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Let's All Cry About It
Emo
Time of Popularity: 2003
Ripped off the musical stylings off: Didn't really have a signature sound, so it couldn't really rip anything off.
Trademark Sound: There really wasn't one. Most were fairly slow, droopy, and acoustic.
Most Successful Artists: Dashboard Confessional
Band with the most staying power: Dashboard Confessional
Clothing: Emo didn't really have an image, it was more of a state-of-mind.
Long term contribution to society: An outlet for millions of depressed teens, who finally had musical idols who were as sad and mopey as they were. Also coincided with the mainstream rise of blogging, especially LiveJournal, meaning the internet is now littered with bad teen poetry, bad teen artwork, and Mood: Pensive.
The Last Word: Emo managed to have a backlash against it before it even became remotely popular. Even before I knew what it was, I would hear musical snobs call any band they didn't like "emo". That's still the case today, where any band that doesn't sound like a late-60's garage-rock clone with fuzzy acoustics is immediately labeled emo by the hordes of annoying indie hipsters whose musical preferences are no longer indie or hip. Real emo music is melodramatic and whiny, with the most often topic of complaint being the inability of the singer to get some girl to love him. In other words: my music.
Next time: Indie Rock
Comments
Dashboard confessional the most popular emo...? Come on, you need to try a little harder than that.
2003? - The swiss army romance album was released on drive through in 1999 and later re-released on victory...Again, please try and do better with your next "genre" evaluation.
Posted by: mse at April 4, 2005 9:41 AM
Mainstream popularity, yes, I don't think anyone else got the airplay that Dashboard did. And while Swiss Army Romance was released in 1999, I'd argue that Dashboard wasn't "famous" until 2002 when the MTV unplugged occurred. I'll give you a year and say 2002, but there's no way emo was mainstream popular in 1999.
Posted by: Chris Hill Festival at April 4, 2005 6:49 PM
Very valid point. I guess I did not realize you were only focusing on major media airplay popularity. The argument could be made that Weezer's pinkerton album was the first true *emo* album and did recieve major airplay upon it's release. While not an immediate success, pinkerton may well be the cause of the whole emo movement.
Moreover, Jimmy eat world became radio poularized about the same time as dashboard, but had moved passed thier earlier emo efforts....
I think that some similar points could be made about your earlier genre evaluations if only someone had the time.
Posted by: mse at April 5, 2005 10:09 AM
Very true about Jimmy Eat World. That seems like a common theme among the emo bands, starting out emo and then getting more and more "edgy". The same thing happened with The Juliana Theory, although JEW had much more success with it.
Posted by: Chris Hill Festival at April 5, 2005 9:01 PM
I have to heartily disagree with MSE. "Pinkerton" is purely power pop; there's nothing emo about it unless you're considering lyrics alone, and even those are very tongue in cheek.
From what I can tell, Sunny Day Real Estate was the first real emo band. Their first record, "Diary," was released in '94 and is considered to be the start of this whole trend. Listen to it and you'll get it.
And with bands like the Get Up Kids, the Promise Ring and Alkaline Trio all releasing their best records in the late '90s-earlly '00s, I still think that was the height of emo according to emo fans of yore. Not that those people are any cooler than the people who discovered Dashboard Confessional three years later. Because they're not.
I also contend actual emo never really became mainstream.
Wow, I'm argumentative today. Sorry about that!
Posted by: Rachel at April 8, 2005 5:18 PM
okay...my comment should have said "... the first true *emo* album THAT recieved major airplay .."
SDRE was a key player in emo, but the roots are in DC area bands that nobody has ever heard of. The most notable would probably be Moss Icon or Embrace (side project of Minor Threat).
I agree that emo never became mainstream, but there is certainly mainstream emo....ie taking back sunday.
enough crying. lets move on to indie rock - i have thousands of comments for that category
Posted by: mse at April 13, 2005 7:28 AM
Do I know you, mse? You some interesting things to say, but I hate not having a name to put with a screen name. "Indie Rock" (the most inappropos name ever) is coming soon, I have lots to say about it as well.
Posted by: Chris Hill Festival at April 14, 2005 8:20 PM
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