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When Emo Conquered the Mainstream
- pacija 3y ago[flagged]
- jrflowers 3y agoThis is a very good example of what an emo person would post
- pacija 3y agoGuilty as accused :) That's from Urban Dictionary: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=emo&page=3 https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=emo&page=3
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoYour got your post flagged but nothing you posted is wrong.
- pacija 3y ago[flagged]
- jader201 3y agoThe post doesn’t add thoughtful commentary to the discussion, and doesn’t really belong on HN. Some might consider it flamebait (like much content from urban dictionary), which is against the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Enginerrrd 3y agoMore incel than emo I think.
- pacija 3y agoYou think wrong.
- Enginerrrd 3y agoI mean, do I though? I'm aware of it's source from urban dictionary under "emo", but I can't help but feel that rant is weirdly steeped in misogyny and twisted notions of the masculine ideal.
- pacija 3y agoWell, if you can explain how a guy who is married for fifteen years to the same woman, and has two kids with her, is in involuntary celibate, I'd be glad to stand corrected.
- burnished 3y agoWell, are they your kids or her boyfriend's?
- Enginerrrd 3y agoOh! I understand the contention now. It wasn't really intended as an ad hominem against you. Rather, I meant that the passage to me reads like an incel-aligned world view being projected onto the author's description of what it means to be emo. The end result is more incel than emo sounding to me.
- jrflowers 3y agoI like that you posted something somebody else wrote and then took it personally when somebody commented on the nature of the text that you didn’t write. It’s good discourse
- sdsd 3y agoIt's funny that you say this because that's exactly how the word "emo" was used circa 2008. The same way anything really uncool and disliked and uncannily edgy is just reflexively called "incel", everything effeminate, dorky, and so on was "emo". Hipster went through the same cycle a few years after emo. By the time these words go so mainstream, they lose all of their nuance and just became fill-ins for basic emotions, I guess.
- whateveracct 3y agoEmo is an interesting story of rock history in many ways. First, is its intersection with the internet. The genre cannot be understood without myspace and limewire and the like. It's the sound of that time. Second, is how (like grunge) it was a media phenomenon that tried to unified very different bands. My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Taking Back Sunday are all labeled "emo" but sound nothing alike. But they did brush elbows and were in the same place at the same time. Taking Back Sunday even did a stint opening for MCR in their return tour.
- fumblebee 3y ago> is how (like grunge) it was a media phenomenon that tried to unified very different bands [...] are all labeled "emo" but sound nothing alike. Mostly agree, but there will always be within-group variation within the poor art form of taxonomising music scenes, and there were certainly similarities in the emo scene. For example, they almost all had the traditional structure of a guitar based band (guitarist, bassist, drummer) with big, melodic sounds well suited to stadium tours, and their lyrics shared similar emotional tones. You can point to most music scenes - grunge, Britpop, punk, post-punk, the 2000s garage revival, early 60s folk, etc - and I suspect you'd find more similarities than differences.
- 7373737373 3y agohttps://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Emo https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Emo
- firecall 3y agoWannabe posers and conformists listening to Sunny Day Realestate.
- stevefan1999 3y agowell, as a MCR fan I don't think I'm mainstream at all.
- baylessj 3y agoNeat to see this on HN! I'm in a couple of fifth-wave emo bands currently, and there's some incredible music being made in this genre right now. I'll second the recommendations above, and add: Saturdays at Your Place, Ben Quad, Summerbruise, Arm's Length, MooseCreek Park, and Home is Where. They've all put out incredible albums in the last year or so :)
- optimalsolver 3y agoAnd the fans are all accountants now.
- samwillis 3y agoNot all of them, there is at least one browsing HN and posting comments here...
- lusus_naturae 3y agoYou found me.
- samwillis 3y agoThe average age of HN is something like mid 30s, that is a lot of us former (or not so former) emo fans on here.
- dannyphantom 3y agoYour comment reminded me of '1985' by Bowling For Soup and just how real it is for some of us :') Jake just hit a wall, he was ambitious to a fault. One Vyvanse a day, helps him work for the wage. His dreams went out the door, after they cancelled Warped Tour. Was going to tour with the band, instead he's home late cleaning the dirty pans. I love some of the elements that band put out eventually carried over into the era of Warped Tour I knew best when Pop-Punk was having it's day - which is also having a renaissance of sorts :)
- Animats 3y agoMade it into the mainstream, but failed to defeat rap and house.
- ojhughes 3y agoEmo rap is a thing - eg. Machine gun Kelly / blackbear
- c-hendricks 3y agoLike punk, emo is a mindset not a genre.
- DontchaKnowit 3y agoThere is some absolutely incredible Emo/Screamo adjacent music being made right now. In particular, the screamo genre has turned into something very special. If you like screamo or black metal, check out Ostraca. Some of the most interesting new music I've heard in the last few years.
- justinator 3y agoI thought Screamo turned into DubStep which I think we can all agree was a terrible move.
- arcanemachiner 3y agoI thought that was just Skrillex.
- timeon 3y agoObligatory: Skrillex is BroStep not DubStep.
- nyolfen 3y agothis feels like the 'USian'/'American' dichotomy
- pxc 3y agoDubstep generally still has some recognizable traces of reggae in it and is not nearly as aggressive. Listen to some reggae and some older dub, then traditional dubstep, and you will see why it's useful to have different terms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_music https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_music
- nyolfen 3y agoi am familiar with the distinction, but for most of the world, dubstep is what you call brostep. this battle is long lost.
- c-hendricks 3y agoSure "emo" (well, pop emo) isn't around as a genre, but IMO it lives on as "sadboy" / "sadgirl". I'd probably argue anything with introspective, sentimental, or self-motivating lyrics is on the emo spectrum. Have Heart & Ruiner sound like typical Bridge 9 hardcore, but the lyrics are sad as shit. http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/ruiner/adheringtosuperstition.html http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/ruiner/adheringtosuperstition.... http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/ruiner/gettingovertheovers.html http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/ruiner/gettingovertheovers.htm... http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/haveheart/lifeishardenough.html http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/haveheart/lifeishardenough.htm... http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/haveheart/aboutface.html http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/haveheart/aboutface.html
- tnecniv 3y agoEh I think that depends on how you define emo. Like most genres today it might not be as mainstream but there’s plenty of medium sized groups making music in that space with a dedicated audience. If anything I’d say sadboy is a vibe that contains a lot of music, including emo. I’d say I listen to a lot of sadboy rock that is decidedly not emo as it doesn’t share much musically or lyrically with emo / emo-punk. Then you get your sadboy / sadgirl pop / hip hop, etc. too.
- c-hendricks 3y agoI could also agree with what you're saying, and I want to state that I think genres are mostly society shoehorning things into boxes. > I’d say sadboy is a vibe Yup, exactly. That's what I said about emo in another comment. Emo/sadboy/sadgirl are the same word from different eras. > I’d say I listen to a lot of sadboy rock that is decidedly not emo as it doesn’t share much musically or lyrically with emo / emo-punk. Then you get your sadboy / sadgirl pop / hip hop, etc. too Yup, and in another era, those would have been lumped with emo.
- jakelazaroff 3y agoI guess it depends on what you consider emo, but the genre is in its fifth wave and going strong!
- surprisetalk 3y agoI know a lot of programmers who are really into prog/metal but never venture into the emo/screamo side of things. Off the top of my head, here are a few of my favorite albums from the genre: • Origami Angel :: Gami Gang • A Lot Like Birds :: No Place • Dance Gavin Dance :: Downtown Battle Mountain • Mars Volta :: De-Loused in the Comatorium • Taking Back Sunday :: Where You Want To Be • Underoath :: Define the Great Line • Sky Eats Airplane :: Sky Eats Airplane • From Indian Lakes :: The Man with Wooden Legs • Circa Survive :: Blue Sky Noise • Mew :: Frengers • Other Men :: Wake Up Swimming
- wu2Fe7sp 3y agoI didn't expect to see DBM mentioned on hackernews today. That's the part where we bring up Jonny Craig?
- thoughtpalette 3y agoWe only speak of Jonny in hushed whispers for what once was.
- Dudester230602 3y ago• Canadian Softball :: Peev Shalpatine
- defrost 3y ago• Hearts That Hate :: Cry Tonight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxVPhaJtL8o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxVPhaJtL8o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QRHQrJRmG4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QRHQrJRmG4
- soylentcola 3y agoMy daughter loves Dashboard, get me one of those!
- defrost 3y agoHmmm, Dashboard Confessional seem to be an actual band though. Best I can do is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGxDVXGRQpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGxDVXGRQpY
- Lammy 3y ago> The overwhelming maleness of emo, and especially the third wave “What's the meanest you can be to the one you claim to love / And still smile to your newfound friends?”
- TRiG_Ireland 3y ago> The overwhelming maleness of emo Is that why it also exists as a genre of gay porn?
- scottcorgan 3y ago5th wave emo is the bet yet!
- gorgoiler 3y agoAh yes dear friends, there is indeed a nice web culture crossover here. Who here remembers the Emogames?: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emogame https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emogame Flash beat-em-ups where you control control popular emo artistes of the day. For example, helping At The Drive-In’s bouffant Cedric Bixler battle a human centipede version of Puddle of Muddddd before taking on the end of level boss in the form of a pixelated Fred Durst while rocking out to Alkaline Trio etc. Happy memories. I found a lot of bands through those games.
- tehwebguy 3y agoJason Oda, who made these (I think entirely by himself), was probably asked to design merch and album covers by hundreds of bands but only ever did one that I’m aware of: Lydia’s This December; It’s One More and I’m Free It’s incredible (and so is the album)
- jeremycarter 3y agoI remember Absolute Punk being my homepage.
- imp0cat 3y agoYeah, it's a nostalgia thing now. Don't believe me? Search youtube for "midwest emo".
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y agoDidn't like it back then. Still think it's cringey