Emo Love

There are various books that are associated with the Emo culture, but particularly those that delve into the stronger, darker and more mystical side of humanity are closely linked.

In terms of fiction, many people who are attracted to the emo scene have experienced some hard times and conflict in their lives, and many feel ‘outside’ of normal culture. Therefore emo’s often identify strongly with stories that follow incredible journeys through the more sinister side of human experience such as White Oleander by Janet Fitch (also on featured on Oprah’s Book Club). This book follows the story of Astrid who after a traumatic event that sends her mother to prison has to teach herself to survive in a string of Los Angeles foster homes, and undergoes an intense journey to try to understand her past and identity.

Books involving stories about vampires, werewolves and other mystical creatures are closely linked to Emo, such as the Anita Blake series from Laurell K Hamilton, as they too deal with darker aspect of society and culture.

The Emo scene is also all about the music, so books that cover alternative and underground music, whether fiction, biography and history are also relevant. ‘Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo’ by Andy Greenwald is a great introduction into the musical world of Emo, and how it differs from punk rock and the various other similar subcultures throughout society. Memoirs and biographies of musicians and people involved in the alternative music industry are also popular, because Emo’s love to learn and talk about all things musical. ‘Coloring Outside The Lines: A Memoir ‘ by Aimee Cooper is a fantastic book about one girls journey through the famous Los Angeles punk scene, and also deals with some of the negative elements of punk including violence and rioting. Also ‘Tales of Punk Rock Nothing‘ by Abram Shalom Himelstein and Jamie Schweser is a popular book, and tells the funny story of New Orleans punk who, instead of going to college, decides dedicate himself to living a more “punk” life.

Deep Elm is an independent recording label based in North Carolina in the US, and prides itself on searching out the best new alternative music across the world. The first release from this label was the single “Anthemic Tune” by Curdlefur in 1995, which was soon followed by some classic album series including “This Is Indie Rock“, the highly successful volumes that included bands such as Campsite, Broken October, and Element, also the critically acclaimed ‘Emo Diaries‘.

The Emo Diaries is a cult series of musical journeys, which have been documenting some of the best new young bands throughout the world for the last ten years, including Jimmy Eat World, Further Seems Forever, Penfold, and Sounds Like Violence. All the tracks featured in the series are new and unreleased, meaning that each compilation is truly unique, and not just a rehash of previously released music aimed at cashing in on recent popular sounds.

All the bands featured on the compilations were chosen by the record label from a vast range of open submissions, and then selected purely on the music itself, regardless of style or content, which means each compilation features a wide range of some of the best alternative and underground music out there. The cult site Punk Rock Reviews called this series from Deep Elm “The best compilation series on this planet. Period”, and these sentiments have been echoed by many other top critics across the music scene.

You can buy or download all the Emo Diaries, including the most recent (number eleven) ‘Taking Back What’s Ours‘ and other albums from Deep Elm at their homepage www.deepelm.com, and also listen to some free sample tracks. You can also get some of the compilations at Amazon.com, and on various MP3 digital download websites.

What is it that suddenly fires people up and gets them out on the streets in protest? Well in the case of the recent protests against comments directed at the emo community and related music bands in the media, two words spring to mind ‘unfairness’ and misrepresentation’.

Basically a few media articles were published earlier this year, (the main culprit being The Daily Mail), that linked the suicidal death of a teenager to the music she had been listening to a few weeks before she died. This music was from the emo scene, mainly the band My Chemical Romance. This led the articles in question to conclude that this band was the cause of the suicide, and part of a ‘suicide cult’ that ran through the whole emo culture.

Now firstly it is unfair to suggest one isolated factor such as music could induce someone to commit suicide – this drastic and tragic action only comes through a long period of emotional and mental distress, and secondly to judge the whole emo genre as being based up a suicide cult is nothing short of slander. The emo scene is a sociable, music loving community, with a great sense of shared identity. As with any alternative music genre it has its share of morbid and downbeat lyrics, but this is only a small part of the whole, and is meant to be a comment on life as it can be, not instructions on how to feel or behave. The emo scene has a right to be angry and upset at such misrepresentation, as would any community, and protesting is a peaceful and powerful way of registering this anger.

Indie rock is one of those many rock subgenres, and mainly refers to those alternative rock bands and artists that have popular followings, but are not yet commercially signed. Many Indie rock bands belong to independent record labels, and generally produce and distribute most of their own work through various mediums including the Internet.

As with any music genre, there are lots of subgenres within the Indie music scene, and these include lo-fi, sadcore, and indie pop. Lo-fi basically means those bands that are on a tight budget and just starting out, who use low fidelity recording techniques, whereas sadcore covers those songs that contain bleak lyrics and downbeat melodies such as the work of Chan Marshall or Cat Power as she is sometimes known on stage. Indie pop refers to the more commercial element of the music, with upbeat and catchy melodies and less depressing lyrics.

The 1980’s were a golden time for Indie rock, especially in the British music scene with some definitive bands emerging into the mainstream such as The Smiths and The Stone Roses. In the US Indie rock was associated with more aggressive sounds from bands like Sonic Youth and Big Black, which were later followed in the 1990’s by grunge bands such as Nirvana and Alice in Chains.

The widespread success of these major bands inevitably led to the commercialisation of the Indie sound, as major labels became attracted to the marketing potential and lots of manufactured acts began to flood the scene with formulaic and mediocre sounds. Technically these bands were not really Indie rock, and only those artists that remained independent and underground such as The Grifters and Guided by Voices remained true to the Indie rock vibe.

I still remember the day when our principal came to our classroom. It was winter, there was no one outside, and our faces were cold and pale. Suddenly, I heard some footsteps, coming closer, closer, and closer to our classroom. My heart started pounding. I felt nervous and that something horrible was going to happen.

I just remember seeing my principal’s face, he was bleeding, and someone had shot him. Everyone started to scream. Someone was killing people. I thought they could be terrorists. Suddenly, I couldn’t see anything someone was taking me away. Was I going to die?! Was I going to survive?! I remember being thrown on a truck. I realized that life is short and that you really need to enjoy it. I was really unlucky, my life was too short. I was going to miss my family and friends. Why me?! Why me?! I want to get out of here; there are too many things I haven’t done.

For a reason that I don’t know the truck stopped, I realized that it was time to escape. They took me out; where they going to kill me and sell my organs, are they going to abuse me sexually?

I was right they did… I was left in the middle of nowhere. I was found at night, by the police. I felt strange, I was weak something was affecting me. My parents took me to the doctor, there were bad news. No one told me anything, so then I realized that I was sick. These kidnappers had ruined my life, now I have to deal with it. I wanted to kill myself, I didn’t deserve to live.

When it was time to leave the hospital, I went to the building’s roof; I was going to commit suicide. I was nervous; my journey was going to stop here. I jumped; it felt strange to die… My life was passing through my head. Then everything stopped, I was in the floor, my mangled body was bleeding, the snow was turning red. It was beautiful, this was a strange sensation. My eyes were closing, everything was turning white. Then my eyes opened, I was facing the door to go to Heaven…

-andrea yu-shan

It’s punk Jim, but not as we know it….

Punk is still alive and kicking (literally!) even though we don’t hear about it so much in the mainstream, or see as many people standing around at the bus stop with pink mohicans anymore. Punk is a subculture with a rich history in music, ideologies, and fashion, and the whole punk scene is a mishmash of smaller subcultures with bizarre names, including ‘Oi!’ which embraces the street-level skinhead style of punk and involves an element of extreme right wing politics.

The punk movement fights an eternal war with all that is commercialization, but is inevitably bits get sucked off and appropriated into the mainstream. This can be seem in the fluffy kind of punk subcultures that are constantly emerging, such as MTV punk, or Punk Pop, which kindly leaves any attempt at serious politics and ideology at the door and just involves some rollicking good tunes from bands like Fall Out Boy and Blink 182.

Punk is all about subverting and rebelling, so a true punk band should have the word ‘anti-establishment’ somewhere in their album blurb, and most definitely should speak out in some fashion on contemporary issues and debates. All sorts of social and cultural problems such as unemployment and political idealism have been taken apart and criticised by punk bands, and the DIY aspect to this genre, with bands taking pride in producing and distributing their own music, has long provided an excellent and uncensored platform from which to attack the commercial mainstream.

Although technically the hey days of punk are over and we are now in a post-punk slump, true punk bands still exists in a variety of strange incarnations. Bands like Green Day and Bad Religion took the stripped down, fast and hard-edged style of punk and threw it into the mainstream, but inevitably were criticised for selling into the commercialism that they were meant to subvert. The underground punk scene still thrives, but as always you have to know where to look, and remember to leave the designer sport labels and gangsta bling at home!