Why aren’t the emo kids mentioned in The History of Cool? Most of the kids who listened to Thursday, The Blood Brothers and Alexisonfire are now old 20-year-old hipsters.
Yes, and what of bands like On the Might of Princes that no one has heard of or cares about anymore?
Why aren’t the emo kids mentioned in The History of Cool? Most of the kids who listened to Thursday, The Blood Brothers and Alexisonfire are now old 20-year-old hipsters. Also, where are the scene kids? They are like post-hipsters, like the 12 to 19-year-olds listening to stuff that’s similar to what emo kids listened to but without the politics and message, just havin’ fun. What about those kids listening to Attack Attack! and T. Mills?
That scene is quite different from the old emo scene when Taking Back Sunday was the king. The music is different and makes all those Underoath and Thursday fans angry and also makes old people angry and makes hipsters angry. Aren’t they the new rebels? The new faces of cool? What does Street Carnage thinks about the new kids?
-CESAR
Dear Cesar,
I don’t fucking know. I’m FORTY.
I’ll handle this. I came of age during the time of (and was totally into) Thursday, The Blood Brothers, Underoath and other things no longer relevant:
Suburban kids from places like New Jersey and Long Island started listening to local “post hardcore” bands like Thursday and From Autumn to Ashes because they were homegrown and better reflected the predicament of suburban living (emo came from the same vein [thanks, Professor Mudbutt], but was less angsty — less about moshing and more about moping). Kids from Piscataway can’t relate to “Guilty of Being White” because they weren’t picked on for being the only white kids at the inner city schools they didn’t go to. Post hardcore and emo bands wrote songs about the universal gripes of teenagers, like not fitting in, flirting with drugs and girls, but also particularly suburban themes, like going away to college, house parties, and drinking and driving (think about how many LI bands have a song with “car crash” in the title).
Those bands eventually got labels and started playing venues instead of basements, and eventually realized they turned into adults. This is when they started singing about politics because that’s what they figured adults do. (This was also during Bush II’s reign, so being political was very “in.”) This also during the same time that Hot Topic became a thing, so this music spread across the country really, really quick. In an instant you had a million similar bands and awful hybrids (see: Brokencyde and, apparently, Attack Attack!). This is also why the “emo look” (tight jeans and band tees, shitty dye jobs, facial piercings, eye make-up — on guys and girls) is now ubiquitous, even in Small Town, MO.
As far as this being the new cool, I think that’s a pretty big fail. Partially because innovation in music, fashion and art has mostly centered around metropolitan areas and shit like Brokencyde has zero urban traction. If that answer’s too dickheaded for you, it’s also hard to defend things as being cool when they’re 100% parent-sponsored (e.g. Mom and dad drove you to the mall to hit up Hot Topic, then took you to the Attack Attack! show, then you all went out for pizza after).
Any emo that came out after SDRE is pop-punk garbage.
It’s vein not vain, Arv. Now be a good boy and properly thank me. Emo sucks.
Rites of Spring and Embrace blew. SDRE and Jawbreaker invented emo. Except Promise Ring did. Oh wait Weezer did. And the GUK. And Jimmy Eat World and Further Seems Forever.
Shit like Underoath and The Used and whatever else the kids (and me) are into is screamo. That name is pretty bad, but damned if it don’t work. I’m a 33 year old emo fag.
Emo is Fag.
WHAT THE FUCK? Not really even a single actual emo band mentioned in this entire piece of shit of an article?
What about Jawbreaker and At the Drive In and Hot Water Music and Small Brown Bike and SDRE and Mineral, etc etc etc?
Jawbreaker, you fucking assholes. Fuck every other band, and while your at it, go fuck yourself.
And fuck kids in eyeliner and fuck the mall and FUCK PIZZA.
Cesar is a total fag.
Isn’t emo a syrupy melancholy that comes from the similar stadium rock ballads of the 70s & 80s? Emo’s just more specific in its references.
any emo that came out after Rites of Spring…. ah, fuckit.
cheer up, emo kid
http://streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/the-history-of-cool/
“Hardcore had a baby called emo.”
Before you had the floppy hair and names like “Taking Back the Fears of our Fathers” or whatever, Emo was just another word for DC hardcore. This was because, while all the other hardcore bands were screaming about fights and not drinking, you had Dag Nasty talking about being hurt by a close friend or how “I never doubted what I had inside.”
the only authentic band left in the whole world is icp…fuck u d-bags
Gavin is right, and it sickens me to think that this pussy-rock somehow gets connected to my beloved Fugazi.
drive like jehu?
Because they all sucked.
skramz
The promise ring is the apex of emo. After years of awesome sad sack suicide music the lead singer gets a brain tumor and comes back and makes their happiest album, wood / water. Then hot topic happened.
Cap’n Jazz, anyone?
Especially if we’re talking Promise Ring. C’mon people.
Lars Ulrich invented emo.
remember when emo kids looked like mr spock?
guys remember v neck sweaters and chuck taylors?
also the locust invented emo, nobody noticed because nobody can
figure out what justin pearson is singing- but its all about how
no one signed his yearbook in high school and how his dad cried at
the dinner table every night
also- attack attack are christians (true)
thats not emo, youre genuinely sad because
jesus died
Only good ‘emo’ bands are: Joy Division, Wipers, Husker Du, Moss Icon, Hated and RoS.
Although I’ll admit to liking this stuff anonymously, I’m too old to do so in person. And anyone over 25 should have better sense than admitting to liking ANY screamo.
Jawbreaker and Weezer were poppunk. Christie Front Drive, Promise Ring, SDRE, JEW et al were ‘post-hardcore’ for pussies who couldn’t take Born Against, MITB and the even more brutal shit everyone was listening to then.
Drive Like Jehu were not emo nerds, they were too cool to mope.
Capnjazz was influential like few other bands in the 90s. Bands like Current, Indian Summer, Don Martin 3, Constatine Sankathi and others all stole from them.
“Rites of Spring and Embrace blew”
you are out of your mind sir. and Jawbreaker were good but they were fratty pop punk to the core.
“Emo was just another word for DC hardcore.”
basically yes. and when 7 seconds really started to get weak.
Sunny Day Real Estate and co were the second wave and it was in both cases heavily influenced by U2, unfortunately.
Simple answer: Because emo isn’t cool.
The origins of the word “cool” revolve around an ability to “keep cool” in heated situations and not get all sissy and emotional, i.e., “emo.”
Dear Cesar,
You just made me puke in my mouth. I’m gonna go cry and listen to Promise Ring and Cap’n Jazz at the same time while I rub my clit til it bleeds.
Anonymous wins with logic.
“Emo was just another word for DC hardcore.” no, not really. never heard the term till marginal man.
Gavin you are correct. growing up on the mid-eastcoast (in the late 80s/90s) we referred to anything coming from DC that wasn’t hardcore as emo (as in “Guy is really emotional when he sings” or “I saw Brendan cry while he was playing Hidden Wheel). AND we also knew that name was fucking gay even way back then. every band that came after rites, ignition, embrace, faith, grey matter, etc… was following that template. jawbreaker was fantastic, but not necessarily emo. IMFO
Raymi invented it. She IS emo.
You’re missing the real historic roots of emo, as follows. Note interiority, alienation-feeling, but transcendent faith in connection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJSkJlh_fgmate proto-emo:
arv is sticking it to the man, like the 12-year old weasel that he is
funny how “emo” was the most dressed down scene ever (plain t-shirts, shaved heads, nerd glasses) and then by about 2006 you had kids who looked like somebody put hair metal and anime in a blender. are they even really the same thing?
Emo is the biggest fucking put on in the history of music. Fucking circus.
A lot of faggots read this site.
Just to make some casual remarks:
In/Casino/Out is one of the greatest records of all time.
And isn’t the Blood Brothers a riot grrl act? I’m pretty sure they were. They sounded like one anyway.
I didn’t even read the article first and went straight to the comments on this post. I knew immediately fag bombs were gonna be dropped and a long list of incredibly “relevant but overlooked” acts will be mentioned leaving no doubt of a commentator’s sexuality.
Anyways, let’s also not forget the Refused. They definitely made metal cool for emo fags. Don’t blame Earth Crisis, it was the Refused that fucked it up for everybody. Everyone did kinda dress better though. I remember when metal was all about hockey jerseys. Go figure that one out.
I appreciate Pedu Stu/Onyx Blackman’s mention of the old emo fashions. I remember that argyle sweaters were supposed to be the best, and maybe work shirts…though by 2001, when I first listened to SDRE, it seemed like the whole thing was about to vanish for good.
And now of course it’s even bigger than it ever was before, but it’s puzzling that the fashion part has become so radically different. Is Hot Topic single-handedly responsible for reviving skinny jeans and tight band shirts in America? Maybe HT and the Strokes together?
I feel old now. I hope my argyle sweaters and loose khakis will be back in soon.
gavin is correct to blame DC hardcore, which was never good and always bad. stop pretending you like fugazo, it is profoundly mediocre music for would-be jocks (except for the that one song which, ironically, is the one fugazo song beloved by actual jocks).
from autumn to ashes? taking back sunday? you fucking poofter.
“This next song is about something I discovered about myself when I was six years old in the first grade. I realized that I wasn’t like anyone else, that I was different, and nobody could ever understand what that is like.”
The only people qualified to talk about Emo are the post Emo, hipster kids who probably work at Vice/are graphic designers/in indie bands now. As i found out trying to coax info out of an ex after finding a picture of her in emo getup, they ain’t talking about it, other than to tell you what it is not.
people in their 30s talking about emo are the most hilarious people on earth, i always enjoy running into them and basking in their low self esteem glow.
Screamo wasn’t so bad…. Saetia…
rites of spring does not suck you banana head!
“In/Casino/Out is one of the greatest records of all time.” hell ye
im old now by the way
after watching that attack attack video, I went outside and vomited out of anger. smoked a butt and then blasted Ace Frehely’s Kiss solo album to help forget what I had just seen.
fuck that shit. if you like jesus so much, go meet him.
I might aruge that rites of spring, later era 7 seconds, and the like were not emo but their second rate imitators were.
and the fact is rites of spring rocks harder than most stoner rock bands do. music itself has become emo ized all around including rap
@Anonymous: Word, love Saetia.
Today. We are all faggots.
you especially, army
Kind of late on this one. I’m an old fart. But, dear god there are some fucking idiots up in here. “Lorge” up there seems to be one of the few here who knows anything about the genre. Yes, it began as another word for, some, D.C. bands. But, it evolved. See the bands Lorge mentioned. There are tons more. And Gravity records where it was the screamo thing. And Jawbreaker was pop punk. Jesus Christ.
No dragler. You’re always gonna be gayer than me.
AAAAAHHHHHHRRRRGGGGGG its all about class!!!! DUH!!!! present day emo is for poor people and mexicans!! those are the only people who listen to it and are “scene”. rich suburban kids do NOT, new yorkers are not! “hipster” culture is way more middle class therefore therefore more relevant to streetboners and vice et al while emo is not ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Wow, that music is terrible.