Friday, November 21, 2008

I am EMO

What is emo? It is short for emotional. Fourfa.com defined emo as a broad title that covers a lot of different styles of emotionally-charged punk rock. Wikepedia.com defined emo as a genre of music that originated from hardcore punk and later adopted pop punk influences when it became mainstream in the US.

History of emo was discussed in different variations but it has its common denominator that it started from hardcore. In mid 1980's it was defined as sub-genre of hardcore punk (Wikipedia). In the later years, the term emocore was used, short for emotional hardcore. Some of the bands in this genre are: One Last Wish, Embrace, Fire Party and Moss Icon. Popular bands today were described as emo although they are playing different style from the former emo bands. Most of them today are My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Alesana, Paramore, Saosin and our very own Typecast.

Emo is not only related to music but also with fashion. It is easily determined who emo's are. They are recognizable with skinny jeans, tight shirts, black Converse shoes or skate shoes such as Vans, and the hair is one-sided bangs covering one eye. Emo has gone through a lot of criticisms and is associated with suicide also. Wikepedia gives a lot of explanation of emo and how suicide is associated with this genre. Moreover, emo is used to define one experiencing great depression and prefers most of the time to be alone and spend it with hardcore music that explains how the person feels towards the situation.

Many have been expressing contradictions with emo. But like the many genres we have in the music industry, the bottomline is we have our own way of expression and that includes fashion, which comes along with our own way of attacking depression.

Emo continues its way to the mainstream influencing many. It has carved its genre with the music industry as well fashion. Moreover, its identity has kept its place in the music world.

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