I'll Still Defend Emotion or It's An "Emo" World After All

"I must say one thing. I must say emocore must be the stupidest f**king thing I've ever heard in my entire life. But just in case you are wondering, I read in my Thrasher the other day, that in fact, what my band along with other bands in this city are playing is emocore. I'm thinking Emo Phillips, the comedian? Emocore? Emotional hardcore? As if hardcore wasn't emotional to begin with."-said Ian Mackaye during a 1986 concert.

What Mackaye, singer of the influential bands Minor Threat and Fugazi and at the time of this quote Embrace, was referring to in his mid-song banter was the label given to the music of his and other bands in his hometown of Washington D.C. were making at the time of “emocore”, which was shortened to “emo.”

This is a tag that most people today like to stick on to every band that has come out in the past 15 years or so that happens to sing about how they are feeling, like that’s a goddamn crime or something.

Bands nowadays like All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Say Anything etc. much like the bands Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids and Sunny Day Real Estate ten or so years ago along with bands like Rites Of Spring and the previously mentioned Fugazi ten years before them were able to reach their audience because they were just like their audience, younger people who sometimes felt alienated, had a crush on someone that didn’t like them back or simply misunderstood, therefore these bands turned into a unofficial representation of a section of today’s youth

Unfortunately, the section of society that this music reaches is small, misunderstood and ridiculed. Some of the ridicule they brazenly bring on themselves. For example, in Mexico and Chile, kids who proudly wear the “emo” badge are routinely assaulted by either skinheads or street punks.

The “anti-emo” violence got so bad in the Mexican town of Queretaro that a Mexico City-based gay rights organization, staged a silent march through the town in order to quell the violence, which the organization feels stems from homophobic sentiments felt by the groups of kids in the town.

Honestly, I feel that the march and the violence itself are ridiculously stupid. The street punks and skinheads who went “emo-bashing” are stupid for getting worked up because some dudes like wear tight pants and eyeliner. The gay-rights organization is stupid because they come across as nothing more than attention whores and the “emo” kids are stupid because they bring on all of this onto themselves by branding themselves under the umbrella of “emo”

I’m aware that I’m coming across as “anti-emo” or whatever you’d like to call it. The thing is that I’m not anti-“emo” because “emo” is a term (a stupid term, at that) used to describe a music subgenre.

What I am is anti-“people who need to be classified and/or stereotyped in order to feel good about themselves.” It not just the “emo” kids either; it’s the “punk” kids, the “metalheads”, the “drama” geeks, or the favorite here at Brookdale, the “Magic” kids.

What I’m trying to say here is like or be whatever you like and don’t let people give you crap for who or what you are. But on the other hand, don’t pigeonhole yourself either, because you’re only denying yourself or someone else the awesome feeling of experiencing or learning about something that’s foreign to them.

Going back to Mackaye’s quote, at the end when he says “Emotional hardcore? Like hardcore wasn’t emotional enough anyway,” he brings up what people seem to not realize about music. The reason that you listen to the music that you do, whether it’s Fall Out Boy or Drake or H20 or even Ke$ha is because it brings out emotions in you that make you enjoy the music you’re listening to so much more.

All music is “emo” because if music didn’t have emotion, it would suck. So yes, that would make The Beatles “emo”, Jay-Z “emo” and Otis Redding “emo”. Try to wrap your head around that.