Emo!

So on Facebook a few of my friends decided to make a group called "Emo music, the worst oxymoron ever." The description reads:

For anyone who knows that emo music is not in fact music. Just because you put some beats on and read from your diary does not mean you are making music.

They also have an illustrated emo kid, complete with tears and weezer glasses and bulletin points tagging off the insults in the proper locations. I can't stand the term Emo, and I can't stand the majority of the "scene" bands out there, but I still felt the need to join and give them my "You're Wrong" reply. I figured MySpace was probably the best place to see if my historical recollection is flawed, so feel free to chip away if you think I'm an idiot and have just proven it. Please note the and have just proven it before chiming in that I am an idiot. This latter is not false and I won't argue that it is, but at least have reasoning behind the claim. This was my group response:

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I just needed to join and point out that it seems like you have a problem with Emo Subculture, or "Trendy Ass Kids", and actually don't have a clue what would constitute Emo "music." I HATE the term myself, as Emo is more of a Phylumatic term than it is an indvidual stratum, but it's important to respect musical origins even if the end result does, well, suck.

Elvis Costello is largely considered one of the first "true" Emo artists as he put the focus on the abandonment of form and more on "emotion", both stylistically and lyrically. During the transition from "Emo" focusing on DC-based punk bands such as Rites of Spring, Milwaukee itself became more and more prevalent in the scene, birthing such bands as Cap'N Jazz, Sunny Day Real Estate, Boy's Life, The Promise Ring and Braid. While a more appropriate term for these specific bands would be Experimental Indie Rock, the "Emo" label gets used more often and they were influential bands in a genre that had not yet given way to over-saturation and commercialization.

By the late 90's remaining bands from the Indie/Screamo/Post-Hardcore sub-genres that make up "Emo" had started to find some mainstream success, these notably include bands such as Jimmy Eat World (who were playing "scene" shows with underground namesakes like Chrstie Front Drive and SDRE as early as 93-94), Saves the Day, and Further Seems Forever, the latter pretty much independently thanks to Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional. As interest piqued larger companies started buying up newer arrivals to the scene and hundreds of the Emo "clone" bands that started springing up and the music became much more accessible, much more commercialized, giving way to the focus on image and terms such as "Scene Kids".

You're looking at an over-saturated 27-year old music scene and a marketable image trend, of course it's going to be a great source of ridicule. But "putting some beats on and reading from their diary" would be making more fun of Beat Poetry or Interpretive Performance than it would Emo Music. It's the equivalent of using Three Doors Down as a launchpad to claim that all rock is terrible, including the Rolling Stones and Bowie. It's a terribly uninformed place to be coming from.

I love giving shit as much as the next guy. In fact, I go so far as to say I love giving shit MORE than the next guy. But when I do it I direct my ire towards the correct target and with stunning execution, tact and precision. You're going after the Emo Image, which I can fully get behind. You're going after Scene Kids, which I can again fully get behind. And if you were going after "Emo" as an oft-abused musical term I could get behind that too. But pulling insults and forging a Facebook group off of a few kids you see around campus that apparently like Hot Topic and aren't aware of the concept of Self Identity--it's flat out ignorance, and I really didn't take any of you specifically as ignorant people. Well--never mind, I'll stick with that claim I just made.

So essentially you've created an anti-sentiment group targeting kids who prescribe to poor fashion sense and a lack of musical taste based on a half-baked view that lacks any sense of dilineation and seeks not one whit of counterpoint? Wow. Way to go, Nazi's.

PS: Yellowcard does suck.

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Anyone on UWM's facebook can find the group here. Anyone who wants to provide backing vocals for me feel free, I'm always game for starting a good argument, especially if I'm not the lone player on my team.

EDIT: This is a quote I thought applicable from Tom of Houston Calls' page:

If for one minute you think you're better than a sixteen year old girl in a Green Day t-shirt, you are sorely mistaken. Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favorite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about.