Leading “Emo” website, www.fourfa.com, defines the term “Emo” as “a broad title that covers a lot of different styles of emotionally charged punk rock.” Pretty vague, plus I was under the impression that the terms “emotionally charged” and “punk rock” were oxymorons. Isn’t punk rock about not giving a f***?
What the website does do, however, is break the “Emo” genre down into sub-categories. The first category, which they refer to as “Emocore,” consists of those bands that are attributed with creating the genre, many of them with origins in punk rock. The “Emocore” bands are the ones who gave “Emo” its punk rock lineage.
“Emo” didn’t start out soft at all. Bands like Gray Matter, Ignition, Jawbreaker, Friction, Split Lip, Kerosene 454 and even Fuel gave the genre its background in punk rock. The website even lists Dashboard’s tour mates Hot Water Music under “Emocore.”
The next category the website lists is referred to as plain
“Emo.” This is where the genre took on a life of its own and lost its punk rock edge. Bands with less intimidating names are in this category, like Evergreen, Still Life, Frail and Julia, steering the genre more towards what we know as “Emo” today. Fourfa.com describes the lyrics of this bunch as “abstract poetry” We are now beginning to see the metamorphosis into contemporary “Emo.”
Last in our timeline in the history of “Emo” is where we are today, the recent tidal wave of “Emo” bands hitting the radio and MTV in the past couple years are referred to as “Post Emo Indie Rock” bands. If you own a gas station jacket, whatever bands you listen to are in this category. The website lists another Civic tour band, The Get Up Kids, in this category. In addition, it also lists Sunny Day Real Estate as “Post Emo Indie Rockers.”
You may be asking what the significance of this is. In early 2002, the guitarist from Sunny Day Real Estate, Dan Hoerner, joined Carraba in Dashboard Confessional. If you haven’t heard of Sunny Day Real Estate, they were formed back in 1992 and are credited by many as being the originators of the modern day “Emo” sound.
