Rant (Essay) About Emo Music (1 Viewer)

[Born2baplacebo]

i dislike emo music and dislike looking at emo people. both annoy me.

me 3.

 

[circusmind]

Big :who cares:


Emo music is alternatively mind-numbingly boring or pretentiously overblown. Emo kids just plain shit me.

 

[Born2baplacebo]

Emos are ppl who try to be like goths but resort of making another sub-culture of soceity for us to hate.

 

[jeddie76]

From what I can understand he's saying

It's not fair to judge emo music based on the town-hall-steps-emo-kid stereotype because they interpret the meaning of the lyrics in a literal fashion whereas normal, non-stereotypical fans don't."

or maybe


How could this happen to me
I made my mistakes
I’ve got no where to run
The night goes on
As I’m fading away
I’m sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to me

Lol simple plan ftw!

 

[bassguy]

Sorry, there is no difference between you trying to actively "avoid trends" and and emo kids dressing all the same.

Just do what you fucking want, and don't try to justify it by bringing down others.

Hey man, I didn't say that was me.
I'm just making a general observation on how I've seen people at school label anyone wearing black or a band tshirt as emo.

 

[AsyLum]

nothing wrong with a bit of emo sex every now and then.

hmm nice sig pic

 

[hiphophooray123]

A recent and relatively inflammatory conversation with an extremely stubborn friend of mine the other day resulted in my addressing a serious question. Why do normal kids hate Emo music?

Let me set the scene straight away. I am NOT an Emo in my own mind. I guess it depends on what each individual classifies Emo, but I don't cut myself or wear eyeliner or all black or whatever. Sure I get upset, but don't all teenagers? About as Emo as I get is my taste in music.

So I'm idling on MSN while writing an essay and some Taking Back Sunday or Brand New song or something like that pops up on my iTunes and immediately this friend of mine begins ripping into me for my choice of aural pleasure.

While I'm in assessment mode I guess I'll structure this logically. There are practically three schools of thought when it comes to Emo music and the term Emo in general. Firstly you have your 'Town Hall Steps' Emo kids who mope around in way too much eyeliner, cutting themselves and taking all sorts of literal meaning out of Emo songs. Secondly there are the 'Normal' kids who think Emos are faggots, that their music lacks all sorts of lyrical substance and is a direct message with typical melodic shapes that attract and exploit teenagers with raging hormones for profit. Thirdly, which is where I sit, there are the kids who wear whatever they want and aren't bound by the stereotypes that are sadly associated with the music, don't get depressed 100% of the time and derive their own meanings from the songs.

My job for my friend was to convince him that the 1st type of Emo Music listener and the 3rd type of Emo Music listener were two different people, and that it wasn't fair to judge the music purely on the image the 1st type presents. I've noticed that alot of the attitudes towards the music from the 2nd type are based on ignorance. People look at Emos and are instantly repelled. The whole trend with Emo as a concept is to be sad all the time and revel in that sadness (usually for attention). Everybody hates attention seekers right? I think its important for people to not judge the music purely on what they see at Town Hall, however I can easily see why people would. Also the directness of popular (and as much as it pains me to say this...) Emo bands like Simple Plan, with words like "I'm sorry I can't be perfect" doesn't help.

The music in itself is relatively simple, and is derived from Punk Rock and Grunge. Obviously, depending on the song, this varies, but its generally the case. The vocal melody/ies are rather complex and there's often more to the lyrical content than meets the stereotypical eye. The statement that Emo musicians are talentless frauds aimed at exploitation of teenagers is much more than often not the case, and looking at most genuine Emo bands you'll find they rarely dress like the 1st type of Emo.

After reading his statements such as:

• "Its like punk but without the manliness"
• "Its self absorbed"
• "theres no lyrical substance or lyical analysis involved"
• "yeah, and im talking like they don't have any talent, and that they are exploiting the feelings of a generation"
• "Of course all music is about reaching out, but emo is about reaching out in the most simplistic of ways"

It got me to thinking that every preconception (and inadvernatly, misconception) was based on what people knew of the first type of Emo. This mate of mine happens to be an avid Nirvana fan. He pulls deep seeded emotion from Nirvana songs as many of their true fans do. Now for those of you with any knowledge of Nirvana will know there are primarily 2 kinds of Nirvana fans. The first type are the Teenybopper sorts who listen to Nirvana, have Nirvana posters and Nirvana t-shirts because Nirvana used to be cool. They probably didn't know who Dave Grohl was before the Foo Fighters. They listen to words like "With the lights out, it's less dangerous, here we are now, entertain us" and think its about a wild night of teenage sex. The second type, like my friend, listen to what may seem to be relatively straightforward if not confusing lyrics in Nirvana songs and deduct deep metaphorical meaning of which they can relate too.

I ask him (and you...if you're still not convinced) whether it would be fair for me to base my entire opinion of Nirvana upon what I see of 14 year old girls with manicures, streaks in their hair and Nirvana posters in their bedrooms. I think not.

Next time you make a broad, general statement of Emo music, think that there are people other than shitty Town Hall Steps Emos who listen to it, and get something out of it rather than just "I want to cut myself and die".

hey man i like rap.

please post your opinions about me and my style of music.

thanks.

 

[Crestwood's_G]

i like any rock music...if they can play a guitar well than i like them...i dont go for a certain "genre" pursay and i dont dress anyway...i dont wanna be part of the crowd and follow trends...

 

[MuffinMan]

i like any rock music...if they can play a guitar well than i like them...i dont go for a certain "genre" pursay and i dont dress anyway...i dont wanna be part of the crowd and follow trends...

I like tacky bass lines too
It really gets my attention

 

[ellen.louise]

I think "normal" kids hate emo music because they fear it. It's a fear of showing emotion because showing emotions weakens you in the face of others.

Personally I don't like it in the same way i don't like American R&B. cause I listen to music that's fun and happy and not tacky. And don't bring up Spice Girls, etc. NOT TACKY!

And uhm... emo music by defenition expresses sad emotions. related topics: desperation, wallowing etc. I don't think it is okay to wallow in your own self-pity.

 

[Fish Sauce]

I think "normal" kids hate emo music because they fear it. It's a fear of showing emotion because showing emotions weakens you in the face of others.

Okay

 

[killyridols]

nigga, please!
i don't give a shit about talentless musicians- a lack of technical ability doesn't mean anything; ramones, sex pistols, etc. don't care about music being self absorbed or whatever either.
This is what i hate about emo. the whole thing is ridiculously kitsch and like 7 years out of vogue now, so all the people doing it now are either 13 (which is ok) or out of touch older people with bad taste who think they are king shit because they are so 'fashion' and arty. i know that taste is subjective but i hate the superiority complex these people have, when they listen to music that my five year old cousin loves. i hate the faux-intellectualism that goes along with the whole thing. and all the people hate the same shit 'teenyboppers, r n b'. you obviously think you have the whole genre down pat, but um Nirvana?

Sorry dude, Rites of Spring.

 

[Evan AOF]

Ok Simple Plan arnt emo for one... They just whine and bitch but i wouldnt at all classify them as "emo"
I listin to bands that some people might call "emo" and i wear there shirts...
But i listen to these bands because i enjoy their music.
Honestly, who can actually name alot of "emo" bands as such...
Emo is just a big.... I dont no i cant explain it ....
So many bands can be called screamo or somthin like emo...
but emo as a hole... Is jus a bunch of shit.

 

[AsyLum]

Shut up.

 

[Mumma]

Big :who cares:


Emo music is alternatively mind-numbingly boring or pretentiously overblown. Emo kids just plain shit me.

Hit it on the head. Thread closed at that point.

 

[ellen.louise]

Sorry, there is no difference between you trying to actively "avoid trends" and and emo kids dressing all the same.

Just do what you fucking want, and don't try to justify it by bringing down others.

100% true.
I can't stand some music but that doesn't justify me bitching about other people listening to it.

Also (I know this is true for me) there are always exceptions, ie. songs that I secretly like listening to even though on principle I hate the genre.

Let the kids listen to their emo music if they want, it doesn't neccessarily define who they are.

 

[ellen.louise]

John Butlers a bit of a whiny cock. Now there's a terrible trend- folk/bluesy hippie acoustic guitarists.

fuck off. i'll listen to the happy music with awsome guitarists that i want to, thanks

 

[Chris.]

i dont give a shit what any1 says, i hate those kids who walk around wearing all black with black lipstick and makeup running down their faces, with maybe one distinct red clothing showing or sum shit. you see them everywhere now.

 

[ObjectsInSpace]

The problem is that emo kids - and their music - always assume that they've got a monopoly on misery. To hear them tell it, they're most hard done-by people who ever walked the face of the earth. They're incredibly self-absorbed and fail to realise that they're not the only ones who have problems, and in comparison to others, theirs are relatively minor. Yet they wear it as if it's a badge of honour. Everyone else who has their own problems - which is pretty much everyone - just goes about their daily lives dealing with it. We don't make a big deal out of it.

I noticed the thread-starter made some comparisons between the likes of Nirvana and emo bands. Personally, I favour Soundgarden over Nirvana, but take a look at Lithium and compare it with almost any emo song. Lithium is widely considered to be about bi-polar disorder because Kurt Cobain was bi-polar himself (lithium is treatment for the disorder). Soundgarden's lyrics - especially on Superunknown - deal with depression because frontman Chris Cornell lived with it for years. Pearl Jam's Jeremey was writen after a kid named Jeremey shot himself in front of classmates. The difference between grunge and emo is that grunge songs actually mean something to those who perform them. Emo bands are usually just cashing in on what's popular because it's popular. There's no soul to their music.

 

[ellen.louise]

Fair call. He does have awesome chops. He's just a bit of a preachy do gooder for my liking. But respect to his music, he deserves his success.

When I say I hate acoustic guitarists, I meant more the Jack Johnson, surfer/guitarist clones. So boring and generic.

fair enough.

What are you into? rock, metal, .... etc?