All Music Is Emo

[DoomyMcDoom]

I've made music that is entirely devoid of emotion... most people don't know what to think of it or think it sucks... but i don't care... I made it for myself, and i like it just fine.

like seriously all i feel when i listen to it is... meh...

if you are interested... pm me... I will gladly point you to it somehow... otherwise I don't care as it might get stolen by someone otherwise....

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Monty Python's "Always Look on The Bright Side of Life". Yeah, because that's TOTALLY emo.

 

[camokkid]

I know of a time when music was always happy and uplifting

that time was the early 20th century

a time that had songs like "let's misbehave" or "dear hearts and gentle people"

songs that made you feel good

if you could see me right now, I would tell you to look me in the eye and tell me that music is emo.

 

[camokkid]

You want some happy music listen to japanese stuff. Thats what I've done. To me most of it just a a certain cheerfulness to it, even the metal.

ugh, my sister listens to that all the time, at max volume, and I swear that I know the lyrics better that she does now

 

[blankedboy]

Those are just to examples, although I agree most modern music is mostly about the singer breaking up with their girlfriend or some such nonsense, but I ignore modern music mostly seeing as it sucks donkey balls.

if you listen to modern music, listen to european music. its much better. and theres no kanye west.

Listen to the unkown side of things. Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, that sort of stuff. The songs have no lyrics, just epic win music.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

what are you trying to say? i hate emo music, it is a bad thing. it is its own subgenre that has infected good genres like metal and others like a cancer. its music made by kids that make problems of their own accord.

QFT, literally. Real emo music needs to die (pun not intended)

 

[camokkid]

Those are just to examples, although I agree most modern music is mostly about the singer breaking up with their girlfriend or some such nonsense, but I ignore modern music mostly seeing as it sucks donkey balls.

if you listen to modern music, listen to european music. its much better. and theres no kanye west.

Listen to the unkown side of things. Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, that sort of stuff. The songs have no lyrics, just epic win music.

like Eric Johnson?

 

[dmase]

I kinda find it hard to label a song too once you get the lyrics. Like three days grace defintely hard rock but then you listen to your lyrics and you think if they made an acoustic version of this i would probably already be slitting my wrists.

 

[The Cheezy One]

i doubt people like JLS are emotional, except maybe about the money they are paid to sing songs written by someone else

 

[Seldon2639]

Monty Python's "Always Look on The Bright Side of Life". Yeah, because that's TOTALLY emo.

Actually, from the definition of "emo", it is. As I said, "all music is based on emotion". And the word "emo" of course is a shortening of "emotion". We use it to indicate angst and whinging whiny bitches, but that's a corruption of the concept. Your sarcasm is misplaced and highly declasse.

what are you trying to say? i hate emo music, it is a bad thing. it is its own subgenre that has infected good genres like metal and others like a cancer. its music made by kids that make problems of their own accord.

First, boy are you a jerk. Seriously, you made three posts in this thread, all of which were "I hate this type of music/you'd better not like this other type/modern music sucks". But, to respond to your actual point:

Have you never listened to... Most of music ever made? Emotionally charged, even angsty, music is not a new phenomenon. Go listen to Al Green, or Dire Straits, Frank Sinatra, Semisonic, or... You know... The Beatles. If I'm not mistaken, those bands existed long before "emo" right?

~snip~

Uh... Huh.

"Each morning I get up I die a little
Can barely stand on my feet
Take a look in the mirror and cry
Lord what you're doing to me?"

"Whatever happens, I'll leave it all to chance.
Another heartache - another failed romance.
On and on...
Does anybody know what we are living for?
I guess i'm learning
I must be warmer now..
I'll soon be turning, round the corner now.
Outside the dawn is breaking,
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free!"

Yep... Clearly songs about being sad about being lonely are something completely new. Oh? No, wait. You're saying that the songs I just quoted are Queen? One of the most influential and well-regarded rock bands in history?

Yeah, dislike the music, but it's not like metal or classic rock is any less melodramatic or angsty.

"Why she had to go
I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong
now I long for yesterday"

Oh, yeah, that's the freaking Beatles.

 

[4fromK]

saying all music is emo because its got emotions in it is like saying all music is metall becuse mettalic alloys were used in the contruction of the instruments and paraphenalia like amps, mikes, etc. its taking the name of a genre and using its general meaning then reapplying it to the whole of music - not really all that meaningful

 

[Seldon2639]

I know of a time when music was always happy and uplifting

that time was the early 20th century

a time that had songs like "let's misbehave" or "dear hearts and gentle people"

songs that made you feel good

if you could see me right now, I would tell you to look me in the eye and tell me that music is emo.

Happy is an emotion, so is lust. My point was not "all songs are angsty and melodramatic" but that all (or at least almost all) songs are based on some emotion. To slap an emo label on things as though it were synonymous with "wangst" does a disservice to both music and the English language

 

[FightThePower]

All music is emotional, yes (unless you're talking about Oasis/Coldplay here...OH SNAP) but emo doesn't really mean 'emotional' music anymore. In the same sense that pop doesn't have to be 'popular' to be pop. The origin of the name is pretty much abitrary at this point.

 

[Caligulove]

I think the idea behind the hate for emo music is that it is more whiny than other music that are saying the same themes lyrically.

 

[Seldon2639]

saying all music is emo because its got emotions in it is like saying all music is metall becuse mettalic alloys were used in the contruction of the instruments and paraphenalia like amps, mikes, etc. its taking the name of a genre and using its general meaning then reapplying it to the whole of music - not really all that meaningful

Except emotional music came before the genre of "emo". And, not for nothing, but your analogy sucks. If what makes "emo" music "emo" is some particular stylistic difference between emo, punk, pop, rock, and whatever other genre we now apply an "emo" label to for certain songs, perhaps I'm wrong.

But, that's not how people use the word. "Emo" is used as a synonym for "angsty". Here's the thing. The Beatles, Queen, Dire Straits, The 13th Floor Elevators, the Smiths, The Clash, ect. were all angsty long before anything you're now calling "emo" existed. Either angst and melodrama and self-pity are "emo" in which case a good portion of all music is "emo" (and I'm right) or there's some actual musical distinction between an "emo-pop" song and a normal pop song aside from the content of the lyrics (which would fall under the purview of angst level)

 

[camokkid]

I know of a time when music was always happy and uplifting

that time was the early 20th century

a time that had songs like "let's misbehave" or "dear hearts and gentle people"

songs that made you feel good

if you could see me right now, I would tell you to look me in the eye and tell me that music is emo.

Happy is an emotion, so is lust. My point was not "all songs are angsty and melodramatic" but that all (or at least almost all) songs are based on some emotion. To slap an emo label on things as though it were synonymous with "wangst" does a disservice to both music and the English language

"wangst" is now my new favorite word

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

"Emo" isn't hating yourself, its feeling your music. The media, along with people who like to think they know what they are talking about, have turned "emo" into a negative thing.

Jimmy Eat World is emo, My Chemical Romance is not.

Emo broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s with the platinum-selling success of Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional and the emergence of the more aggressive subgenre "screamo". In recent years the term "emo" has been applied by critics and journalists to a variety of artists, including multiplatinum acts such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and disparate groups such as Coheed and Cambria and Panic at the Disco.

I post this again from Wikipedia. "Emo", or what you all seem to think is emo, is a product of the media. The actual genre is different.

The more you know!

Let me try once more.

Bashing emo is like bashing Twilight, you think it makes you look cool but you really just come off as a dick in the long run.

What does that mean exactly? I would argue that Stanton Moore is "emo" by the definition I bolded, and he's a jazz drummer. Same with Corrosion of Conformity, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, High on Fire, Aphex Twin, blah blah blah blah blah. Emo as a genre is just stupid because it's so incredibly vague. Really, it's just a form of pop-punk in my mind, and based on the things you've cited as emo. That's not necessarily good or bad. I happen to like Jimmy Eat World (ha! JEW) a fair bit, so I'm not hating.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Umm... first sentence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo
it's an actual GENRE of music. Applying the term to PEOPLE didn't come until later. It does not mean "emotional" at least not in the sense that you say it. Your argument is like saying "stop calling homosexuals gay. Gay means happy therefor the term applies to strait people as well!" Technically you're right, but you know damn well the context people use it in when they say it, and feigning ignorance really holds no relevance as an argument.

 

[Pegghead]

This song is never emo, ever.

 

[Seldon2639]

Umm... first sentence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo
it's an actual GENRE of music. Applying the term to PEOPLE didn't come until later. It does not mean "emotional" at least not in the sense that you say it. Your argument is like saying "stop calling homosexuals gay. Gay means happy therefor the term applies to strait people as well!" Technically you're right, but you know damn well the context people use it in when they say it, and feigning ignorance really holds no relevance as an argument.

Um... Did you actually read beyond that first sentence?

"The origins of the term 'emo' are shrouded in mystery [...] but it first came into common practice in 1985. If Minor Threat was hardcore, then Rites of Spring, with its altered focus, was emotional hardcore or emocore."

"emocore" is a shortening of "emotional hardcore", and thus "emo" is a shortening for "emotional". And, not for nothing, but you can't really argue in the same breath that we should allow the common usage of words to change over time, and that we should allow the original definition of a word to control. That just makes you sound daft.

I accept the context in which people use the term "emo", and I'm arguing that the context is wrong. The differences between emo and non-emo music are mostly in the lyrics, the amount of introspection, wangst, whinging, ect. But, if that's true, then much if not most music has varying levels of the same things that make "emo" music "emo".

If it's an actual musical difference, I've yet to hear it, nor has anyone argued yet for its existence. The hate for "emo" music comes from it being more whiny than other music. But, as I hope you saw from the Queen and Beatles songs I quoted, the differences seems mostly superficial at best.

A self-pitying/angry/angsty band you like isn't "emo". The same level of angst in a band you don't like it "emo". That makes us all sound like jackasses