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Emo started out as a music movement, so it is no surprise that music is still a way of life for Emo fans. Music often dictates their style and expresses the way that they feel about life. Emo music has become so popular; it is now playing on pop radio stations and moved away from being an underground movement.
Emo music first started out in the 1980s and 1990s, a punk type of music that was in some ways very different from the Emo bands of today. The singers would often scream and cry out as a way to express their emotions. These emotional displays are where the term “Emo” came from. Popular Emo bands of that era came out of Washington D.C. and San Diego and included acts, like Rites of Spring and Heroin.
Up until the mid-1990s, Emo music was very popular with the punk and underground music set. For a few years, it lost ground when harder and edgier bands began to play at more clubs. However, after the new millennium started, Emo was back again and more popular than ever. Much of this success has been attributed to bands that have crossed over into mainstream culture. One of the most well known Emo bands to have this kind of success is Dashboard Confessional.
Modern Emo music also has retained the emotional qualities of the Emo bands of the past. Their songs are still filled with emotion, but they are now more expressed through lyrics instead of screaming and crying. The lyrics often express what is going on in the inside as opposed to the outside. Sometimes, Emo music is described as overly sensitive or demonstrative.
The one drawback of Emo music getting so popular is that many fans feel that once the band enters mainstream culture, they lose many of the musical qualities that lead them to be categorized as Emo in the first place. One example of this type of band is Jimmy Eat World. Emo fans have noted the dramatic differences between the band’s earlier releases and their newer albums.
Emo music is hard to categorize because many people consider a song Emo if it expresses emotion in some way. This broad use of the label has lead to many fans and musicians arguing over whether something is Emo or not. Since there really is no exact science on how to figure it out, most people just consider artists that are followers of the fashion and lifestyle as Emo.
Although not everyone agrees with what Emo music is, there are bands that have been mostly considered to be part of the Emo genre. A sampling of these acts is Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail and Brand New. Also, as more bands embrace their emotional sides, Emo is likely to expand even farther. |
