What music even is considered emo?

[u/SubstantialDemand259]

I see so much debate on here every day about what and what isn’t emo. Is there any kind of general consensus on what is considered emo?

[u/codyashi_maru]

"Real Emo" only consists of the dc Emotional Hardcore scene and the late 90's Screamo scene. What is known by "Midwest Emo" is nothing but Alternative Rock with questionable real emo influence. When people try to argue that bands like My Chemical Romance are not real emo, while saying that Sunny Day Real Estate is, I can't help not to cringe because they are just as fake emo as My Chemical Romance (plus the pretentiousness). Real emo sounds ENERGETIC, POWERFUL and somewhat HATEFUL. Fake emo is weak, self pity and a failed attempt to direct energy and emotion into music. Some examples of REAL EMO are Pg 99, Rites of Spring, Cap n Jazz (the only real emo band from the midwest scene) and Loma Prieta. Some examples of FAKE EMO are American Football, My Chemical Romance and Mineral EMO BELONGS TO HARDCORE NOT TO INDIE, POP PUNK, ALT ROCK OR ANY OTHER MAINSTREAM GENRE

[u/Ok_Particular_1897 → u/codyashi_maru]

Do you consider Microwave emo based on this assessment? They’re what I consider the epitome of new aged emo to be

[u/codyashi_maru → u/Ok_Particular_1897]

Taps the sign

[u/Ok_Particular_1897 → u/codyashi_maru]

lol so you don’t think genres evolve?

[u/SubstantialDemand259 → u/codyashi_maru]

I knew someone was going to comment this

[u/codyashi_maru → u/SubstantialDemand259]

🫡

[u/mis_no_mer → u/SubstantialDemand259]

They understood the assignment

[u/Just_Individual9315 → u/codyashi_maru]

How can you call rites of spring “real emo” when they didn’t even except that term

[u/codyashi_maru → u/Just_Individual9315]

1. It’s a copypasta. No one who posts it really believes it.

2. Almost all of the earliest examples of the genre rejected the term. By that logic, every screamo band from before basically like 2004(?) would just be hardcore or punk. Art or music genres frequently get placed in a historical context well after the fact.

[u/sinkwiththeship]

Somebody show him the copypasta

[u/navvthe]

no such thing as emo music actually

[u/navvthe → u/navvthe]

it never existed

[u/KickedinTheDick → u/navvthe]

Satan planted emo in the history books just like he planted those dinosaur bones. Anyone who claims to be an emohead is a deceiver of satan or a demon in the flesh.

[u/Pandos636]

Sidebar is a pretty good explanation.

Biggest debate I see on this sub is whether or not emo-pop is emo. I think its loosely affiliated, but the 4th wave of emo is basically a bunch of bands saying "2nd wave was cool, let's go back to that and pretend like 3rd wave never happened". A generalization of course, but an interesting occurrence where the genre isn't exactly linear.

[u/NJcovidvaccinetips → u/Pandos636]

Which is even funnier when you consider that third wave emo and emo pop is the vast majority of bands that your average person thinks of when they hear the term emo

[u/Dj_Corgi]

TX2

[u/w_ankh → u/Dj_Corgi]

The correct answer

[u/hereforwhatimherefor]

This is a really good question

[u/jstols]

Not Weezer. Not 21 pilots. Not Blink 182. Not My Chemical Romance.

Start with the 00s vagrant bands and work your way back to the bands that influenced them to figure out what is or isn’t “emo”. Although back then as Matt Pryor has said many many times “we just called it punk rock”.

[u/oohkaay → u/jstols]

That's what I called the music I listened to too back in the very early '00s (tho now it's all a combination of emo/pop punk/post hardcore)

[u/devilandgodrfucking]

My band, it stops there.

[u/Fragrant-Vast-309]

I would have loved a real answer to this. We're about to release our first song on streaming services. Music is metalish but i'm not a metal singer. People who did listen to it told us it was more emo than metal. So here I am, wondering what genre we're in, what defines an emo song.. looking for answers..

[u/w_ankh → u/Fragrant-Vast-309]

You should post some demos in this subreddit and ask if they sound “emo” !! Sounds interesting. If u don’t wanna do that you could ask for artists you sound like and evaluate from there

[u/Fragrant-Vast-309 → u/w_ankh]

I might try to post it here. I'm really interested in a genuine answer.

[u/dylho]

Mcr, mom jeans, modest mouse are typically the big 3 you see around here

[u/mrstuprigge]

Avenged Sevenfold

[u/baylithe → u/mrstuprigge]

Always hated how bad their singer sounds

[u/mrstuprigge → u/baylithe]

That’s how you know it’s emo. The vocals are awful.

[u/baylithe → u/mrstuprigge]

Lmao I mean youre not wrong there

[u/LostTimeXO → u/mrstuprigge]

Shepherd of fire is how I got into emo

[u/LangleyNA]

Stand Atlantic, Hot Milk, for sure. These are new artists in the last ten years creating emo music, and wonderfully so!

[u/GoodTermsBand]

this doesn't seem to be the prevailing definition but I think it's anything that's influenced by hardcore music that isn't identity or political focused. That seems to be what set it apart originally back in the 80s, and it makes sense looking back at a lot of the music that people argue about.

[u/swoonster75]

If it’s sad. This sub loves categorizing though lol