Emo Time

This happens to me every spring. I listen to happy, sunny pop all winter, and then it starts getting brighter.. Seriously, in the winter you hardly ever see the sun, and then you suddenly notice that the summer is really on its way. It’s hardly ever dark anymore! At that point, I always get the feeling that I really must listen to the darkest, most angst-filled music that I have in my CD collection. Strange? I think this whole thing has quite a lot to do with finding a balance in the middle of the huge daylight change.

Consequently, I’ve hardly listened to anything else than emo and other kinds of dark alternative rock during the past 1,5 weeks. Right now, I feel really good. Sometimes listening to the most angst-filled music can actually be the thing that makes you happy. Also, I think it’s good that I finally found a way out of constant power pop listening. It’s only a good thing to have a break from something you’re totally addicted to. Recently, I’ve been listening to Jimmy Eat World, AFI, Disco Ensemble… and of course my new #1 favourite band, 30 Seconds to Mars.

How is emo in keeping with my other favourite music, then? Here we go.. Take power pop. Remove all sweetness and jangly guitar sounds, speed up the tempo, replace lalala’s with woo-oo-oo, add some hardcore screaming vocals, and you’ll get emo. It’s not actually so different from power pop.. There are some bands that actually are emo and powerpop at the same time.

I started listening to emo about four years ago. I wasn’t aware of the term then, but now I’m doing some research, and I think I already have the basic information. I’m definitely an emo myself, too, at least to some extent.. I’ve always been. Listening to all this great music and getting into the emo aesthetics even makes me want to look like an emo. Unfortunately, I’m having some trouble with looking like emo, since I think I actually subconsciously aim to be a happy hippie popster while I also worship the dark gothic aesthetics (emo is a subgenre of goth), and somehow wish to combine the styles. Needless to say, that ain’t gonna work..

If you’d like some information about the subject, here’s a nice video about being emo. I think it’s brilliant, and totally hilarious.. Still, I believe it presents some actual facts, too.

What Is Emo?