Emos

[DaveL]

Ugghh,

I must have missed this, but what the heck is Emo subculture? From what I can gather, this is a new youth fad doing the rounds.

Emo short for emotional, and there is a high level of introspection, naval gazing and just being miserable for the heck of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo_%28slang%29

Two girls in Oz recently found hanging from a tree, were heavily to Emo music.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/23/1177180569460.html?from=top5

Umm, I don't get it. Why are these kids so miserable? I thought middle class suburbia was a damn heck better than slumming it in some poor back alley (like Portsmouth).

So anyway kids, just cheer up and be happy - just like Hope or Elmo. Has anyone seen an Emo smilie?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMvMzQ4Vu-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xwCpKLc8u0

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

IMO, "Emo" is just another term for something that was there all along.

Before the current "Emo" scene, we had just-as-introspective, just-as-navel-gazing music from groups like Nirvana.  Before that, it was groups like the Cure.

"No colours any more / I want them to turn black" isn't that new a concept in music or youth culture. 

[The Black Spot]

Before that, it was groups like the Cure.

For sheer seediness, you couldn't beat The Velvet Underground.

[Aggie]

Selling angst music to teenagers is like shooting fish in a barrel.

What I'm not sure is how Emo (apparently) grew out of what was left of punk.

[Griffin NoName]

I watched the first of the youtube links and thus voted Elmo only to find I was amongst like minded friends

[beagle]

Before that, it was groups like the Cure.

For sheer seediness, you couldn't beat The Velvet Underground.

Songs about a nice day in the park and going for a walk? You've just got a nasty mind.

And who needs emo when we had Joy Division? Not to mention Neil Young in "Tonight's the Night" mode.

[DaveL]

Selling angst music to teenagers is like shooting fish in a barrel.

What I'm not sure is how Emo (apparently) grew out of what was left of punk.

Good point Aggie. The transitional years from child to adult can leave kids really vulnerable. If they don't 'fit the mould' and feel down because of it, getting into Emo with others might make them fell accepted.

Although I don't get why they need to glorify being miserable as a Myspace glorified group exercise.

Remember 'The Smiths'. At least Morrisey was articulate and clever with his lyrics. And Johhny Marr was just the best Jingle Jangle guitarist going round.

I'd like to drop my trousers to the Queen
Every sensible child will know what this means
The poor and the needy
Are selfish and greedy on her terms
And if the day came when I felt a
Natural emotion
I'd get such a shock I'd probably jump
In the ocean
And when a train goes by
It's such a sad sound
No ...
It's such a sad thing

[goat starer]

As a goat with a wardrobe and music collection built on angst, quasi gothiness and general misery my personal favorite piece of musical unhappiness (and contender for best music video of all time EVER!) would have to be Radiohead.

A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life,
a handshake of carbon monoxide,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silent silent.

This is my final fit,
my final bellyache,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.

Such a pretty house
and such a pretty garden.

No alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises, please.


That said there has never been a shortage. not even during the famous 1969 angst drought.

[Aggie]

Heh, I have a curiously upbeat ska-ish cover of that around here somewhere....
Regarding Radiohead, I find "How to disappear completely" from Kid A even more depressing and emo-ish.

I always preferred a little more aggression with the angst to catalyse budding depression into anger (to quote the Clash, "Let fury have the hour, anger can be power"), so The Offspring's older material would be my choice:

"Nothing From Something"

Things are coming down on me
They never seem to let it be
It seems like everything I say just starts another fight
The pressure's building up inside
I gotta let it out tonight
Shattered glass will cure my ills and make me feel alright

[Chorus:]
Gonna break it
And never stop running
Making nothing from something
Making nothing from something

Cut me for the lion's share
It's mindless, but I don't care
'Cause no matter what I say I'm in a another fight
Take more shit, I've had enough
Tonight I'm gonna rip it up
Broken windows cure my ills and make me feel alright

[goat starer]

but you cant help coming back to the cure. disintegration (the song not the album) is pretty much as morose as you can get - i recommend it on Entreat (live album) much better than the album track which suffers from 80's style overproduction.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Meh.. E(l)mos need to be tickled.

On a related note I found this:

He observed that infant mortality rates begin dropping substantially around fifteen years, before teenage suicide rates begin escalating. Pointing out that male babies suffer from more birth complications than females, he went on to document the three common denominators that turned up repeatedly among the suicides he studied: respiratory distress for over one hour at birth, lack of prenatal care before the twentieth week of pregnancy, and chronic ill health of the mother during pregnancy.

If the emo survives his teen years does it mean that the trauma was caused after his birth?

[Griffin NoName]

Suicide is a luxury only the western world can afford. Discuss.

[Sibling Chatty]

Suicide is a luxury only the western world can afford. Discuss.

And Emo crap seems to be a middle class and up phenomenon. My Goddessdaughter (her parents are Wiccan, but if something happens to her I am in charge, NOT either family, so Goddessdaughter works best) is in college now, but the last few years, during the beginning of the Emo fad (and it may be a 'lifestyle' or emotional reaction, but it's a fad, too) one of her constant war cries has been "You have a roof over your head and people that care, cut this crap out!!"

Kat's been raised well on a mere shoestring. Her Dad's been trying to help get a company up and going, and they've been living on very little. She'd also been attending a school where 97% of the kids were middle class income or better. She doesn't suffer fools, either...

Her speech class final last year was a persuasive speech entitled "American Teens Have No Sense of Self" in which she pretty much eviscerated the Emo subculture of her school, and called out the chronic attention-whore pseudo-suiciders. They had her do the speech for the entire campus. Same thing that adults had been saying, but from a peer, it stung.

A lot of it is simple 'monkey-see, monkey-do' perversity. That's what being a teen is about, you know. Being a 'rebel', as long as you still have your iPod, and cell phone, and own room and...

Kat's Emo friend gave it up when the choice was Being Emo or getting a car when his brother bought a better one. Most of these kids are about the same. It's a fad. 10 years from now, it'll be a forgotten fad.

Age gives great perspective. It wasn't called Emo when I was young, but the Great Tragic Teen Figure was around. It was generally getting its ass kicked by some football player, though.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dave...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGLv3IEL0VI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9jMPuuVmU

[Sibling Chatty]

AGGIE!! LAMBI!!

http://www.twspemo.on.ca/chamber.html

It's Emo, Ontario!!

[Aggie]

Hey, they actually have an Emo Farm (and Drainage)! 

Emo Drugs....
Emo Visitation Chapel....
Emo Sales and Service....

Actually, I'm laughing at the "Canasian Cafe"; I'll bet it also says "Chinese and Western Cuisine" on the sign. 
I think that's mandatory for small-town Chinese restaurants.