Sweet Emotion

[morrigirl]

This is the first day all summer I've been able to walk my customary half mile to work without sweating through the back of my shirt. It's still warm outside but there's heavy cloud cover and a nice breeze. Feels downright autumnal. You know, when I was younger summer was my favorite season. I know a lot of people like winter, *shakes head* not me. I'd rather sweat than freeze. Summer is all about heat and sun and being outdoors, things that I as a depressive don't get enough of. I love being able to go for long walks, wear tank tops (NOT wife beaters. What a sexist turn of phrase!), and prance about in long flowy skirts. But the older I get the more I find myself enjoying spring and autumn, the inbetween seasons, the time when it's not too hot and not too cold. I like being able to wear long sleeved shirts without a jacket. I like feeling my hair blow lightly in the wind. I like wearing light pants. I like being able to walk a couple miles and not keel over from heat exhaustion or get frost bite. Too bad the in between seasons seem to get shorter and shorter every year. I don't think we've even had a spring in NYC in four or five years :-p

Other Mike and I were on the phone for two hours last night. We had a nice long conversation and now all is right with the world. It was seriously one of the best talks we've had in a while, it flowed perfectly from the moment I answered the phone to the minute we hung up. His words wrapped around me like a blanket and kept me warm all through the night, or some other such cliched nonsense.

One of the things we discussed last night was Emo music. Now, I'm not really sure I understand what Emo is. The way it has been explained to me in the past is it's music that contains really over the top emotions. Okay I get that but...can you really classify a genre of music based solely on lyrical content and the emotive ability of the singer? Don't genres usually have their own sound as well? Granted, I'm not totally up to date on populear music at the moment, but all the bands I've heard that fall into the Emo category sound like regular ole rock to me. What is the Emo sound? I know what pop sounds like. I know what rock, rap, R&B, blues, jazz, punk, ska, electronica, world, folk, bluegrass, adult contemporary, alternative, new wave, metal, country sound like. Sure, most of the aforementioned generes also have their own emotive and lyrical conventions but they all have a specific sound, a sound so distinctive I can turn on the radio and know immediately whether I'm listening to rock or metal. If I hear an emo band, I don't know they're emo unless somebody tells me. There is nothing distinctive in the music to tip me off.

So tell me, is emo really all just about the content or does it have a sound? If it doesn't have a sound, how can you tell a band is emo? Emo lyrics don't strike me as any more melodramatic than early '90's alternative. How does one pinpoint an emo band?

Comments

[kdc4evr.livejournal.com]

I have a link to a hilarious video clip entitled "How to Be Emo" - I'll see if I can find where I got it, it will present to you the emo subculture.

when I first heard emo described to me, it was described as emotional metal, but really, if you want to distinguish emo based on sound, then listen to the singer - does he sound whiney? if so, then the band is probably emo. It's sort of a combination of an indie-type sound with vocals that sound whiney or nasal, generally speaking. Although Dashboard Confessional is totally considered emo but I don't think he sounds whiney.

my 13 yr old cousin when i last saw her was totally emo. quick description. - dyed black hair, black-framed nerdy glasses, hair tends to hang over the eyes, tendency to look at the ground & not look people in the eye, like to wear obscure band t-shirts, ripped up jeans, and thrift shop clothes, carries messenger bags with 50 million pins on them, "artistic"
-sound like a mix of a bunch of stuff that's already happened? of course

[morrigirl.livejournal.com]

Emotional metal, that's an interesting description. But I thought we already HAD emotional metal, it's called a power ballad! But I have noticed a predominence of whiney/nasal singers on MTV Hits so that's a good clue. I was actually litening to a My Chemical Romance single today and thought to myself "Damn their lead singer (while totally hot) sure sounds whiney!"

I laughed when I got to the final line of your post because all the while you were rattling off the elements of emo style I kept thinking "this sounds an aweful lot like hipster chic to me." On closer inspection it sounds like goth meets indie music snob.

[kdc4evr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think when emo kids get bigger they turn into hipsters (or they grow up, in which case they become normal people)

and the music snob part is right on.

I can't believe you think Gerard is hott, I totally don't understand the Gerard hottness. at all. they're a fun band to watch though, a little spastic, but fun. I don't think they count as emo though - they're much too loud to be emo

and you NEED to download quicktime, it's the best media player really

[morrigirl.livejournal.com]

Gerard? Is that his name? I dunno, I just saw the video for Helena once and thought "Wow, I'd do him a second." And then Shakira's new video came on and I thought "Wow, I'd do her too." If I could do them both together then THAT would be a party.

But...I posed my friend Mike this exact same question and he actually used My Chemical Romance as an example of an emo band. I'm starting to think the label emo is BS since no one can seem to agree on what bands fit the description. What bands or artists would you say are emo?

I'm hesitant to download anything with all the installer problems I've been having. Plus I have three or four different media players on my compy already! I hate that not all media plays on all media players.

[kdc4evr.livejournal.com]

Yes, Gerard is his name, and really, I totally don't get it. Also, he reeks of cigarette smoke.

That's the first time I've ever heard anyone refer to MCR as emo, because, like I said, they're really a bit too loud. According to this one website I found yesterday (www.fourfa.com) there are actually musical differences between emo & punk & hardcore & sXe (straightedge, which I never knew was a genre of music), but I think you have to pay close attention to hear them. It also said that the music that is currently considered emo is actually post-emo indie rock. And apparently all of this started in the DC area in the early 80s. But typical emo bands are Dashboard Confessionaly, The Get-Up Kids, Thrice, Thursday, The Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World, and a number of other bands that I've either never heard of or have heard of but never felt compelled to listen to. Think of the stuff that Toby liked, and half the new music rotation at 'VKC.

I was wondering if you ever managed to fix your installer problem

[morrigirl.livejournal.com]

Yes I did manage to fix my installer problem thanks to the nice geeks on an Windows XP internet forum at www.annoyances.org

The answer was so simple I'm appalled that I didn't think of it! I posted my problem and one smart individual replied with "Go into task manager and close it out."

*smacks forehead* DUH, CARLA!!!

So I did that. It worked, and once the installer was no longer running I was able to install and run the installer clean-up wizard. Voila! No more malfunctioning Windows Installer!

And while I'm disappointed in myself I'm even more disappointed in Dell for not suggesting this.