EMO
First wave (1985–1994)
In 1985 in Washington, D.C., Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, veterans of the DC hardcore music scene, 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 its own sound. 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".[7]
Where the term emo actually originated is uncertain: the earliest print citation found so far appears in 1997,[8] although some claim that members of Rites of Spring mentioned in a 1985 Flipside Magazine interview that some of their fans had started using the term to describe their music.[citation needed]
Within a short time, the D.C. emo sound began to influence other bands such as Moss Icon, Nation of Ulysses, Dag Nasty, Soulside, Shudder to Think, Fire Party, Marginal Man, Foundation and Gray Matter, many of which were released on MacKaye's Dischord Records.
At the same time, in the New York/New Jersey area, bands such as Native Nod, Policy of 3, Rye Coalition, and Quicksand[9] 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.
Following the disbanding of Embrace in 1986, MacKaye established the influential group Fugazi, and was soon joined by Picciotto. While Fugazi itself is not typically categorized as emo, the band's music is cited as an influence by popular second-wave bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate,[10] Far,[11] Braid,[12] and Jimmy Eat World.[13]
Second wave (1994–2000)
As Fugazi and the Dischord Records scene became increasingly popular in the indie underground of the early 1990s, new bands began to spring up.
Diary was released by Sunny Day Real Estate in 1994. The band performed on TV shows, including The Jon Stewart Show.
Inspired by Fugazi and Sunny Day Real Estate, Jimmy Eat World released the album Static Prevails in 1996 on Capitol Records.
A Cornerstone of the late-Nineties emo movement was Weezer's 1996 album Pinkerton, which was to be considered one of the defining emo records of the 90s and was said to have introduced emo to a larger and more mainstream audience.[14][15]
In 1997, Deep Elm Records released the first installment in a series of compilations called Emo Diaries, featuring tracks from Jimmy Eat World, Samiam, and Jejune.
Mainstream emo (2000–present)
While Jimmy Eat World had played emocore-style music early in their career, by the time of the release of their 2001 album Bleed American, the band had downplayed its emo influences, releasing more pop-oriented singles such as "The Middle" and "Sweetness". Newer bands that sounded like Jimmy Eat World (and, in some cases, like the more melodic emo bands of the late 90s) were soon included in the genre.[16]
2003 saw the success of Chris Carrabba, the former singer of emo band Further Seems Forever, and his project Dashboard Confessional. Carraba found himself part of the emerging "popular" emo scene. Carrabba's music featured lyrics founded in deep diary-like outpourings of emotion. While certainly emotional, the new "emo" had a far greater appeal amongst adolescents than its earlier incarnations.[17]
At the same time, use of the term "emo" expanded beyond the musical genre, which added to the confusion surrounding the term. The word "emo" became associated with open displays of strong emotion. Common fashion styles and attitudes that were becoming idiomatic of fans of similar "emo" bands also began to be referred to as "emo." As a result, bands that were loosely associated with "emo" trends or simply demonstrated emotion began to be referred to as emo.[18]
In a strange twist, screamo, a more aggressive sub-genre of emo that began in the early 90s, also had a reformulation of sound and has found greater popularity in recent years through bands such as Glassjaw.[19]
The difficulty in defining "emo" as a genre may have started at the very beginning. In a 2003 interview by Mark Prindle, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi and Rites of Spring was asked how he felt about "being the creator of the emo genre." He responded:
I don't recognize that attribution. I've never recognized "emo" as a genre of music. I always thought it was the most retarded term ever. I know there is this generic commonplace that every band that gets labeled with that term hates it. They feel scandalized by it. But honestly, I just thought that all the bands I played in were punk rock bands. The reason I think it's so stupid is that—what, like the Bad Brains weren't emotional? What—they were robots or something? It just doesn't make any sense to me.
—Mark Prindle, "Interview with Guy Picciotto". MarkPrindle.com (2003).(wikipedia)
