Soundscape #18: Cheer Up Emo Kid
Jesse McCormack. The Scr-Emo, 2006
I don't know exactly when it started but the term "emo" has become a rather derogatory insult you can fling at someone who's behaving depressed and moping around, and especially if they are decked out in tight all-black ensemble, dripping with eyeliners ...and that hair! They look like mini-Cousin Its! What's with the excessive display of melancholy and the constant whining about how shitty life is?
(to avoid confusion, I will refer to the slang "emo" with the quotation marks and the genre, without)
Some argue that the genre of emo music, on the other hand, cannot be more different. According to what seemed to be the "definitive" definition, emo music is simply "emotionally-charged punk rock." Which is fine by me, really. There are some stuff mentioned on that website that I listen to some time ago but would never have categorised as "emo" as the kids would have it now. I don't know. Someone once told me that all music is essentially an expression of one's feelings and thoughts and they undoubtedly come with some kind of emotional tags. Happiness is an emotion too, right? So what makes the genre of emo music a target of such derision?
I'm not about to give a history lesson here but it seems that the subject of emo music itself has shifted from its punk, more anarchistic roots to a more personal (i.e. more one-dimensional) realisation of one's inability to cope with love and/or life. I hold Dashboard Confessional responsible here for the subsequent spawning of bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday and etc etc (I call them "sad bastard music"). Before anyone whips out a razor blade, I just want to suggest that there are more nuances of emotions or more varied and subtle ways of expressing them than the current emo music "scene" (Dashboard Confessional, MCR etc) allow for. Sure, shit happens to everyone, but that doesn't mean that we can't draw courage from these lessons. So, emo kid, cheer up, there are sadder bastards than you out there.
Playlist:
1. (0:00) Metric - Too Little Too Late (Buy Live It Out)
2. (4:21) Bloc Party - This Modern Love (Buy Silent Alarm)
3. (8:46) Gigolo Aunts - The Big Lie (Buy Minor Chords And Major Themes)
4. (12:13) The Wrens - Hopeless (Buy The Meadowlands)
5. (17:22) Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (Buy Transatlanticism)
6. (25:20) Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Buy Set Yourself On Fire)
7. (29:35) The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely (Buy Get Lonely)
8. (33:23) Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt (Buy Grand Prix)
9. (36:12) Elliott Smith - Say Yes (Buy Either/Or)
10. (38:25) The Decemberists - I Don't Mind (Buy 5 Songs EP)
11. (43:06) Bright Eyes - Lua (Buy I'm Wide Awake It's Morning)
12. (47:32) Feist - Let It Die (Buy Let It Die)
(to avoid confusion, I will refer to the slang "emo" with the quotation marks and the genre, without)
Some argue that the genre of emo music, on the other hand, cannot be more different. According to what seemed to be the "definitive" definition, emo music is simply "emotionally-charged punk rock." Which is fine by me, really. There are some stuff mentioned on that website that I listen to some time ago but would never have categorised as "emo" as the kids would have it now. I don't know. Someone once told me that all music is essentially an expression of one's feelings and thoughts and they undoubtedly come with some kind of emotional tags. Happiness is an emotion too, right? So what makes the genre of emo music a target of such derision?
I'm not about to give a history lesson here but it seems that the subject of emo music itself has shifted from its punk, more anarchistic roots to a more personal (i.e. more one-dimensional) realisation of one's inability to cope with love and/or life. I hold Dashboard Confessional responsible here for the subsequent spawning of bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday and etc etc (I call them "sad bastard music"). Before anyone whips out a razor blade, I just want to suggest that there are more nuances of emotions or more varied and subtle ways of expressing them than the current emo music "scene" (Dashboard Confessional, MCR etc) allow for. Sure, shit happens to everyone, but that doesn't mean that we can't draw courage from these lessons. So, emo kid, cheer up, there are sadder bastards than you out there.
Playlist:
1. (0:00) Metric - Too Little Too Late (Buy Live It Out)
2. (4:21) Bloc Party - This Modern Love (Buy Silent Alarm)
3. (8:46) Gigolo Aunts - The Big Lie (Buy Minor Chords And Major Themes)
4. (12:13) The Wrens - Hopeless (Buy The Meadowlands)
5. (17:22) Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (Buy Transatlanticism)
6. (25:20) Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Buy Set Yourself On Fire)
7. (29:35) The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely (Buy Get Lonely)
8. (33:23) Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt (Buy Grand Prix)
9. (36:12) Elliott Smith - Say Yes (Buy Either/Or)
10. (38:25) The Decemberists - I Don't Mind (Buy 5 Songs EP)
11. (43:06) Bright Eyes - Lua (Buy I'm Wide Awake It's Morning)
12. (47:32) Feist - Let It Die (Buy Let It Die)
Labels: indie, soundscapes project, writing
posted by soundscrobbler at 12:45 PM
2 Comments:
I was waiting for this piece from you. It great to hear your howl tearing down the mouse squeak generation. You actually sounded cheerful...howl more mighty one!
Emo what? Bob Dylan started emo! I can argue in the name of the saints he started everything with "Tangled up in Blue". Up north baptizing my generation was Neil Young with, "Everyone knows this is nowhere". Both had fun doing it. And it wasn't labelled like a sick child that latter days poor sob brits would commit suicide to...Nicky Drake rip. In the name of all that is holy in music, at least smile while pushing your emo up the hill!
hey thanks for all the kind words. wow, I really have a whole mountain of old stuff to check out...
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