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Perhaps the most popular breed of indie rock music nowadays includes distorted guitar chords and lyrics containing diary like confessions. Emocore (taken from emotional/emotive music) is the right term for this melodic resonance of crushed hearts which rooted from besieged emotions of rejection, failure and broken heartedness. Fanatics of emo music, most commonly pertained to as the emo kids, of course sport emo fashion, modeling a head to foot emo look. These emo kids doesn’t stop there, they post in their online communities such as Friendster, Multiply and Imeem their best emo (emotive) pose, showing their faces looking blankly towards an emotional scenery, oftentimes a sunset on a beach or any location that depicts nature. Truly, this emo movement or emogeneration is all around us.

On the contrary, some hard rock fans claim that it feminizes the common rock music scene. As expected, hardcore rock fans are not used to hearing lyrics that doesn’t contain sex, drugs and rock and roll. Emo music started showcasing teary made up eyes, say, screaming for love that is lost, “getting all carried away” by the rhythmical libretto they are singing, very much unlikely from a rock icon. For being such, emo guys are often labeled as gays, too. But these detractors must accept the fact that emo is already an emerging genre that promotes the soft side (or the feminine side) of these men.

Let us take a quick peek on the roots of emocore and learn to appreciate this music genre that was born in 80s and is ever so popular nowadays.

Emotional Punks of the 80s

Emocore, considered a genre of rock music and was derived from emotional hardcore, initially referred to the Washington DC movement, an outgrowth of hardcore punk music in the late 1980s. This movement of bands was a bold move in response to the over-masculinization of hardcore music. This is a commencement of doing away with the stereotype themes of music then of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Emocore became a tool in showing the human side of these punk rock stars, men and women of emotive nature. Guitar-work became a significant modifier of emocore sound, playing along with a variety of experimental music writing, from the most intricate to the most delicate lyrics.

In other regions of the United States such as San Diego, bands developed their own format of emo music which characterizes aggressiveness in the bridge portion of the song. Screaming, growling or moaning within the song was not unusual for the vocalist of this format, which was later dubbed as screamo.

Emo Bands Then and Now

Since emocore started in the indie scene, most emo bands would sound unfamiliar until you check them out in youtube. Band such as Drive Like Jehu, Heroin and the Swing Kids was the 80s master of screamo; Mineral, Sense Field Texas Is The Reason, Jimmy Eat World, Sunny Day and Real Estate were indie bands that started incorporating thoughtful lyrics in trademark high/low dynamic structure; contemporary indie and mainstream emocore bands include Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, My Chemical Romance, Saosin, Funeral for a friend, Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, Matchbook Romance, Moss Icon, City of Caterpillar, Rites of Spring, Poison the Well, The Rocket Summer, Tomorrow's Last Hero and Senses Fail.

As for the Pinoy Emo scene, there are limited bands that can be considered emo, either based on the format of the music that they play or the content of their compositions. Music fanatics consider in their online forums Chico Science, Typecast and Maryzark as some of the emo/screamo bands in the Philippines.

Emo Kids

From the actual music scene, let’s go to the avid listeners of emocore music, the emo kids. One webpage cited emo kids “as failures; they are not strong enough to hide their emotions, they're sensitive, shy, introverted, and often quiet.” Aside from that, they also express their feeling writing poems about their problems with depression, confusion, and anger. But come to think of it, we, too, are considered emotive in at least one event of our lives, does that mean we are emo kids?

Some emo kids are die-hard fanatics that oftentimes, they refuse to share this title to other aspiring teenagers. They strongly believe that emo is not merely a fashion trend but it is a way of life. Because of these, they refer the ones who are emo not because they feel it, but because they like to be trendy as 'posers'.

Achieving the Emo Look

It is undeniable that the present times is the height of emocore. This inevitably raises the interest of teenagers towards embracing the movement. So aside from relating to the emo life, a new fashion scene emerged from this emo movement.

Emo fashion characterizes tight jeans for both male and female (this might pertain to skinny jeans for women), tight t-shirts which displays the name of classic and/or contemporary rock bands paired with studded belts and All Star Chuck Taylors or any skate shoes. The emo look is incomplete without modeling an edgy, fringy haircut, often brushed to one side, covering the eye area and dyed in Gothic black. For additional glam, rimmed glasses and/or smudging your eye with eyeliner does the trick of completing the whole emo look.

Emogeneration

Emocore is another genre for rock music, It is another tool for self-expression. Many teenagers relate to it because the theme of its songs appeal to the innermost emotions these teenagers often fail to let loose. Fashion, too, is an outlet of self-expression and because of this, emo fashion has emerged. Witnessing the emergence of new breed of music such as emocore has always been amusing but aside from that, it simply signifies that we, as an individual, had been a part of a rich global culture that share the same feelings and emotion that is frequently repressed by the very society we live in. (getting emo! (//*,)