where did emo come from?

Answer 1

Hard Candy.... go **** yourself sideways with an uncooked lobster... you have no idea about the 80' emo scene.

It started with Husker Du being used as a springboard (no pun intended) for bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace to start playing Hardcore with emotional lyrics and more melodic tunes in D.C. in the mid 80's.

Emo went through various incarnations. It was all about the scene (as opposed to scenesters which is what 'emo' (i.e. mass-produced mtv and big label driven pop pap) is now all about). There was no commercialism in it, no tech (just a gibson, usually a les Paul or SG and a Marshall JMC 500 half stack). It was just pure and beautiful music with heartfelt and empathetic lyrics screamed and whispered and cried over the top.

'Emo' now, like Panic at the disco etc. is not emo at all. It is over-hyped, over-priced, over advertised pop music... Panic at the disco has more in common with dance music than anything else. It is utter utter crap.

If you want to listen to real emo, try Clikitat Ikatowe, Rites of Spring, Embrace, Thursday, Cursive, Hot Water Music, I Hate Myself, Envy, Indian Summer and the like.

You'll either love it or hate it, but at least you'll know what emo actually is, or at least was.

http://www.westernveil.com

Answer 2

So exactly where the hell did emo come from?

Try 1985, Washinton D.C. Bands Minor Threat and Rites of Spring. Minor Threat was hardcore and Rites of Spring was hardcore with a different focus. It was indeed, more about emotion that politics and the likes.

A few people coined the term emocore. Essentialy, emotional hardcore! Well, from Rites of Spring e scene emerged. Not a scene as we think of "scene" kids, but a general following of people that listen to a group of bands with similar styles.

I will not be too detailed(there's so much more) with my history lesson. Basicaly, while emocore didn't hold for long in D.C., it did spread. Across the nation. Jersey, Milwaukee, Colorado, So Cal.

From Rites of Spring we got ourselves Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate. Here we are in the early 90's and Jawbreaker releases their first album, Unfun.

Now jawbreaker wasn't cry your heart out, but it was deep. Sweet, Bitter, Evil. Following the trail of jawbreaker, in the later 90's we got Jets to Brazil.

Sunny Day Real Estate, our other route, came out of the grunge era. In 94 Diary was released, ans considered to some the best album of SDRE.

SDRE was more "romantic" than the other emo trail to go down. SDRE opened the doors to the bands to come after them. Emo now had a deffinition because of SDRE's sound. Everything to come was following jawbreaker and SDRE.

Now we have a mid-nineties boom. We get Braid, Christie Front Drive, Mineral, Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring, Texas is the Reason.

The emo of the 90's was different, more rightous and emotionaly profound. THis is when we got our stereotypes, boyish, glasses, sensitive, brainy, guitar driven. Emo wasn't the soundtrack to failure, it was romantic.

In an interesting evolution we got Weezer Pinkerton all the way from Rites of Spring to SDRE to that amazingly "emo" album we thank Cuomo for.

To start being more brief and less details, this scene gives rise to Thursday, Dashboard, Saves the Day, .

I'll even give Taking Back Sunday as emo, it has the roots too.

I think this is about where it should stop.

Let me give credit where it is due here. The above history is completely ripped off from the book Nothing Feels Good by Andy Greenwald.

It is copyrighted 2003 by Andy Greenwald. St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y.

Please go buy it and read it if you are at all intriuged by what is written above. There is so much more detail and it is wonderful. That wasn't even a hint of what is covered.

From here I'll add my own comments. Emo is not about being sad, suicidal, depressed, or any of these. Teenagers have the misconception that emo is a completely depressed form of music. Throwing the term emo and any pop band that expresses emotion, especially sad emotions.

Emo is not sad goths. It is not what it has come to these days. High schoolers calling themselves emo, it isn't exactly something you strive to be.

I don't see a place for girls in emo either. At least not what they think emo is these days. These days emo is "I'm so sad my girlfriend ****** me over." In the mid 90's it was intelectual, deep, romantic, dark and twisted, or a little poppy and lighthearted. It was "I am so nerdy and i can't get a girlfreind."

It wasn't a TREND. It was a scene, but not a scene that focused on how to dress for school and making the saddest face you can to walk down the halls.

You can't say, "I am emo." You just can't. You can't slap the word on everything. It should be a meaningless word. And if you want it to have meaning, let it be the meaning as defined by Sunny Day Real Estate and the Promise Ring. Let it be used as applied by Saves the Day, Dashboard, Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids, THursday, Taking Back Sunday.

Answer 3

It started as a term for emotional music on the hardcore scene. Often hardcore bands singing one or two emotional songs. Which then continued with fans of this type of music being called emo & then the stereotypical look of a fan of the emo music. & now recently emo has become a fashion. Most people today dont even know the real meaning of emo. But you can always remember that it really has to do with the music and not the fashion.

Answer 4

Emo is a slang term used to describe a range of fashion styles and attitudes somewhat affiliated with emo music and its related scene. As an adjective, emo can describe a style of fashion or music; or a general state of unhappiness or melancholy (as in "to feel emo"). Emo is also used as a noun, often pejoratively, to identify a member of the "emo scene" or someone viewed as fitting the "emo" stereotype.

Answer 5

The music genre you mean? It started out being punk but then it took on a more ..well sort of funny/silly style..or started having a more emotional touch to it. Emo comes from the word emotional, sort of a short way of describing the basic core of the song, (i.e. comes from the heart of the agonized singer/songwriter).

Im not sure if this is the answer you´re lookin for, but hope it helps.

Answer 6

It's because it's the latest rock music trend, and emos can play the martyr at the moment because they are disliked by everyone else.

Answer 7

emo came from emotional

Answer 8

Emo started historically in the Washington, D.C. area in 1985. Turn learn more read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo_%28music%29

I hope this helps!!!

Answer 9

emo came from people who have a f ucked up life which knows nothing but to copy bits of pieces from other sub-cultures..

Answer 10

actually it came from the word emotional. people would say emo to those who are too emotional.