The Emo Genre

There’s a genre of Rock music that’s Very Expressive, and has lyrical themes on topics like depression, sadness, self-harm, violence, anger, love, often confessional, has an obscure lifestyle that is highly criticized, and surrounded with controversy, you will immediately think it’s Heavy metal or any of its sub-genre that we are talking about given the aforementioned lyrical themes with no regard to article’s topic, a detour you will think, But NOO. We are talking “Emo”.

Now Emo can be thought of as a slang for “emotion”, yeah it’s a slang term for ‘emotional, but we aren’t talking emotions now. The ‘Emo we are going to talk about is a rock music Subculture known as ‘Emotive/emotional Hard-core’ , and yes there’s lots of emotion about this genre.

Emo can be said to have gotten its roots from Punk rock, but with resent developments in the genre there seem to be a stylistic change that has seen indie/pop punk incorporated into it. Emo originated in the mid-1980s in Washington, D.C, as part of a hard-core punk movement at that time, but  it wasn’t until 2000s that it became more popular and gained mainstream attention. Emo is a genre that seems to be fading gradually. It is not as popular as it used to be and it’s loosing followership, although there are still people who are still loyal to the genre. This sudden decrease in popularity is as a result of some emo bands disbanding and others moving on from the Emo culture/roots.  Popular Bands like My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Fall Out Boy also moved away from their Emo roots which also affected the genre, as these bands where once seen as flagship bands to the genre. So in a bid to help save the genre and style, a movement started in 2010s called “Emo Revival”, which saw new bands reinvent the same sound and style of Emo bands of early 90s.

Any talk about Emo rock is never really complete without talking about its fashion culture popular amongst teenagers and young adults. A fashion sense that shares similarities with the ‘Goth rock subculture. Emo fashion is recognized for its hairstyle which is always darkened with one side covering one eye, jeans wearing, t-shirts with Emo band names on it, wristbands, and hair colouring is highly noticeable amongst Emo fans as well.  Generally it’s a punk look with a gothic reflection.

Emo as a genre is very expressive and emotional, but at times when these emotions and expressions are pushed beyond certain boundaries it gives birth to chaos and controversy, which has thus lead to Emo bands and followers being stigmatized. Due to the social stigma that surrounds the genre, most bands have been lead to reject being labelled an Emo band, which has not helped the genre in terms of popularity, And Because of the expressiveness of these bands and their lyrical themes, their music has been accused of aiding self-harm,  amongst  teens, which is seen as an Emo thing. It’s been reported that there are emo-cults online, and on some Emo-websites one can find disturbing images of self-harm and suicide as a well preached agenda.  Emo has also not had a good time with gender relations as it’s been observed as being Gender Bias, although it has female fans, but there’s very little Female acceptance in the Emo scene. The Emo scene portrays women as powerless victims, which also has not helped. It’s these controversies that has lead to a Land slide in the genre. Countless times the Emo communities has written to agencies and media outlets in a bid to defend the genre and to dispel the stereotype and social stigma associated to the genre. Truth is there is not a genre of rock that has not had its fair share of stigma and controversy, but Emo seems to be in the light of things a lot more than others

List Of Artists

30 seconds to mass

A day to remember

Falling up

All time low

The fray

Pillar

Anberlin

Fire flight

Fly leaf

Gray matter

Gwen stacy

Hawk nelson

Boys like girls

The red jumpsuit apparatus

Simple plan

Dash board confessionals

Death cab for cutie

The dismemberment plan

Lost prophets

Metro station

Tokio hotel

Nirvana

If properly understood and interpreted, Emo songs are quite interesting.

Sub genres

Screamo  - it is defined as the aggressive version of emo, it was influenced by hard-core punk and characterised with brief compositions, chaotic execution and screaming vocals

List Of Artists

Bring Me The Horizon

Black Veil Bride

Funeral For A Friend

Envy

In/Humanity

Kids In The Way

Orchid

Saosin

Emo Pop -  it is also called Emo Pop Punk and as the name it was influenced by the pop genre, this genre became more successful In the mid-1990’s due to rise in Grunge

List Of Artists

Jimmy Eat World

The get up kids

The promise ring

The start line

Paramour

Panic at The Disco!

Fall out boys

New found glory

Gorilla biscuits

My chemical romance

The genre declined  a lot by early 2010s with bands like Panic At The Disco! Abandoning their emo pop style in album like “Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die” and Fall Out Boy’s in “ Save The Rock And Roll”

EmoVoilence

It is genre’s name was coined by PowerViolence band “In/Humanity”, it is a combination of scream and power violence, it can be characterized by its use of amplified feed backs, blast beats and fast tempos

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