Before My Chemical Romance: How Emo Became Emo
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- Опубликовано: 9 июн 2024
- Emo is tough to define. As Andy Greenwald wrote in Nothing Feels Good: "Emo means different things to different people. Actually that's a massive understatement. Emo seems solely to mean different things to different people." For the most part it’s more of an insult than a genre, and because of this, no band willingly considers themselves Emo.
However at its essence, it's an offshoot of punk that is in touch with its more introspective feelings. Maybe the guitars twinkle, maybe the guitars smash you over the head. The key element is there needs to be emotion, sung from the very bottom of their heart. But how did it get from its original emotional hardcore guise to the music featured on The OC? What were the essential steps along the way? And why is My Chemical Romance referred to as Emo? This is How Emo Became Emo.
#emo #emomusic #musicdocumentary
Additional Writing & Fact-checking by Chad Van Wagner.
00:00 Introduction
00:53 Hardcore & The Revolution Summer
04:53 The Smiths & The Replacements
07:31 Jawbreaker & The Cult of Blake
11:06 Sunny Day Real Estate & Emo's First Break
13:42 The Post-Nirvana Major Label Gold Rush
17:07 Lifetime & The New Jersey Scene
19:11 Texas Is The Reason & The JFK Conspiracies
21:00 Weezer, Blue & Their 'Hideous' Follow-Up
24:15 The Beginning of Midwest Emo
31:10 Deep Elm & The Emo Diaries
34:06 Jimmy Eat World & Being Signed to Capitol
37:10 American Football & Being Rediscovered
39:34 Vagrant Records & Capitalising on Emo
44:06 Emo From Across The States
48:14 At The Drive-In & Breaking Post-Hardcore
50:48 The Mainstream Breakthrough of Emo
56:15 The New Jersey & Long Island Scenes
1:02:45 My Chemical Romance & The Emo-Pop Takeover
Bibliography
Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers and Emo by Andy Greenwald, 2003, St Martin's Griffin
From the Basement: A History of Emo Music and How It Changed Society by Taylor Markarian, 2019, Mango Publishing Group
"Ian MacKaye - 1986 - Emocore is stupid" ( • Ian MacKaye - 1986 - E... )
"Clarity - Track By Track", Jimmyeatworld.com, unknown date
"Get Up Kids Interview" CONTRAST, 1997
"Jimmy Eat World" Scott Heisel, Punknews, 1999
"Guy Picciotto - 2003" Mark Prindle, 2003
"MCR Interview" Kerrang!, 2005
"Sunny Day Real Estate Diary Review" Ian Cohen, Pitchfork, Sep 2009
"Rites of Spring and the summer that changed punk rock" Louis Pattison, The Guardian, Nov 2012
"The 10 Best Jawbreaker Songs" Aaron Lariviere, Stereogum, Nov 2012
"BackTracking: Taking Back Sunday on “Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)"" Alternative Press, Jul 2013
"Diary Turns 20" Patric Fallon, Stereogum, May 2014
"American Football American Football Review" Ian Cohen, Pitchfork, May 2014
"You Should Already Know: American Football" Nevin Martell, Filter, Jun 2014
"30 Essential Songs From The Golden Era Of Emo" Patric Fallon, Stereogum, Jul 2014
"24 Hour Revenge Therapy Jawbreaker Review" Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork, Oct 2014
"Saves The Day look back on 15 years of 'Through Being Cool'" Alternative Press, Nov 2014
"This Is Hardcore: Lifetime - Hello Bastards" Laurent Barnard, Louder, Feb 2015
"Ben Gibbard Picks the Best Death Cab Songs" Lauretta Charlton, Vulture, Mar 2015
"Nothing Feels Good Promise Ring Review" Ian Cohen, Pitchfork, Oct 2015
"Never Meant: The Complete Oral History of American Football" TJ Kliebhan, Noisey, Feb 2016
"How Weezer’s ‘Pinkerton’ Went From Embarrassing to Essential" Laura Marie Braun, Rolling Stone, Sep 2016
"The Definitive Oral History of Jawbreaker’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy" Leor Galil, Pitchfork, Apr 2017
"'The Emo Diaries' Gave a New Genre an Identity, Then Fought to Reclaim It" Eduardo Cepeda, Noisey, Jul 2017
"The Promise Ring's 'Nothing Feels Good' Proved There Was Room for Pop in Emo" Eduardo Cepeda, Noisey, Aug 2017
"Rainer Maria’s 'Past Worn Searching' Helped Carve a Space for Women in Emo" Eduardo Cepeda, Noisey, Dec 2017
"Decoding Jawbreaker's Monumental 24 Hour Revenge Therapy 25 Years On" Mischa Pearlman, Kerrang!, Feb 2019
"Clarity Turns 20" Ian Cohen, Stereogum, Feb 2019
"Jimmy Eat World - Reflecting on the 20th Anniversary of “Clarity”" Ian King, Under the Radar, Feb 2019
"10 best 90s emo songs: killer tracks from the genre’s golden age" Mia Hughes, NME, May 2019
"40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time" Various, Rolling Stone, Sep 2019
"Something To Write Home About Turns 20" Ian Cohen, Stereogum, Sep 2019
"‘Through Being Cool’ at 20: Saves the Day’s Chris Conley Looks Back on an Emo Landmark" Suzy Exposito, Rolling Stone, Oct 2019
"20 emo classics that helped define today's scene, from 1985 to 1997" Various, Alternative Press, Mar 2020
"The 100 Greatest Emo Songs of All Time" Various, Vulture, Feb 2020
"Clarity Jimmy Eat World Review" Ivy Nelson, Pitchfork, Jun 2021
"The game-changing legacy of Rites of Spring" Arun Starkey, Far Out, Apr 2022
"Sunny Day Real Estate Defined Emo Forever with ‘Diary’" Niko Stratis, Riot Fest, Jul 2022
"The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s" Various, Pitchfork, Sep 2022
![Latto - Sunday Service (feat. Megan Thee Stallion & Flo Milli) [Remix] (Official Video)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9gL0F1xIt2I/mqdefault.jpg)
So what do you think? Where did you come into the Emo story and what do you feel I've missed?
EMO SPOTIFY PLAYLIST is available free via my patreon: patreon.com/trashtheory
Also Official Trash Theory playlist - Spotify: tinyurl.com/yxp32pjf Deezer: tinyurl.com/y2mdp8h2
So happy you rightfully mentioned Forever Got Shorter as Braid’s best song.
Samiam
I’m sure Finn McKenty would love this
ruclips.net/video/aRnqR48UPTk/видео.html
Or....
ruclips.net/video/nF2_9m5OiDs/видео.html
"every generation was a teenager once" thats freaking beautiful
You should get out more
Wish more people would remember that
@@Realasadonutinsulting random comments on a video on the history of emo proves how outside you are 😂
Agreed. Very on point.
Not really, you’re just 14
Although this comment will most likely be lost, I would like to say thank you. This video popped up in my recommended and I didn't expect my dad to be in it! Gared O'Donnell was my father and he put his heart and soul into his music, he was a very loving person who would always find time to play the music that he loved!
I just made a similar quote! PMSF is definitely a favorite. I lived them through high school and was lucky enough to see them live around 03-04. My condolences.
Hate the fact that Gared is gone as PMFS is one of my favorite bands starting with the original Deep Elm release but up until Prey which is a killer album. I saw them years back when they did a doubleheader after Thursday in Pittsburgh and played to maybe 20 people with terrible sound quality through the first like 3 songs...
He’s my dad too!
Planes ripped. I saw them three times and every one was amazing.
Your Dad's music brought me a lot of comfort as a teenager. Real life changing stuff that lives with me til today. Bless him and bless you.
I'm 68 years old. I stumbled across MCR three years ago when my narcissist ex finally left after 11 years to go suck the life and joy out of another unsuspecting soul. I came across "I don't love you," and must have listened to it a hundred times in the first couple of months after he left. My ex was so much like the character created in that song. I texted him about a year after he left to say that it's painful enough when someone stops loving you, but so much more wounding to wake up to the fact that he never actually loved me at all the entire 11 years we were together. Needed me, yes. Loved me? He cannot love anyone. His reply would make good lyrics for a song like "I don't love you." He wrote, "While my feelings for you are different now, they still run deep." I just laughed. So my dears, you can be my age and feel "emo" about giving 11 years of your life to Mr. Wrong. And you can learn from it, and build a new life. And discover some great music. And right before their reunion (and a freakin pandemic).
Yea, you definitely don't have to be a teenager to relate. It's a worn out cliche but it's true that this type of music -whatever you wanna call it- isn't just a phase
Yeah
I did that with a covert narcissist for 18 years. The only relationship I ever had. Usually I just had f*CK buddies. But he convinced me and the first 10 I was on heroin so....lol I had an excuse for my stupidity. It was just a trauma bond after that. Took me 5 years to finally get him off my tit. Frickin child that he was!
But anyhow, I understand.
Frank was a literal child that made my screwed up, cptsd having, people pleasing ass feel needed and necessary.
It has been 6 years and I plan to be single forever.
Good music is good music, I like a lot of things from older bands, like Guns n roses, Aerosmith, bon Jovi, Metallica, Nirvana, Ozzy, Skid Row... so nice to know you liked MCR, they're great, music is timeless in my opinion
It's so telling of the genre that even after watching this 70 minute video I still don't know what emo is.
It's emo.
I've been looking for what emo is for like 2 weeks, even what an emo person is. There really isn't an answer
"everything is emo"
From what I can work out, It's looking like Green Day and acting like you want to die.
honestly, emo is just a vibe. and it's hard to verbalize it.
Its such a tease every time a clip starts playing a song, and I start to sing along, only to be left singing all alone.
you should turn that into a song/poem. It sounds great!
@@ruaoneill9050 I think I already did ;)
@@scotthallgv nice! more please
this is a very emo comment. its perfect.
- by fall out boy
I am constantly impressed by the amount of work and the depth of research that you do. I always find new bands to check out when you do these genre videos, thanks.
Trash Theory is the GOAT of the large collection of music history documenters.
there almost hasn't been single video on this channel that didn't make me add at least one song to my spotify favorities
Their recent paramore video was so detailed and it had better research than mainstream media outlets I love this channel !
Right?? So enjoyable.
Forrealz
This is an absolutely gorgeous history of emo as a genre. I would love to see a part 2 of this - emo from it’s “mall punk” era to the revival era to now!
When Hüsker Dü started to write songs about personal problems in the early to mid 80s it seemed to be strange when considering most other hardcore bands were focused on politics. I think that played an important role in the development of emo.
That's a great point 👍
long live Bob Mould.
Who???
@@ammagnolia i guess you forgot to watch the video?
I feel like their song "what going on?" is a pretty good indicator, it's a bit of a dissociation song in my ears, especially dissociation feeling is the dissonant guitars on standing by the sea.
Clarity by Jimmy Eat World is nothing short of a classic, Lord knows how much it helped me through my high school years.
more like lord snows
i just saw jimmy eat world live for the first time a few months ago at riot fest
when they played the middle it was unreal how big of a hit that song is. Ive seen blink live who you could argue is a significantly bigger band. it was nothing compared to reaction that song got and the ammount of crowd surfing
Goodbye sky harbor is everything
To have read in “sellout” how clarity was recorded makes me like it even more
clarity the goat
As someone who's been diving into emo music, and culture over the last year this is already the best video I've seen covering emos history.
Not surprised. Mr. Trash Theory is part journalist, part historian, part detective, and all rock music fan.
I agree! At the time this is the most comprehensive video I've seen, covering all of the key essential points from pre-revolution summer all the way to 2000s mall hot topic / zumies emo. It would have been easy to overlook the likes of appleseed cast, cap'n'jazz, etc but he managed to squeeze them in. For that I applaud him. Kudos.
@ghost mall What is your problem?
As someone who lived most of this video from the late 90s, there is a long journey but a lot of great music through the years.
@@143jcm They were allowed to have Internet access
Glad Jawbreaker is getting more recognition nowadays. They played and continue to play such an important part for so many of us in the underground.
Dear you is a perfect album.
Jawbreaker is music for abusive boyfriends lol
@@Woozy.0 Well, at least someone loled at your comment 🤷
blake one of the best lyricist on the planet
But it's also not hard to see why they failed on a major label. I have a theory that they wrote Dear You with the intention of telling their already existing fans "we're still the same band you love. Nothing's changed." But those fans didn't care because they saw them as hypocrites (they said for years they would never go major and they did). And the reason for doing that could be because they KNEW the backlash was inevitable. And because of that, the MTV "normies" couldn't get behind them and they floundered as a result.
God I wish someone would make Spotify playlists of your video subjects. I'm always so interested in hearing the full songs you're putting out. Even in genres and times I wouldn't normally hear. Would love it after watching your videos. FAVOURITE CHANNEL ON RUclips.
YES! you should make them!
I'm pretty sure he has playlists as a Patreon perk
he posted it on his patreon for free :)
Oh man, I'm such an old head and I always used to cringe about what we used to call emo back in the day versus what people came to know as emo. I got over that a long time ago and stopped trying to explain it. I'm so glad to see a video that explains the origins of it, though.
I also don't have any hatred toward what is now considered emo music. I took my baby sister to the 2005 Warped Tour for her 17th birthday; I was 24. I saw MCR there and it was PHENOMENAL. My sister got me into a lot of bands that I wouldn't have found on my own, and at that time they were mostly "emo" bands. I loved them and I still do. I have never been embarrassed to like whatever music I like.
All of that said, I remember hearing and using "emo" to describe bands throughout the 90's, and those bands were almost NOTHING like MCR.
Same here. I've been confused for years between what I knew as emo in the 90s (a very loose understanding) and what is called emo since then. Good video.
I agree and this is why I like the distinction of "emo pop" vs "emo" - like pop punk vs punk
I think early MCR, FOB, and Paramore albums have enough elements to qualify as emo, definitely MCR's Bullets album. Now the "emo" rappers like Lil Peep and Juice Wrld, ehhhhhhh.....
Don't worry, since emo stopped being pop music the newer generations have revived what emo used to mean. Finally we're playing DIY venues, hanging out, playing mixed bills with hardcore and punk bands, and enjoying emo music again. You just don't hear about it as much because it isn't that same pop style that was popular.
@lucas also xxxtentacions album 17. There's a few straight acoustic songs on there. My favorite was depression and obsession.
Hellboy and crybaby were built around 90s and 2000s samples. Hotel rooms and skyscrapers samples deathcab, hellboy samples underoath, beamer boy samples the microphones. I forgot what star shopping was but it's another post hardcore band. I actually got into emo and hardcore through videos of lil peep samples and thier bands. Those two mixtapes were tapestries.
As a long time "Emo" in my late 30s it is really satisfying to see something more than bad jokes and insults towards emo but a very well researched documentation about the history of emo music.
Brought tears into my eyes seeing Emo get the respect it deservesz
One band I was obsessed with was Sense Field. Their 1996 album Building is a masterpiece. Speaking of basement shows, The Promise Ring played at my art studio wearhouse in Miami, 1997. Those were the days. One more thing, I love that the videos are getting longer. Can't get enough gimme more!
Yes, while I'm not an expert, when I think of emo I think of Sense Field. I used to listen to Building on repeat when I was in HS. I wonder how they would fit into the chapters outlined here.
I am just happy that that you mentioned Cursive and Tim Kasher, he and his works have had a huge impact on my life.
thank fucking GOD someone finally talked about the modest mouse to midwest emo pipeline ty trash theory
Quick corrections: Screamo (and “screamy emo”) was being used in the mid90s to differentiate bands like Moss Icon, Indian Summer, Lincoln, and Iconoclast (NJ-particularly influential on the metaly-emo of the later 90s and early00s) and bands they’d influenced, like Navio Forge, Still Life, Portraits of Past, etc., from what was happening in the Mid West (“melodic emo”). Honestly, I think the lacuna of Ebullition Records and it’s massive influence is a missed opportunity. And I think missing mentioning “metaly emo” bands like The Assistant and Catharsis or “emoviolence” bands like In/Humanity and Orchid-let alone Refused!-also loses track of huge influences on not only how we got MCR, but the ongoing developments of emo bands. I think it’s also vital to mention that all of these different kinds of emo bands were sharing basements with one another and all kinds of other punk/hardcore bands (as they still do) all over the place. Additionally, the hardcore / punk kids with acoustic guitars playing shows with all the other bands thing dates back to at least the mid90s. I saw it constantly, and I think I first saw it starting in ‘92 or ‘93.
By NJ do you mean the new jersey emo scene? Also is interesting you say screamo was being used in the mid 90 because pretty much every single interview i remember seeing/reading with a screamo band, they say they never heard it until early 2000's, they say that nobody called it that back then, they just called it hardcore but the editor of Punk Planet said he heard the term in the 90's being used to label bands like john henry west and others.
@@chaosaintme9067 Yeah, there’s a few different Iconoclasts around, but I’m referring the one from New Jersey that put out a few 7”s on Ebullition and Old Glory in the early 90s, and who had a huge influence on the developments of the screamo, metaly emo, and emo-violence end of things in the 90s.
And the PP editor is right. I think it first popped up in California, in the scene that included all of the Ebullition, Gravity, etc. bands, like John Henry West (and everything else Sarah Kirch ever touched). But I was hearing it in my little enclave in West Virginia by 94-95. I was in a band in 95-96 that took a lot of influence from Falling Forward (Chris Higdon’s band before Elliott) and were listening to all of the Gravity and Ebullition stuff, and we referred to ourselves on flyers as “screamo.” I think it’s fair to say that we understood is as describing the sounds of the kinds of hardcore we were interested in. I’ve generally been of the school of thought that doesn’t see punk / hardcore has having anything to do with aesthetics per se, but more to do with the ethos and dynamic cultural lineages that flow out of the early 80s.
@@jeffmiller6025 Thanks for sharing a bit of your life in these comments. I found it pretty interesting. I was always in doubt as to when did that term came around since several screamo bands said they never heard the term until the 2000's (maybe they did, but just did like being associated withe term so they lied, idk) But it was cool getting your input. But i guess as far as origin of ther term, tehre isn't one like there is for emo or emocore i guess
@@chaosaintme9067 I think there was some discomfort with the term, just like with “emo” and “emocore.” The constant differentiating of hardcore / punk into all of these different sub branches has always been a bit weird; like a bizarre and unnecessary marketing ploy. It’s one thing to try to describe what your band sounds like, and quite another to try to build walls rooted in aesthetic differences. I mean, as I noted in my original post here, all of these aesthetically different kinds of bands were playing basements together all over the world. I was in bands that toured North America throughout the 90s and 00s and I don’t think I ever played a show where there wasn’t at least one kid with an acoustic guitar and/or one band with keyboards and so on-let alone all of the variations of distorted guitar driven whatevers. All of my bands were “emo” of one sort or another, but we never played a show within a strictly “emo scene” per se. The bills were always beautifully aesthetically mixed, which, to me, is part of the whole point of hardcore: creative freedom within the contexts of supportive communities.
And yeah, I think the origin of “screamo” is a bit more amorphous. I suspect a few people in a few different places were talking about “screamy emo,” caught the dad-pun of shoving them together into “screamo,” and we’ve been living with it ever since.
Emo in 90s is under the radar to music scene. 90s at the time is like a Rennaisance of music. It was in 2000 that began Emo Rising. Finch, Fenix Tx, Jimmy eat, the used, starting line and many more. Though i have to admit MCR is where emo at its peak and gain recognition
it’s so interesting to hear the snippets of each song. you can hear after every snippet emo becoming more like the sound we know today. the decades long development of emo is so fascinating to hear.
11:54 funny because jeremy enigk was like the only emo singer of that era who COULD actually sing and in fact he’s one of the best singers of the 90s
His solo work has been pretty great too.
Saw SDRE a few months ago, Jeremy said he JUST got his voice back after losing it; he nailed that show though
@@retromingency i saw them too. he was incredible
Jonah Matranga of Far could sing as good as anyone.
@@dahliafiend I was just singing some onelinedrawing last night!
Not sure if it was like due to time restrictions, but I was surprised to not seeing a deeper dive into "screamo". You know, bands like Orchid, Portraits of Past, pageninetynine, Joshua Fit For Battle, etc.
Great video, discovered a few new interesting bands for watching it.
Same, I was a little disappointed but I can't complain because I feel like screamo(skramz if you're so inclined) is a beast of its own and deserves a separate video.
Stay Inside and Dreamwell are bands to watch out for in this genre. And Gatherers are amazing as well, but also have a big Deftones vibe going. So many amazing bands coming out to react to how insane our world is becoming.
@rob g yeah I see what you're saying but that would have derailed the entire video cause that really runs parallel. I mean going from gravity records late 80s stuff like heroin and Antioch Arrow to mid 90s stuff like pg.99. To do that genre justice, would have added another 45 minutes to the video and would have to go back and forth between genres. It wouldn't have been fair to either genre as they developed in tandem but in different bubbles
Funeral Diner, Circle Takes The Square, Saetia 🥹
@@kvltizt "As The Roots Undo" is my favourite screamo / skramz / whatever album of all time.
What I call “midwestern mall emo” was big when I was in high school. In ten years when it becomes retro and they start making movies about 2005, everyone will be emo just like how kids in Stranger Things wears dad jeans and metal t shirts lol.
Ten years? It's already here.
People still wear metal shirts. Did... you not know this?
Omg i remember snowing!
I feel like the reason emo was so misunderstood as a genre was because of how it coincided with the popularity of other rock subgenres like grunge and pop punk, and how little it really distinguished itself from such subgenres. Yes, emo has its origins in punk music and focuses on more confessional, melancholic lyricism... but so did grunge, if you break it down. It certainly didn't help matters that grunge hit the aether first, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana cited Rites of Spring's first album as a huge influence, and Sunny Day Real Estate came straight from Seattle while fusing elements of post-hardcore, grunge and a bleeding heart to make Diary. And of course, that album had to be released the same year as Dookie, Smash and a plethora of other pop punk albums as well, which brought punk to the mainstream to the point where emo bands started emulating the poppy formula established by those respective bands. So not only were second and third-wave emo bands a chimera-like hybrid of Emotional Hardcore and poppy-grunge-punk, but virtually any band that even remotely sounded like one of those hybrids were lumped into the genre like an extra appendage glued to Frankenstein's body. And people wonder why so many purists jump from the bushes to tear apart anyone that says MCR is emo.
I remember when I first got into emo in 2005, I wrote in an emo forum about how much I was loving the genre and spoke about all the bands I was feeling like FOB and Dashboard etc and instantly I was jumped on by all the elder emo gatekeepers who were like 'that's not real emo' and told me to listen to Sunny Day Real Estate etc and I remember HATING it. I was like - this sounds NOTHING like the stuff I like. Years later and the early emo vibe has totally come back around to today's music and I absolutely love it. Weird how your tastes change and grow.
This was a great and well put together documentary. Well done mate
It still blows my mind how many people were parroting the "Dashboard Confessional isn't real emo" line--to the point where younger emos don't even know them (him? a lot of my favorite songs are the band-less ones). Dashboard Confessional was quintessential emo, in my opinion, raw and emotional and personal.
But fob isn't really emo...
@@qwerty28432 Fall out boy back before they got on the radio toured with pop punk/emo bands. I saw a show they were added onto with TheStart and Keepsake(fearless records).
Ugh dude shut up! Their show at lost horizon got canceled cause of covid
I feel the same way about MCR 😂 I had moved on by the time they hit the scene and I totally missed that whole phenomenon. I don’t get it but I also didn’t live through it. I started with Dashboard, Jimmy, Thursday, Taking Back Sunday and others around that time. I did become aware of Sunny Day and other older bands but missed their heyday.
I grew up in that era (80's onward), in the DC/MD/VA area where emo started, and not everyone hated the term or idea of emo. It was something that was embraced by the kids and bands in the scene who were looking for something more substantive than the "screaming for change" that we all grew up on in the scene. Sure some people thought it was a dumb name or idea, but it got under peoples skin in a hurry and really cemented pretty quickly into a really strong and tightknit scene. It was a bit of an awakening honestly for kids like myself who were in bands, in school chorus or played classical music and had a backround in things with more melody and more depth but who also loved hardcore and punk. Finding a way in which those two seemingly divergent worlds could come together was a watershed moment to be sure and it lead to a lot of great bands and music.
**EDIT** If I had to put a finer point on it, the people who didnt like the title emo-core or emo from my recollection were the older punks and hardcore guys/girls who had been in that scene a bit longer and by that time were really trying to get away from the labels and associations with the hardcore punk scene. Hardcore and punk basically died in the mid to late 80s and I remember people being sick of all the baggage and how they didnt want another label, so while there were some folks who didnt like it, the younger kids and the ones who werent so...grumpy and jaded, took to it pretty quickly. The only time I can think of people actively starting to hate on the idea of it or the term itself was when MTV literally ran a piece about ATDI and used it when talking about them because that was kind of the beginning of the whole mall punk/Hot Topic era and most of the people who had been around a while kinda hated that aspect and commercialization of the scene as it blew up. It also got conflated with these kids who were goth and started "claiming" emo and didnt really know anything about it. Then memes happened and well it was all downhill from there.
It lead to kids competing to see who cut themselves more frequently, the scene glorified tantrums and attention seeking and ultimately MCR became the cringuest representation of a really subpar weak and watered down musical brainwashing.. Instead of glorifying your victimhood of a stale period in music maybe learn to understand why your generation ruined the proper evolution of quality music
@@DEFKONSIXTYSIXlml dude it's just pop music. Calm down.
@@DEFKONSIXTYSIXlml touch grass
I know little to nothing about emo, apart from discovering albums from bands like SDRE, Jawbreaker, and Jimmy Eat World, mostly in retrospect, and didn't make any associations between them. Nirvana - indie - folk has been my musical evolution.
I'm curious whether SDRE or Jawbreaker were ever considered emo while they were active. I associate Jawbreaker more with Green Day, and (proto) pop-punk, and prefer the second pink lp by SDRE, whose lyrics I'm not sure make any sense!
@@justwentfullchuu2 it's just garbage and it affects society and culture. Fuck calming down!
Great video! From 1997 to 2003 I was the co-creator of a large UK fanzine called Fracture. We were literally in the eye of the Deep Elm era storm! Some of the UK bands we covered like Sunfactor and Spy Vs Spy actually ended up on those Emo Diaries compilations. The label owner John Szuch was a good guy, always paying for advertising with us and sending us albums for review. I remember being completely blown away by Appleseed Cast's "Mare Vitalis" when it came out (still a classic). In 2003 I also put out a record on my record label Newest Industry by a band called The Enablers that had Dan Bonebrake from Dashboard Confessional on bass. in September 2003 I had VIP access to the back stage area of a Dashboard Confessional / Brand New / MxPx show at the Universal Amphitheater in LA. The bar was free. I drank cocktails, got smashed, told Chris Carrabba to go fuck himself, then got kicked out by security. Not my finest hour lol.
Thanks for this! These bands were my favorite bands of that time and in many ways still are. I loved punk and hardcore and skateboarding and it all was ours. The emo music back then still had so much mixture of angst and melody it was like a natural progression. Like minor threats morph into fugazi and Bold with their hardcore history changing final album running like thieves. When people today talk of EMO as lame, whiny music they don’t know about emo’s roots in hardcore music. I was especially surprised and psyched to hear a band like Lifetime mentioned since they were, I thought, a largely unknown band from my native new jersey. I met and hung with them way back in the day, played a show with them. I was forever impressed with their musicianship, creativity and passion. They were, to me, the embodiment of what emo was back then. Tough, tight, melodic, and lyrically and vocally complex. So much of the music we loved back then was played on small stages in unpopular clubs, with most of the fans being straight edge so the venues knew they’d make little money from alcohol sales lol.
Really makes me miss the late 90's/early 00's when I was a teen/early 20's. I still love a lot of these bands, as well as some of the revival bands.
This is a truly monumental review of emo for all the new and old fans of the genre. Hands down the most straightforward and to the point video on the topic. With examples even.
I've been following the channel for some time, the form in which information is presented is just remarkable.
I've waited for you to touch on my most beloved music tag, it being so broad and complex, and I am so pleased to see you've put out such a great job
Watching this I completely forgot how incredible The Appleseed Cast was. Super underrated band. Thanks for the hours of research to put this together!
Low Level Owl is crazy amazing. Two Conversations makes me lose my shit as well.
Such a great band. I really hope they tour with SDRE again when they pick the reunion tour back up. I was supposed to see them in portland this week but the show was postponed >_
Appleseed cast is probably my favorite band. Josh Baruth is def my favorite and is the biggest influence on me as a drummer.
Hell yeah.
Mare vitalis and end of ring wars are formative for me
The last minutes of this sent CHILLS down my spine.
Emo has been there for me as a teenager, as a young adult and now approaching my 30’s.
It really is a genre of music that EXPANDS and everyone I know back in the day, knows at least 1 MCR song.
Im glad emo resurgence is back 🖤👍🏽
Hell ya. From getting made fun of in school for tight pants, band t's and being a sad boy, in the mid 00's to seeing the huge revival of this culture is fucking unreal and I love and hate it. Hate it because of ticket prices.
Personally I just saw "emo" bands as post-punk, screamo and pop punk. What's the real difference, honestly?
The medley from 1:02:52 on made me have to pause as the waves of high school nostalgia and memories associated with every one of those songs absolutely tried to crush me
@@roachmorphine8018probably the aesthetics and fashion, I guess. But yeah it's hard to pinpoint the difference through music.
The TITR and Lifetime footage from the Unitarian Church in Philly…My band Gameface was on that bill as well. Best show I ever played in my life!!
I am loving the spotlight on all the early emo that so many younger (35 and younger) seem to overlook/not recognize.
I started listening to those bands thanks to a random youtube video around 2012 xd
Didn't discover Appleseed Cast until 2006 (Peregrine) but they're probably a standout among all the whininess that was to follow.
@lightfusegetaway I got to see them and sunny day this year at Furnace Fest and they are on tour together (the dallas date got pushed to next year) and im beyond excited.
@@draxgoodall3685 Awesome! Bet that was a great show.
Really hope this blows up. Emo got me into alternative music with American Football and Sunny Day.
I came in sceptical, as a (now grown up) emo kid who used to obsess over this music. I was thinking "I bet they won't mention such and such a band" but you've really done your research and nailed it. Good job!
dashboard confessional has held a huge part of my life since 2003. love Chris. i even have the Live MTV DVD at the beginning of the video.
Jawbox is incredibly underrated. Or at least much more deserving. Amazing band.
The first Burning Airlines album is great too.
I'm firmly standing on the point that "for your own special sweetheart" is the best album from so-called post-hc in 90s, even though it can be considered heresy
Well, time to listen to Transatlanticism until I cry. This video took me back to some good times, some great times, and some rough times. Thanks for this!
Heads Up! Ben Gibbard is pulling double duty next year with a 20 year anniversary tour playing Postal Service's Give Up and Death Cab's Transatlanticism and early ticket sales start on Wednesday if you sign up
@@the1heart There is no stop in Chicago. I'm super bummed about it. I went to Columbus to see the postal service when they did the 10 year tour and it was great. I would love to see Transatlanticism live.
Appreciate your research. Born in ‘76, and so much of this was my coming of age. Some less known stuff that helped define and refine things… Still Life, Antioch Arrow, Evergreen, and “heavier” stuff that I feel transitioned our scenes…Downcast, etc. But you hovered there with awesome pulls Moss Icon, Policy of Three, and Indian Summer. Living in Goleta, CA (Santa Barbara) from 94-98 was a good time musically.
I really appreciate how you covered Taking Back Sunday and Brand New. I had always felt that Brand New had a toxic grip on emo, and how TBS often gets shot down by more elitist emo fans. I always thought Tell All Your Friends was the best diss album i've ever heard, and exposed a lot problems with Lacey.
Love the way this video covers Lacey. I got into the scene on the TBS side, and when everything came out about Lacey, it was like "Wow, yeah that tracks."
I'm so glad to see this comment - I've loved TBS for years and never understood why brand new were the more beloved band when it was so clear how disgusting a lot of the lyrics were. It's even worse how people try to defend him now, it makes me sick
@@madisonj7421 Probably because from an artistic standpoint, TBS were basically the Nickelback of emo while Brand New's evolution was akin to Radiohead shifting from second-rate grunge to first-class "artsy" rock. Anyway, despite everything Brand New achieved musically, it's a shame that TBS will most likely go down in history as the better band, all because Jesse just had to succumb to his inner devil raging inside him. In a perfect world, Jesse would've never done those vile acts and Brand New would be way more popular than TBS, MCR and FOB. My condolences to everyone who was ever taken advantage of by a person like him.
@@trevorfreeman9239 News is 5 years old at this point (not to degrade the seriousness of the allegations), and many let their biases cloud their view(s) when making an "artistic" opinion on their catalog. Which is fair given what took place. And I really like TBS. But even though some of the lyrics are intertwined with the real actions, speaking from a purely objective standpoint, Lacey dogwalked Adam & Josh lyrically, albeit immaturely (Tommy Gun), and BN's penmanship is still top caliber material - which is why it's had such an impact. Ultimately though, it's an old feud, and both bands are solid, so 🤷♂️
@@naught_.
I feel like you didn't have to throw shade at TBS like that. You literally commented to someone else who liked TBS, and decided to call them the "nickleback" of emo.
Artistic standpoint my ass. Music is subjective, and debatable. This is the exact stuff me and the person you replied to were talking about.
You are the elitist emo fan. Forever bemoaning the loss of what you considered peak emo, while you lambast anything else for daring to be popular or more well liked then the thing that you enjoy.
The guy sucked. He made bad lyrics that showed that he sucked, and even if his music was influential to many emo bands, i'm glad he's going to be remembered for being the person he was.
And if you think TBS is the "nickleback" of emo, then more for people who like them then👍
Great as always Trash Theory! The song "Unsatisfied" by The Replacements is pretty influential to the sound as well, one of their best tracks by far.
Yes a beautiful song that is
I found The Replacements, my current favorite band, by working backwards from Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and their influences. Very happy to see all three featured, plus hometown darlings The Juliana Theory
I was surprised Unsatisfied wasn’t one of the featured clips from The Replacements.
Exactly, I’ve always thought Unsatisfied was the foundation emo was built on. Every MCR, JimmyEatWorld etc vocal performance sounds like a homage to Westerberg’s
MINERAL aged like fine wine
This video made me feel old, but from 1998 on I experienced lots of these bands in their infancy. Saw Alkaline Trio at a church basement with MeWitoutYou opening. Saw Cusive right after they got back together Saw Appleseed cast so many times in Lawrence, KS. Get up kids used to hang out in a van in the parking lot at Beaumont Club. Some of these bands slept on the floor of my apartment or my parents basement. Great timeline and video.
*THIS* is the video on emo I've been waiting to see on YT for far too long. Thank you so much, your work cannot be understated!
[edit] now is in sync!! :)
The fact that you featured julien baker’s jawbreaker cover tells me that the video was going to be amazing… I just loved it! 25% of my cd collection is emo… I pretty much have all the albums featured here :P
this is EXACTLY the video i was looking for a couple of years ago!! luckily i found a couple reddit posts that went over much of the same history and read Nothing Feels Good, etc. but this video is a very good intro and overview imo (and easier to take in since you give so many musical examples that obviously a book or a reddit post can't do)
I didn't think a video on the history of emo would make me emotional, but I shoulda known better. I was a teenager in the late 2000s-early 2010s, so I feel like I was right in the middle of what people would conventionally call the "emo scene;" I had a smorgasbord of bands and polished, established sounds to choose from. Seeing this, where it all came from, where it started, how it developed, and to learn I actually *still* listen to mostly emo music but in a totally different form. . . it really brought me full circle in a very unexpected and beautiful way. I guess I was always be an emo kid, and it really was never phase. This music was and is home for me. Thank you so much for this. Incredible work as usual.
The Get Up Kids are still slaying it all these later and I couldn’t be happier
What an incredibly thorough video. When I was cutting my teeth musically in the local hardcore/emo scene, I came into the bands you mentioned towards the end of your video, like Modern Baseball, Into It/Over It, and TWIABPAIANLATD, and was of course aware of the pop-emo of the early 2000s that dominated my middle school iPod, but I am looking forward to diving into the older bands mentioned here to really get an idea of how the sound evolved. Thanks for the great (as always) video! Somehow, it always seems to come back to Fugazi.
Diary is one of my top 10 favorite albums of all time. William Goldsmith is one of the best drummers in any vein of rock. He has a unique way of intertwining the drums as an integral part of the storytelling of a song, rather than just a driving beat. As a teenager living in the moment when that album broke, and not caring about what sub sub sub genre it was supposed to be called, I never understood how it got confused with what would become the "emo" of the 2000's. I never thought the 2000's bands sounded anything like SDRE.
I watched this while working today. Very well done. I played in a band amidst the late 90's emo scene called Epstein. We were on the Emo Diaries Chapter Three actually with some other good bands back then. We met some great bands in the late 90's, played some fun shows and while never able to crack any charts; would not take back a day of it. The scene to me (us) was different back then. My collection of "emo" CD's and music faded away in the early 2000's. Not taking anything away from any new wave acts, but my go-to's always seem to go back to 2000 and before. Many of those albums talked about in the video put me right back in time; its pretty amazing. Not mentioned in the video was Jejune (out of Boston). I think Epstein may have actually played their last show with them at a college in northern Baltimore MD. Anyway, thanks again!
That's the power of nostalgia! Your favorite bands are whatever you were listening to when you grew up; even new groups with a similar sound are not as good because you are attaching all of these *feelings* to the stuff from before.
This has got to be one of your best videos ever. You did a really great job of teasing bands, then talking about them at length later on. Really kept me hooked throughout the whole thing.
It’d be great if you made a video on the history of post-rock. Lots of fascinating bands to cover.
@ghost mall incredebly fascinating
It would take three days with sentences stretched over ten minutes each.
Thats actually a great idea
I second this!
So many great bands of the genre. Especially when you dig into it like I Hear Sirens, Long Distance Calling (personal favorite) and Don't Mess With Texas (who are from Croatia)
You've outdone yourself again...I grew up in all of this, and you've hit every single important band along the way. I'm so very impressed by your research and the overall quality of all you do. Thank you so, so much for shining a light on this important yet (IMHO) misunderstood genre.
such a good video! this is the best anyone has ever described emo. a lot of ppl misunderstand what emo but this perfectly encapsulates it
"job's eyes" is a great needle drop from an episode of buffy that no one ever seems to talk about. as a tween, i was so struck by it, and it's a song that i'm still really into to this day.
That Buffy clip of the hyena kids walking to Far got me to check out the band and was key into getting me into rock outside top 40 MTV stuff
Shout out to every Brand New fan that doesn't know yet how to fill that void
I’m here with you. Still trying to figure it out.
Feels like I've been trying to use The Wonder Years to do that, even if it's not a perfect fit.
After not listening for 4 straight years, I really don’t have an issue separating the music from the artist. That said, I get it, and I certainly don’t listen to them the same. I’ve filled the void with Manchester Orchestra and WVNDER (highly recommend the latter if you’re into pop-punk/ambience rock).
Shout out to every brand new fan that stopped listening after learning Jesse Lacey was into underage girls.
The first 50 minutes of this video serve as a great primer on Emocore and Midwest Emo, but it's really just scratching the surface. There's the San Diego sound and Swing Kids' own take on emo, which popularized the bowl cut and got the genre branded as "spock rock" for a while. Heroin and Native Nod's role alongside Indian Summer and Policy of Three in furthering Emo and Screamo. J Robbins' enormous influence in shaping the sound as part of the DC scene, with Jawbox and as a producer.
There's Fire Party, the first all-female Emo band. The dark pop punk of Samiam and Knapsack. There's The Van Pelt first bringing Indie rock sensibilities to the genre (as an aside, it was The Van Pelt/Native Nod's Chris Leo who came up with the name Texas is the Reason). There's Penfold and Recess Theory perfecting the mix between quiet-loud dynamics and twinkly guitar play. There's Time Spent Driving taking emo to new atmospheric heights while remaining very much a band that played earnest songs about romance, fatherhood and friendship. There's Rival Schools and Hot Water Music, leading a pack of bands equal parts heavy and melodic while featuring Jawbreaker-style whiskey soaked vocals.
And, of course, there are "Revival" bands, more diverse in sound and people than the bands that have come before. Aside from the likes of Empire! Empire! and the Hotelier, there's Football, Etc; Dowsing; Kittyhawk... way too many to mention.
It might be controversial, but I'd also include emo rap into the equation as well, both the first wave which was still leaning a little more into cloud rap's influences but had plenty of emo kids from the 2000s, and the new wave which is essentially emo pop but with 808s for drums and occasionally live instrumentation sprinkled out (as well as live bands), with either very melodic rapping or outright singing.
Wonderful video! You overlooked the first and second wave of screamo though, which had quite an influence on 2000s post hardcore bands like Thursday and At The Drive-In that you mentioned!
I saw Taking Back Sunday as an opener for MCR this past September. They were a fantastic show, even as old men. The singer was enthralling to watch.
...
And of course MCR was magical beyond words and I screamed the whole time. 🖤
I remember the first time i saw MCR on a side stage and i really dug their sound, My friend i went to the show with was like "ehh they are okay but dashboard is playing lets go" as there were multiple bands playing in this small venue. I never heard dash but when they started playing and i noticed all these couples cuddling up/swaying I looked at my friend and said "fuck this couples thing, im going to see that other band (MCR) to finish the set".
As far as emo as emo you really have to look at The Cure, Smiths, Joy Division, Depeche Mode among others that clearly inspired all these acts in some way.
ITS NOT A PHASE, MOM!
40 year old me now tells my daughter- IT CAN BE A PHASE IF YOU WANT.
@@patrickaker4380 parenting done right
It’s a lifestyle!
It's really shitty to tell your your kids it's a phase, it's the kind of thing you do to mock and laugh at someone. Plenty of old shitty parents out there though, wondering why their kids won't visit them.
That’s the day I wait for when I become a parent
This really captures the breadth of emo. My best friend was into Dashboard and Bright Eyes and I was more into Thursday and other acts on the hardcore end. But we both loved Saves The Day, Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab and Get Up Kids - curiously I feel these bands nail that balance of sweet, catchy vocals, heart wrenching lyrics and intense instrumentation. Now in my mid-30s I still listen to much of this music myself, and I’ve recently started learning drums. Reflecting on this time in my teens, I’m struck by how many of my favourite bands, albums and tracks were heavily drum-based or had very complex and prominent percussion. This no doubt planted a seed in wanting to play the instrument myself one day.
Never noticed before but the old footage of these band recordings really immerse you into that time.
Excellent work!
Minor quibble that you overlooked a lot of the San Diego / Gravity records (Heroin, Antioch Arrow, Clickitat Ikatowi, Swing Kids, etc) and Ebullition records stuff of the early to mid-90s; all tied in with HeartattaCk, MRR, (and yeah, later even Punk Planet) and so many smaller zines like them from that time and expansive networked scene.
Impressed at the mentions of Policy of 3, Moss Icon, and Indian Summer, which were all part of that world and a lot further into the weeds than most essays in this stuff tend to go. (A nod to the influence of early Rye Coalition, Native Nod, Merel, Frail, etc… along with labels like Troubleman and Gern Blandsten would have floored me had they been included in the Lifetime / NJ segment). But I get it, every band links you to a dozen other bands and labels and a dozen from each of those - holding any kind of focus with a daunting task like this is impressive in itself.
Also understandable that a lot of bands associated with ones you mentioned, all by varying degrees, spread out into the larger frame of 90s punk/hardcore, and you can’t and shouldn’t include everything if you’re threading together an identifiable progression-timeline of a nebulous sub-cultural aesthetic, so please take this comment with a grain of salt from a nostalgic middle aged geek.
Like I said, excellent work and much more in depth than so many other casual attempts at essentially encapsulating 40 years intentionally obscure culture
I came in with Cursive. Domestica is a perfect album.
Cursive is the best! I met my wife at a Cursive show 13 years ago...she had actually gone to see the opener, but has since become a fan🤣
Same, I bought The Ugly Organ, and all of Bright Eyes', and The Faint's early Saddle Creek stuff.
@@canaanval Got to interview Tilly and the Wall in 2006, they were fun too.
Thank you SO MUCH for bringing Rites of Spring into my life. I have a whole list of bands to check out from this video alone, but Rites of Spring is so amazing. Too bad there isn't more from them.
Ok at 7:50 got me😮 I didn't think anyone remembered "Far" ! Saw them open for Deftones in 97 and I bought their EP and liked it but this is probably the first time in 20+ years I've heard or seen them mentioned. I love this channel so much❤
Missing is Treepeople big influence on Sunny day and the rest of the PNW bands mentioned here. When Treepeople broke up, Doug Marsh formed Built To Spill.
I hope this video turns people on to Empire! Empire! and the like. I watch Trash Theory so much but this video was all stuff I knew already, which is usually not the case. It felt cool to see someone put all this effort into showing off this kinda music, a kind that means so much to me. No, "Is this emo? Is that emo?" just a great little history on all the bands close to the word. Very cool. Thank you! You didn't have to go this hard but you did! Hour and seven minutes! incredible
this is incredible. how am i just finding this channel?
Gotta say I was expecting this to start where mid-'90s bands started co-opting the emo tag (where many under 40 believe emo began), but kudos for doing your research. Rites of Spring, Embrace, Husker Du, Dag Nasty; these were the progenitors for certain. Well done, sir.
This is blew my mind I can't I don't even know how to begin to answer any questions other than this is just blew my mind. It's as if this documentary could not be done any better I can't even talk right now
I honestly can't believe you've pulled this off. It was so hard to find half of this music back in the 90s, you'd have to have that special relationship with the record shop guy who knew you'd eat up the latest Deep Elm record in order to really hear any of this in the UK. Hats off for covering every inch of every corner that genuinely had an impact on what was considered 'emo', literally decades of amazing music before it became that stereotypical sound people think of today
Thank you for this one!
I was and forever will be a Midwest Emo kid (though I'm 40 now!) That wave of music was happening when I was in middle and high school in middle America, Braid even sang about my hometown on Frame and Canvas- "Slow as Rapid City..." My record collection (especially my 7'"s) is stuffed full of so many bands from this mid to late 90's era and it really helped shape the younger me. Hell, I even lost my virginity with Texas is the Reason playing in the background.
@ghost mall ?
Dude this was SO FUCKING GOOD. i rediscovered multiple bands and songs I haven't been able to place for fucking years.
I'd love to see a video on the next gen of emo that came after this but GOD DAMN THIS WAS SOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDD.
THANK YOU 😊
It makes me so happy to see that almost half of the live footage is from the Fireside Bowl in Chicago. Represent 🤘
It’d be pretty awesome to see a video on Hanoi Rocks’ influence on glam rock and hair metal, or something like that. I just think they deserve to be recognized.
I am blown away at the amount of research that was done for this video.
As a fan of later emo bands Thursday, thrice and mcr I had no idea it could be traced back all the way to '81. I AM AN IMMEDIATE SUBSCRIBER TO YOUR CHANNEL.
Bravo.
This just may be my favorite video on RUclips. It’s amazing how many videos on Emo usually involve just the MySpace era of things. This was incredible, you rattled off so many bands deep into the Emo playbook, you kept shocking me when you named the next band. I wish you did talk about Deja Entendu, and The Devil & God Are Raging Inside me, I know how important those albums were when they were released, But with what’s come to face, I get not wanting to separate the art from the artist in this case.
Seriously can not say enough amazing things about this video. You went above and beyond the call and really gave everyone the essential “history book” for Emo. Keep being awesome TT ❤
A suggestion for a future video:
"Before Qotsa: How Stoner became Stoner"
Great, comprehensive video! Loved seeing someone talk about those bands, it's always a treat to hear Indian Summer or Mineral or The Appleseed Cast (etc.) pop up haha. Would've liked a longer section for the emo-revival since bands like Brave Little Abacus, The Hotelier, Crash of Rhinos, empire! empire!, TWIABP among others accomplished so much for the genre, but all in all, good shit!
*applause*
Love the Mats & Descendants representation... been telling mom they're Emo for years lol.
The whole 90s hardcore is something I've skipped besides a few, but you've shown me I should really go back and get a better look.
Super sad that my two favs weren't mentioned (alexisonfire & saosin) but they're massively overlooked, always have been.
Thank you for that Brand New callout, specifically.
And thank you for everything.
What an excellent video.
So many bands I loved that I haven't listened to in ages. Braid, cursive, Thursday,piebald were all fabulous 👌🏾. I need to go back for a relisten 😍. Thanks for this 💛
i have been HOPING FOR THIS ONE!!!!!!!! prayed for just midwest emo but ill more than happily take the healthy chunk :)
Thank you so much for this! Incredibly well done in production and in research. A genre filled with a rich history of great underrated bands. Finally bringing these bands to more people and not having to find an Emo Elder at your local music store!
Meme's aside, as a 30 year old who spent the last 20 years of my life in hardcore venues and basements seeing bands, who holds hardcore and the surrounding culture incredibly preciously as a huge defining part of my identity - you KILLED this. This is REALLY well done, this will be mandatory viewing for kids learning whats what in the future.
One of the best music docs I've ever seen! I love how deep are your findings, the way you explain the style, and create the aura of the time. Really outstanding, like the NoClip of music documentaries
Bands being unwilling to call themselves emo even though they 100% are feels a lot like bands refusing to be called goth even though they 100% are
I think a lot of musicians don't like the idea of other people labelling their art.
I kinda get it. I mean, what does emo even mean anyway? I think it makes sense to group bands as varied as Rainer Maria, Jimmy Eat World, Penfold, Jazz June, Northstar, Texas is the Reason and Samiam together. I do see commonalities in terms of sound and mood and atmosphere.
I guess people were bound to come up with a name and emo is what stuck, so be it. Although I suspect with the current wave of nostalgia for bands like Paramore and My Chemical Romance, midwest emo bands will just be called math rock from now on to differentiate it. I think that's where it's headed.
The thing, which is very understandable, is that being labeled as, for example, goth, creates a box, limits, expectations and stereotypes.
That's why a band as widely regarded as goth as The Cure, doesn't like the label, because they aren't just Pictures Of You (like, c'mon, The Cure have made songs like The Caterpillar and Friday, I'm in Love lol).
On the other hand, the case of the emo label is more complex, because the word reached a point of meme status, so it's also "not cool".
Thank you so much for another incredibly well researched, well produced and well presented music education video. Again you deliver, entertaining, educational and inclusive content.
Thank you for making my continuing music education both rich and rewarding.
You are genuinely laying out the music genre cannon.
Good work!
Thank you for giving us the video of the year. So much new refferences, the one that not reach Asia until today.
Whether you are a teen, or 30's something with 2 sons like me, you will always need something to scream out of your chest.
Emo is a personality.
I'm really glad you mentioned that Julian Baker cover of Jawbraker. It's probably my favorite cover of all time.
Earthtone9.
This band were my gateway into music with this degree of deeper feeling, particularly 'walking day', from the ArcTanGent album. More screamo/harcore etc, but these guys were fantastic live, and though obscure, they're criminally neglected; I would really appreciate it if you gave them a listen.
Thank you so much for this great documentary, too, and for all your work telling the stories behind so many great sounds!
All the best to ye!
Their first three albums were immense. My mate designed the art for their later stuff, but I was less keen on that.
My first gig was Earthtone 9 at Yeovil Ski Lodge in like 2000/2001. They were supported by LostProphets of all bands. A lot of bands rode that wake of Earthtone 9 like Biffy, Hundred Reasons, HEll is for Heroes, FFAF etc.
What a wonderful documentary. Emo or not emo, music is music, and some wonderful music has been recorded under this genre. I only wish I've heard of it as a teenager in the 90s, since this could've been the soundtrack to my life. I'm in my 40s now possibly going through a divorce, so better later than never to hear the saddest songs. Thanks for this and all the wonderful videos that you make
It is incredible to see how each video improves, this is an incredible document to understand the history of a genre so difficult to explain, with so many stories and contexts.
Outstanding job!
I searched for an emo documentary over the summer and couldn't find anything good, just a couple short essays that weren't very good. And now here you are, with this amazing history of the genre that was really spot on at the parts I did know and really easy to follow for the parts I didn't yet. So thank you, for making such an incredible video on this. I hope it motivates others to listen to more 80s and 90s emo because that shit actually goes so fucking hard! Anyway, great video, might start listening to emo primarily again, I've been on a punk and metal kick for a few months and I could really use the words of some kids that felt like I do now
This video is awesome. TY so much for singling out The Juliana Theory, who I believe does not get recognized enough for their influence. I'd say Not nearly enough of a mention of Drive-Thru records and their impact, a passing nod to New Found Glory and The Starting Line is not enough. The merge between the traditional emo and true pop-punk was not covered here, as that as what really brought this music to the mainstream and MTV. Taking the emotive lyrics, removing the croon and instead putting them into high energy punk derivatives with earworm pop hooks.. that is what took emo from a scene to a movement which is what allowed MCR to do what they did.
Should have extended it with a part two so Vagrant Records could've been covered completely and give the shout to Jawbreaker for planting the seed and The Get Up Kids for kickstarting it.
It's cool to see something have such heavy roots in the midwest and, as someone who grew up there, it makes TOTAL sense that it's emo.
Eternally displeased, gruff, full of character though pretty and polite.
And happy because you're sad.
Yep.
As someone not from the US I found it fascinating to hear phrases like “Midwest sound” and yet when he said it I knew exactly what he meant.
Thankyou for making this video. It’s an excellent look at the Genre and gave me so many memories. Thanks also for not shying away from the controversies around certain singers in bands and I agree that it should change your opinion indefinitely.
I’d love a post hardcore look back too.
You just reminded me how much I love Planes Mistaken For Stars. RIP Gared