The Onion AV Club dissects the roots of emo

Contributed by an Anonymous Source. Posted by aubin on Friday, April 30, 2010 at 12:30 PM (EDT)

The Onion AV Club has put together a detailed article looking at the roots of emo. The article attempts to find the value in the much maligned genre by looking back at the forefathers like Sunny Day Real Estate, Rites of Spring, Jimmy Eat World, Mineral, Pixies, Fugazi and more.

Regarding Fugazi's influence:

What Fugazi harnessed better than any other was the power of restraint. Hardcore had been all about balls-out intensity, but Fugazi's twisty rhythms and patient calculation made the louder, more intense parts of songs that much more powerful.

And SDRE:

Diary hovers in a difficult-to-find sweet spot, alternately contemplative and cathartic, an engrossing mix of melody, power, and atmosphere. For so many bands that came after Sunny Day Real Estate-who would essentially break up (for the first time) just months after the album's release-Diary was the blueprint.

Check it out here.

Bands in this story

Sunny Day Real Estate

News (23 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

runneruprecords (April 30, 2010)

i know it's conventional knowledge at this point, but fugazi is seriously fucking amazing.,

ZachLeg (April 30, 2010)

looks like a good read

Make_Way (April 30, 2010)

So you're saying that every 10 years or so we have to go through this whole "emo explanation" rigamarole? I remember reading endless articles about this back in 1999-2000.

Mystereohasmono (April 30, 2010)

Maybe The Gimper will learn something.

ExtraCheesePizza (April 30, 2010)

Agreed. It just seems similar to when a friend tries to get you into a band that you just don't like. "But dude, it's like Fugazi and Pixies, I swear, just check it out."

lookingforcorpses (April 30, 2010)

Just thinking that. Then thinking, "doesn't matter, because 90% of the people still won't get it and will still call Chiodos and/or Dashboard Confessional emo."

Cos (April 30, 2010)

Emo is redefined every 3-4 years.

woodandiron (April 30, 2010)

I love the AV Club.

I appreciate the fact that they threw some praise at Motion City Soundtrack and Taking Back Sunday's Tell All Your Friends.

IamtheAvatar (April 30, 2010)

I reluctantly agree. Tell All Your Friends was a pretty striking record. And MCS was cool for a few years as well.

Dante3000 (rich) (April 30, 2010)

At what point did the acoustic guitar and balding girlfriends enter the equation?

skankbook (April 30, 2010)

Wow, I thought my review of last year's Against Me!/Off With Their Heads show in Knoxville was a little biased, but this article... it's not a history lesson, it's a dick sucking session.

Mystereohasmono (April 30, 2010)

Looks like this guy has something against dick sucking sessions.

palzer_boo (April 30, 2010)

Just a litttle reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGLv3IEL0VI

BADASSMOFO (April 30, 2010)

Someone linked me to this a long time ago, an emo gold mine. http://www.mediafire.com/emoisdead

istapledmyfoot (April 30, 2010)

av club delivers as always

leatherface (April 30, 2010)

i like fourfa.com better.

iandisurvive (April 30, 2010)

anyone remember those alex pappas jokes from like 6 years ago? thought about it on the subway today and was cracking up

Tonto (April 30, 2010)

Needs more Tom Delonge.

IllaZilla (May 1, 2010)

Pretty well-written, but nearly everything it says (with the exception of the MCS bit) is said much better in Andy Greenwald's book "Nothing Feels Good". Also, massive fail for gushing about SDRE but not making even a single mention of Jawbreaker. Honestly, if you want a great history of emo from the '80s through '02, I highly recommend Greenwald's book. I think he goes overboard about the significance of internet diaries and chat rooms, and he skips right from Rites of Spring to Jawbreaker, ignoring the late '80s, but his band profiles & histories are great. What somebody really needs to do is pick up where his book leaves off: write a history "emo", or at least the usage of the term, in the last 8 years: MCR, Coheed, Paramore, MCS, Fall Out Boy, etc. Obviously it's highly debatable to what degree any of these acts are actually "emo", but as far as a history of the style & term it's a chunk that's missing from the story.

teaessare (May 1, 2010)

someone should also talk about the resurgence of the classic emo sound in the diy scene happening right now.

pacer (May 2, 2010)

That book had it's moments, but the amount of dashboard confessional stuff in there was just embarrassing.

DylanXVX (May 2, 2010)

I agree, though I also agree with the original poster. It was said better in Nothing Feels Good. I thought the article gave a pretty good look back at all of the great emo bands of the 80's and early 90's, but when he mentioned Taking Back Sunday as "screamo" I became a little worried that the article would go on for longer than I did.. The dude knows good emo bands, but really needs to take a look at early screamo and emo-violence before publishing something about it.

bakla (May 3, 2010)

I like onions, red onions... even though they are commies