty of body art
(tattooing) is also common.
Studded belts usually round out
the look for guys and girls
alike.
Many
people so admired the emo
subculture¡¦s fashion that they
began to imitate the way they
dressed. The fashion was now
becoming a full fledged trend.
Those who emphasized primarily
on emo fashion became known as
¡§scene¡¨. These scene kids often
added more flamboyant styles to
the emo fashion and added more
variety. Screamo was the music
of choice for the new subculture
called scene. Around this time,
everyone starting thinking that
scene kids were emo even though
they were just imitating the
looks. Many people began
associating the term emo with
the looks.
00¡¦s to present
The Music
As
soon as the success came, the
emo sound was beginning to
change. A
bunch of mainstream bands picked
up the look from the bands from
the earlier emo groups. As for
the music, they may or may not
have loosely based their music
off of the earlier bands. Some
bands such as My Chemical
Romance completely deny any
relations to emo. Either way,
these bands emulated the softer
indie emo/emotional pop punk
sound rather than the earlier
more dynamic emo. This style of
music is what emo is best known
for in today's society, leaving
many young listeners unaware of
the hardcore roots of emo.
Examples include
Taking
Back Sunday,
Brand New,
Death Cab
For Cutie,
Fall Out
Boy,
My
Chemical Romance,
Panic! At
the Disco,
Hawthorne
Heights, etc...
The Scene
Who knew if these new bands were
really emo, and who could figure
which kid was more scene and
which one was more emo.
Definitions began to vary and as
more and more people thought
scene kids and these new bands
were emo, they began to change
the definition of what it meant
to be emo.
It
was around this time that emo
kids started getting a bad
reputation for whining, being
depressive, and cutting their
own wrists. One possibility is
that some ¡§emo¡¨ kids started
complaining and talking about
their problems on blogs online.
Here is one person¡¦s experience
of seeing this during around
2005.
¡§About around the mid-2000's...
They have blogs and they whine
about everything. They dye their
hair with cheap black hair dye.
Their hair is messy, greasy, and
has side-swept bangs. Their
clothes are much like the
previous version, only they have
a larger emphasis on band tee's
and they have started wearing
skinny jeans. They love Chuck's
and Van's. They listen to
pop-punk music and adore Hot
Topic. Self-harm is a pretty
recent addition to "emo".
There is no doubt that kids like
this also built a reputation for
emo as they attended school. As
for the wrist cutting, this
probably had some basis in truth
because there are many kids
attracted to the more angry and
bitter side of emo music.
Because wrist cutting is so
dramatic and crazy sounding,
this probably got blown out of
proportion and everyone started
thinking emos are often wrist
cutters.
More
recently emos were seen on South
Park and mocked as complainers
who always got confused with the
Goths. Almost everyone has a bad
impression of emos these days.
But one must remember the good
side of emo as well. It helped
kids throughout the ages get in
touch with their emotions. It
set off all sorts of interesting
and beautiful fashion trends.
And, of course, it has given us
much great music to enjoy.
It
is a shame that so much
negativity is surrounding emo,
because there is so much variety
that has grown from its origin.
The future of the term emo is
uncertain, but one thing is for
sure. As it impacted everything
from new music to fashion to
culture, we will continue to be
impacted by its influence and
its spirit.
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