SheIsLegend

Well; I read most of it. I`m a pretty young kid, but here's what I've gathered.

"EMO"
(emo history)

Initially, the term "emo" was an abbreviation of "emocore", itself short for "emotional hardcore", and was coined to describe the music of the mid-1980s DC scene and its associated bands. The most recognizable names of the period included Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Grey Matter, Fire Party and slightly later, Moss Icon. The first wave of emo began to fade after the breakups of most of the involved bands in the early 1990s.


Starting in the mid-1990s, the term "emo" largely reflected the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate, and Texas Is the Reason put forth a more indie rock brand of emo, which was more melodic and less chaotic in nature than its predecessor. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the end of the 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted their style to the mainstream.

As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the more mainstream style, creating a style of music that has now earned the moniker "emo" within popular culture. Whereas, even in the past, the term "emo" was used to identify a wide variety of bands, the breadth of bands listed under today's emo is even more vast, leaving the term "emo" as more of a loose identifier than as a specific genre of music.

In all of its forms, emo music generally shares some of the same concepts: personal, meaningful lyrics, usually of an introspective nature, and a deep connection with a band's audience.


Emo History

The First Wave
(1985-1994)
In 1985 in Washington, D.C., Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, veterans of the DC hardcore music scene, decided to shift away from what they saw as the constraints of the basic style of hardcore and the escalating violence within the scene. They took their music in a more personal direction with a far greater sense of experimentation, bringing forth MacKaye's Embrace and Picciotto's Rites of Spring. The style of music developed by Embrace and Rites of Spring soon became a sound, later referred to as "emo-core". As a result of the renewed spirit of experimentation and musical innovation that developed the new scene, the summer of 1985 soon came to be known in the scene as "Revolution Summer". Within a short time, the DC emo-core sound began to influence other bands such as Moss Icon, Nation of Ulysses, Dag Nasty, Shudder To Think, Fire Party, Marginal Man, and Grey Matter, many of which were released on MacKaye's Dischord Records. The original wave of DC emo-core finally ended in late 1992 with the collapse of Hoover.

As the DC scene expanded, other scenes began to develop with a similar sound. In San Diego in the early 1990s, Gravity Records released a number of records in the hardcore emo style. Bands of the period included Heroin, Indian Summer, Angel Hair, Antioch Arrow, Universal Order of Armageddon, Swing Kids, and Mohinder. At the same time, in the New York/New Jersey era, bands such as Native Nod, Merel, 1.6 Band, Rye Coalition and Rorschach were feeling the same impulse. Many of these bands were involved with the ABC No Rio club scene in New York, itself a response to the violence and stagnation in the scene and with the bands that played at CBGBs, the only other small venue for hardcore in New York at the time. Much of this wave of emo, particularly the San Diego scene, began to shift towards a more chaotic and aggressive form of emo, nicknamed "screamo".

By and large, the more hardcore style of emo began to fade as many of the early era bands disbanded. Even still, a handful of modern bands continue to reflect emo's hardcore origins, including Circle Takes the Square, Hot Cross, City of Caterpillar, Funeral Diner, and A Day in Black and White.

Back in DC, following the disbanding of both Rites of Spring and Embrace, MacKaye and Picciotto decided to join forces in a new band, called Fugazi. While Fugazi itself was not categorized as emo, the music it created would soon influence the second major wave of emo.

Early Emo's Influence
In California, particularly in the Bay Area, bands like Jawbreaker and Samiam began to mix the DC influence with pop punk to come up with their own take on the classic DC emo-core sound. These bands tended to employ a lot of the rough vocal styling associated with Ian MacKaye's bands. The vocals of Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker are particularly of interest because of his gruffer crooning than gruff yelling. This development leads to a more emotional feeling of loss than the desperation and franticness of MacKaye's voice. On Jawbreaker's album Bivouac, there was an evolution from traditional Hardcore vocal sound into a more melodic crooning, regardless of whether or not the vocalist was in tune, the vocalist attempted to embody raw emotion of the music. In Southern California, Still Life had their own take on the same ideas of rough melody. In later years, NJ's Garden Variety had a similar combination of emo and rough indie pop/pop punk. This style continued to evolve up to present day in the sound of bands like Avail and Hot Water Music.

Also in the early 90s, hardcore kids in bands like Lifetime were reacting in their own way to the demise of youth crew styled straight edge hardcore and desire to seek out new directions. While their music is often classified as emo, a better description would probably be melodic hardcore. In response to the more metal direction their hardcore peers were taking, Lifetime initially decided to slow their music down and make it softer with more personal lyrics. A couple of EPs and an LP were released in this style, which was appreciated by some, but not hugely successful. The band went back to the drawing board and then really hit their stride with the Tinnitus EP in 1994, which was a blend of speed, aggression and melody which would inform and be further refined on their next two albums, Hello Bastards and Jerseys Best Dancers. These records' sound, lyrics, and style were a virtual blueprint for later bands, including Saves The Day and The Movielife.