http://www.squidoo.com/topemobands

I like Weezer a lot. Joy Division and The Weakerthans are good, too.

I'm amused and slightly irritated at the same time I can't believe Weezer is on that list, sure some of their songs are/can be sad or "emo," but they aren't an emo band. Their sound is completely different and they're way before "emo" was even a term. With Jimmy Eat World, I can kind of understand because of the content of their songs, but they're sound and style is completely different from your typical emo band. It would've been more appropriate to call it "Top Emo Songs." I can't really speak for the other bands because I don't listen to them often enough.

I guess it just that when I think "emo," I think "whiny bitch music." And I don't get that feeling from Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, The Smiths, or even Death Cab for Cutie.

rant rant rant rant

Was that list meant to be for real? It doesn't seem like it because I know for sure Weezer & Jimmy Eat World shouldn't be considered "emo"


Some of the music I listen to has been referred to as "emo" by some people, but all I know is, they're good bands & I like their music. The term emo didn't become popular until I was in my twenties & by then I had completely stopped paying attention to genres/types of music. I listen to whatever I like & don't even know what genre most of the stuff I listen to is in. Nor do I care.

The Smiths and Death Cab for Cutie, emo?

Oh eat me.

I like some of those bands too. Thing is, none of them are emo.

I created this thread because the person who created the list obviously doesn't know what "emo" truly is. To call bands like the Smiths, Joy Division or Weezer emo is hilarious.

Labels don't really mean anything to me.

Well . . . technically, no bands are emo, considering that the bands that created the first type of sound to be called "emo" didn't like that label. For example:



The term "emo" (short for emotional hardcore) was first applied to Rites of Spring and similar bands from DC in the mid-80's.



By the late 80's and early 90's, the more emotional-sounding pop punk bands, like Jawbreaker, were sometimes called emo, mostly by people who didn't particularly like their type of sound. (I do like Jawbreaker, and don't really think of them as emo.)



In the 90's, "emo" primarily referred to bands that sounded like Sunny Day Real Estate:



By the late 90's, there was a trendy undergroundish emo scene, with bands like Rainer Maria, and an "emo dance" that involved limply swaying around (it was pathetic-looking), and emo fashion which I remember as something like a sloppy, grungey version of the mod look.

That went out of fashion by 2000, and then bands sounding like just about anything started to be marketed as "emo" by the big business side of the music industry. And then the current emo look, which is just a combination of goth and horror punk fashions, emerged.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I really don't get it.

Heh, I loved his reference to Emo Phillips. He's right though, 'emo' is a poorly chosen word because it implies that all other hardcore isn't emotional.

That all happened before my time, but it's my understanding that emo now means a look and/or lyrics -- not a certain sound (which again, is dumb because aren't all lyrics emotional?) I can see why the person who made the list would be confused. It's a term with a lot of history and confusion. If I heard an 'emo' band, I wouldn't be able to tell they were emo until I saw their picture haha.

Yeah, maybe this is wrong, but I basically write off any band from the past 10 years that calls themselves "emo" without bothering to listen to them. I wasn't a fan of the bands that called themselves "emo" and had a distinct sound (that was obviously inspired by the DC bands . . . who didn't want to be called "emo" . . . ) in the 90's.

Emo fashion today is lame. It's a direct rip-off of goth and / or horror punk fashion. It has nothing to do with the actual emo fashion trend that existed for a short period of time.

it seems like lately that "emo" fashion, or "scene" is kind of separate from any particular musical sound. You see band members with that type of dress playing a lot of different kinds of music now. It also seems like it has sort of merged somewhat into the whole "hipster" thing, which also doesn't seem to necessarily have one strict genre it corresponds with... other than liking what they are told is "hip". Also, both of these groups seem to embrace certain things with a sort of irony, which I find annoying. An example would be the indie rock hipsters who inexplicably listen to Lil' Wayne.

I do like some of the "original" emo bands that Ivory Pomegranate mentioned, though.