padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
it's really amazing to think of the places emo has gotten to, the diversity of things "emo" can meanit was really touching yet nothing to do with rock really
considering it come from one of th the most rockist rock scenes ever - not just original 80s hardcore (the punk kind) but D.C. hardcore, the truest of all hardcore scenes
and not just the truest of all scenes, but the truest of all bands of that scene - Minor goddamn Threat
(or really The Faith, Ian Mackaye's brother's band - Embrace was the Faith with Ian replacing his brother Alec as singer - but still)
not that Ian Mackaye would embrace (no pun) or advocate rockism I reckon but still - even Fugazi (not emo, but still) is inherently rockist af
I'm way too young to have been there for Embrace + Rites of Spring, and still too young for heyday - mid-late 90s - of screamo, tho I did catch the tail end of that. wasn't my thing but I knew it.
emo in the Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes, sense was 100% not my thing, but it did retain a punk/diy ethos + sensibility, had those roots, which is the last time "emo" necessarily did
and then after that it flares to mean almost anything - a particular teenage subculture, a synonym for angsty, arena bands that have basically fuck all to do with those historical roots
not a value judgment or anything, just a fascinating microhistory to me