Cheer Up Emo Kid

by Liz Kantner in Opinion Posts, Uncategorized

What is emo? The term is commonly stereotyped as a person who is sensitive and overly emotional. Someone who wears excessively tight pants, dark eyeliner and their hair in a side swept bang covering one of their eyes. They wear dark rimmed glasses, studded belts and chucks. It has become a fad and the word’s original meaning has been lost.

Emo is actually a sub genre of hardcore punk which was started in Washington DC in 1985, by the emotional hardcore band Rites of Spring.  Fugazi gained a following a few years after that. Although they were not considered emo, they inspired a new sound with the honesty in their lyrics and influenced other bands and sub genres.  In the early 90s,  the band Lifetime changed the sound. They made it more melodic and fast paced which paved the way for bands such as Saves the Day and Taking Back Sunday. The genre ‘indie-emo’ didn’t come about until the mid 90s and was inspired by bands like  Sunny Day Real Estate and Jimmy Eat World. ’Pinkerton’ by Weezer is considered the most defining emo album of the 90’s.  Since then indie-emo has increased in popularity and even more sub genres of emo have come about.

Emo is a hard genre of music to describe. Some don’t even consider it a genre of music because emo can be used to describe just about any band or songwriter. It is so much more than whiny rock stars singing about their broken heart. It is more than the fashion and way more than a fad. Emo is an influential type of music that has inspired so much more than just black nail polish and side swept bangs.  So, cheer up emo kid, take off your hood and be proud of the music that you listen to.