The Emo genre and subculture has become something that is very hard to define. Because of this it is difficult to trace its ancestry. Most people who claim to be “in the know” cite the D.C. hardcore/punk scene and more specifically the band Rites Of Spring as the founders of emo. However, history has shown that it is rash to attribute the formation of a musical genre to one band. By looking at the musical scenes of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s we can better determine the roots and influences that started and continue to affect the emo genre and subculture.

Before one can understand where “emo” comes from one must first understand what it is today. “I prefer to think of it [emo] as punk rock that’s more melodic and introspective/depressing than hardcore, but still tapping into that primal energy and anger” (DeRogatis 1). This style of music has spawned a subculture of and scene that has been continually growing since the early nineties. Most of the kids look like nerds; wear dark rimmed glasses, chuck taylor high tops, and thrift store clothes. It is pretty easy to stereotype an “emo” kid, which is ironic because no can seem to define “emo” music.

The best way to describe “emo” music is by soft arpeggiated guitars overtop soft airy vocals that build up and release into an orchestra of heavy distorted guitars and then brought back down to the original quiet part. Emo lyrics are generally very poetic and range from topics of lost love to religious beliefs or other emotional subjects. Yet “emo” covers a wide variety of bands these days, from the soft melodic pines of American Football to the hard driving sounds of At the Drive In. How can a genre so large be traced to anything?

The problem is that what one person defines as “emo” is not to the next, it all depends on your point of view. Jason Gnewikow from The Promise Ring states it well, “ I could validate the point that we are an emo band, and I could also go on the other side and invalidate it. It all comes down of whoever’s asking, their perception of what it is” (DeRogatis 3). The prevailing perception of emo usually comes from the band Sunny Day Real Estate. Started in Seattle in 1992, SDRE combined their roots in hardcore with melodic vocals and a “pop” feel. Their 1994 release of “Diary” changed the emo scene forever. “Sunny Day came out of nowhere and changed a lot of peoples lives,” (Kurland 2) says Jeremy Gomez, bass player for the band Mineral. “Most people today when they think of emo think of the The Get Up Kids, Mineral. , and bands like that, that are coming from Sunny Day Real Estate” (DegRatis 3).

Many people argue that Sunny Day is not emo at all. They claim that “emo” rose out of the D.C. hardcore/punk scene and the band Rites of Spring. “[Rites of Spring] was a melodic hardcore group, but what set it apart was the subject matter of its songs. Rather than ranting about revolution and anger, Picciotto sang about lost love and forgotten memories” (Kurland 1). While Rites of Spring did bring a more melodic sound to hardcore/punk, they certainly were not the first, and they also were not the first hardcore punk band to focus their lyrics on other subject matter.

The hardcore/punk scene as a whole had been moving in this direction. A Rolling Stone article in 1985 cites this growing trend, “Primal punk is passé… They have learned how to play their instruments. They have discovered melody, guitar solos and lyrics that are more than shouted political slogans” (Goldberg 1). Bands like Hüsker Dü had been pioneering new avenues in hardcore punk. “For the past two years, Hüsker Dü has been confounding warrior punks and mainstream rockers alike with a rapidly evolving fusion of high-speed thrash, recombinant pop-song structures, and emotionally scared lyric confessions” (Frickle 1).

Rites of Spring put out one full album and an EP; they lasted for a little less than 2 years and played around fourteen shows. Lead singer Guy Picciotta then went on to start the band Fugazi, whom took some of what Rites of Spring started and progressed from there. However, only “to some extent Fugazi moved the legacy of Rites of Spring and Embrace forward, though its music was never quite as emotionally exposed. It would fall on the bands that followed to fashion emo into the style heard today” (DeRogatis 1).

Although the influence of Fugazi and the Washington D.C. scene on emo were substantial, emo, as we know it today did not rise solely from hardcore scene. What is disturbing is that most sources that try to trace the history of emo leave a huge gap between the “D.C. Dischord sound” of the mid to late eighties and Sunny Day Real Estate of the mid nineties. How did emo get where it is today? I propose it was a marriage between hardcore and indie rock with grunge as the father of the bride, paying for the wedding.

While bands like Rites of Spring and Hüsker Dü were breaking new ground in the hardcore scene, a band named Sonic Youth was transforming the indie/underground scene. “Sonic Youth used guitar riff hooks as the bait, but obliterated melodies and conventional song structures with long passages of drone, odd guitar strains and scathing atmospherics” (McGurgan 1). Their 1987 release of Sister would prove to be a hugely influential album. 

Music is something that does not change overnight it evolves slowly yet dramatically. Music advances because artists are constantly pushing the boundaries, striving to be different, striving to be original. No true musician wants to be labeled or put in a box and that is why few bands want the “emo” stereotype. The fact is that the underground/indie scene evolves within itself, even within different genres, labels, and subcultures.

In order to trace this evolution we must look at the scenes and genres in general that contributed to emo. While certain bands become more popular than their other contemporaries, and other great artists are overlooked it is important to touch on the larger more influential group and artists so that a general consensus can be reached. There are far too many bands that have influenced the emo genre to list, however, by looking at the main artists in a genre one can get a general feel of what was happening in that genre at the time.

Rites of Spring and Sunny Day Real Estate did not start the emo genre. They were two of the more influential bands in the development of emo. Emo was the culmination of many bands and genres all brought together at the right place and the right time. Many bands had to build bridges for underground artists to be heard in the mainstream. Many other bands also brought about new sounds and ideas that helped to form the emo sound. With all of these factors in place a band and or a label had to start the wheels in motion forming the emo genre.

The History of Heavy Metal Music

Heavy metal music, born fighting, rose out of popular music in opposition to both the dominant culture and the rock counterculture. Its heritage was equal parts the heavy guitar rock that replaced the blues, progressive rock and the neoclassical sounds of horror movie music. Its name, composed of “heavy” meaning epic and having emotional weight outside the individual, and metal, meaning the gritty mechanical truth of reality, signified its sound and message: a wake up call to hippies and bourgeois listeners alike that reality is not the simplified, individualistic, pleasure-seeking consumerist illusion.

1968-1978

First bands like Blue Cheer demonstrated the distorted sound, then Iggy Pop and the Stooges brought proto-punk into the equation, then progressive rock bands like King Crimson and Jethro Tull expanded on the idea, and finally, Black Sabbath released the first heavy metal album in 1970, Black Sabbath. Following this, bands merged the Led Zeppelin style of Celtic folk-influenced hard rock with the Gothic horror movie soundtrack-influenced Black Sabbath, and created the first genre heavy metal, a rock hybrid which immediately began to typecast itself and drove the creation of underground metal with Motorhead.

1979-1987

Heavy metal became popular in the 1970s and got absorbed by the hedonistic, individualistic, pleasure-seeking culture of the time. This produced a type of stadium heavy metalish rock that sold well but lost sight of the artistic ambitions of the genre. At the same time, bands like Motorhead and the Sex Pistols were popularizing the punk sound that had intensified since innovators like MC5, Iggy Pop and Link Wray began experimenting with it in the 1960s. In response, the more alert heavy metal bands added more gothic and neoclassical elements to distinguish themselves from the fray. The fusion of these two threads, hardcore punk and neoclassical heavy metal, produced an explosion of genres, but only two, speed metal and thrash, matured directly.

At the same time, starting with the explosion of the most nihilistic and yet thoughtful punk band to date, Discharge, releasing Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing in 1982, new genres expanded in nascent form from 1983-1985. These were black metal and death metal, but they did not diverge into clearly distinct genres until later when the associations of death/deconstruction/structure and melody/Satan/emotion were established.

1988-1992

During the last years of Ronald Reagan’s reign, when conservativism reasserted itself against the anomic search for meaning of a generation born into ideals it did not feel the nation upheld, the political conflict between these two forces heated up. Death metal, originally developed for the artistic vision that when death and horror are more real than individual moralization, people rediscover life, flourished, but also found itself under onslaught from gazillions of imitators. With the rise of Suffocation, a speed metal-influenced death metal band, the clones finally had reason to exist and so death metal exited in chorus of “me toos” as black metal rose from its ashes with a new sound and a less-tolerant ideology, just as the Soviet Union collapsed and the United States turned more liberal.

1993-1996

Death metal became a field of Suffocation clones, and bands increasingly turned toward either going “technical” to distinguish themselves, or assimilating themselves into mainstream styles like rock (Asphyx – God Cries), jazz (Pestilence – Spheres), funk (Mordred – In this Life) and punk (Pyrexia – Hatredangeranddisgust). At the same time, black metal rolled onto the verge of what would be the most popular style of metal to come from the underground, mainly because its primitive riffs and nocturnal melodies were part lullabye and part nightmare, apppropriate for an audience that was both aware of the decay of civilization but too disorganized to do anything about it. As soon as its popularity grew, especially with the release of that template for black metal from The Abyss, The Other Side, black metal too became inundated in imitators, although some late forming bands and middle era albums by classic bands helped flesh out its style and bring it to maturation.

Hip Hop

Since the early to mid 90’s, hip-hop has undergone changes that purists would consider degenerating to its culture.  At the root of these changes is what has been called “commercial hip-hop”.   Commercial hip-hop has deteriorated what so many emcees in the 80’s tried to build- a culture of music, dance, creativity, and artistry that would give people not only something to bob their head to, but also an avenue to express themselves and deliver a positive message to their surroundings..

What does the term “commercial” mean?  It can take on various meanings, but in essence that term is used to label artists who have alienated parts of the hip-hop culture in their work.  The High and Mighty, a duo from Philadelphia signed to Rawkus Records, summed up what commercial hip-hop is in their 1999 single release “The Meaning”.  Mr. Eon says:  “…they’re tryin’ to turn hip-hop to just plain rappin’/let the poppers pop/and the breakers break…”

But the disenchantment with artists who don’t appreciate hip-hop as consisting of emceeing, breaking, graffiti art, beat boxing and dj-ing is not new.  Underground artists, predominately hip-hop purists, have lashed out at biters and perpetrators for many years. For example, in 1989 3rd Bass released their first album, The Cactus Cee/D.    Throughout the album, MC Serch and Prime Minister Pete Nice scold the commercialized booty shakers like MC Hammer for corrupting hip-hop, particularly on the track “The Gasface” they specifically call out Hammer for his antics.

Inside the album jacket, Serch sums up hip-hop in ‘89:  “There was a time when nothing was more important than the New York Rap Scene.”  It’s dilluted, but not divided.”  To hip-hop afficionados, Serch’s quote sounds like the equivalent to a Vietnam soldier’s letter home.  Obviously, the group saw the possibility of the hip-hop culture being tainted.

Another good example of a group combatting the increase in commercial hip-hop was The Boot Camp Clik, consisting of Buckshot, Helter Skelter, Cocoa Brovaz, OGC, Illa Noyz and The Representativz.  The Clik’s slogan throughout the duration of their 1997 release Album for the People was:  “Commercial rap get the gun clap”.  A descendent of the early backpacker days, Buckshot has always been opposed to mainstream artists who sacrfice artistic integrity in the lure for more money.

The underground hip-hop scene has emerged as a circuit where young, talented and intelligent emcees can thrive.  Their message is less abrasive and violent.    While not all underground artists are choir boys, they are not barking over mics in a frenzy either..  They play small, sometimes dark and dank venues in front of a couple hundred people or much less than that.

Like the Christians in ancient Rome who held mass in catacombs and spread their religion secretly, underground artists are privately leading a revolution in these small clubs now in promotion of returning rap to hip-hop, and there probably has never been such a fierce fire lit under the artists like there is now to bring change.  Underground artists are fed up with how hip-hop is treated by a lot of major labels that have changed the structure of songs.  In 2000, especially on the radio, you may hear one or two verses, an R&B singer lacing the track and then a hook that is repeated enough times to take up 3 plus minutes.  This is a brash example of today’s state of hip-hop, but the point is made- creativity in hip-hop has been pushed aside for tracks that incorporate overused samples, have no real message, and have virtually eliminated the DJ from the music.

Remember when you could listen to a song for five minutes and all you heard was Rakim bouncing outrageous similes and euphemisms off his tongue and Eric B. blessing the 1s and 2s.  Not only was there depth in those types of tracks, but there was creativity and ingenuity.  What about groups like Afrika Baambata whose songs lasted as long as infommercials.  Eric B. & Rakim and Baambata are perferct examples of the true hip-hop culture because they were innovators and trendsetters, and Rakim never had enough to say.

Unless you are an underground fan, you never hear artists like that on the radio.  In reality, people have been brainwashed into thinking that what they hear on the radio is hip-hop.  It falls terribly short of hip-hop, and may not be worthy of being called rap.  Since 1995, we have seen a trend in the implementation of R&B into hip-hop music.  The problem with that is it has dilluted the music.  Commercial artists like Jay Z, for example, know that the dough will roll in if Blackstreet does the hook for one of his tracks that he, as stated earlier, only writes a couple versus to.  Money now controls hip-hop instead of the artists controlling it, and label execs have become more powerful in determining how an artist’s music will sound. This explains the increase in the number of independent labels because artists have discovered that they lose creative control over their music when they sign on with major labels.

Now that I’ve ranted over the gripes we purists have about hip-hop as a whole, the next few chapters will deal with separate issues surrounding the decline, yet hopeful resurrection of the elements of the hip-hop culture.

What is an Emcee?

An Emcee or Master of Ceremonies(MC) throughout the history of hip-hop has been defined as the one who can control the crowd with his voice and crush opponents with his lyrics.    The greatest emcees of all time like Rakim, Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One have been successful for their ability to create cadences that were unheard before their time.    They had seemingly endless vocabularies and set the trend for later emcees who would try to emulate the way they wrote and the way the spoke.  They had the intelligence, confidence, and storytelling capability to leave crowds and listeners in awe of their lyrical content, whether it was at a fast pace or slowed down.

Notice that the emcees I mentioned have been around for years.  If I were to pick out two emcees today who could compare to that kind of battle emcee ability that Rakim, Kane, and KRS have it would have to be Canibus and Eminem.  Most hip-hop fans in the 80s and early 90s would be able to recognize the three I listed above and then some, and that is the problem now.  There is an enormous amount of talent in the underground scene, but the average listener knows Jay-Z, Juvenile,and Trick Daddy- three artists who are unbearable to listen and have shown either no lyrical ability whatsoever, or in the case of Jay-Z have just plain gotten worse over the years.  Artists like Jay-Z have specifically expressed in songs that they do not love hip-hop.  Jay-Z:  “I ain’t a rapper.  I’m a gangsta that knows how to rap.”

That is why the music some people this is hip-hop, is garbage.  It’s half-assed music involving no creativity at all, just a bunch of ignoramuses trying to get paid.    Those with skill might get paid less, but they take pride in how much harder it is to be original than it is to mumble over tracks and stagnate this art form with tired topics.

All these places are great to think and relax. The castles have a lot of history and the enormus cities that let you do anything that you want

I think that all this proposments are interesting and I am wating to learn more about those changes. But I think that most of this type of texts will be readed by adults and that is not the objetive.

I do not have any creativity so I can not suggest nothing.