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Emo (or emocore) is an offshoot of hardcore punk. Basically it injected more melody and emotion into the hardcore scene. It started with groups like Hüsker Dü and Fugazi with others like Sunny Day Real Estate and Weezer following and inspiring countless imitators. Now it seems like there is a continuum that ranges from the relatively lighter sounds of Dashboard Confessional and Pedro the Lion to the harder sounds of 764-HERO and Alkaline Trio.
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Actually, pre fugazi, the "Revolution Summer" bands from DC- both Guy's "Rites of Spring" and Ian's "Embrace" were described as emotional-hardcore... later shortened to EMO-core... and now just EMO.
The problem with "emo" is that as it has "evolved"- just like countless other styles, the pioneers of the style (who never proclaimed the name or embraced it as a specific style) are cast aside for more cliche and "to the jugular" pop presentations under the banner of name only.
While bands like Fugazi, Rites of Spring, Jawbox, SDRE all had what is now, in retrospect, a decidely "emo" slant-- none of those proclaimed themselves as an "emo" band- and all of them offered a unique approach to rock that set them apart from even one another. Just like minor threat disavowed the concept of "staight edge" genre that they themselves started, essentially by accident... the pioneers of what is now called "emo" have little relation to the band currently flying that banner.
What was called "punk", "Progressive" or "alternative" in the late 80's- as those terms were commercialized by popular music and Mtv - those bands still aligned with the original music style started referring to itself as "underground" or "indie" to distance itself from commercial alternative. As the late 90's also shined the mainstream light on the "indie" movement- many bands simply took to calling themselves "emo".
As a result, the evolution of what was really an interesting off shoot of hardcore music- with emphasis on melodic stengths as well as raw intesity has grown to be essentially pop-rock in an acceptible counter-culture wrapper.
While I will admit to owning a couple cliche emo records (Get Up Kids, Appleseed Cast, Planes mistaken for stars-- pretty much any album released by Deep Elm) I would never really consider any of those bands "emo"-- and I have never been able to sink my teeth into Acoustic guitar pop like Dashboard Confessionals or to SDRE knock offs like Mineral.
It seems like such an insult to what the music once was about to take nearly anything and stick it under the banner of "emo". Much the same way I cringed when Alanis Morisette was considered "alternative", I have a hard time hearing Get Up Kids as anything more than very poppy rock band. I think Get Up Kids are more musically akin to Journey (and that's not necessarily a bad thing) than Rites of Spring or Husker Du.
As SDRE got old and made bad records (and broke up a half dozen times), Jawbox disbanded and spawned the new-wavy Burning Airlines... really the interesting bands of the genre are long gone (aside from Fugazi- although they have morphed many times and no longer sound like the band they were in the early 90's)-- and what is left, in my opinion, is basically pop rock made on low budgets. Much of this new "emo" (Saves the Day, Jimmy Eat World, Jets to Brazil, New Found Glory) is just fine, cute, and often fun and catchy-- but very little of it offers any new take on the concept of musical expression. Nothing wrong with that- but it seems a shame to classify it under the same header as bands who were really doing something new.
Just my opinion, could be wrong.
-Vince
