I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well he just drove off sometimes life’s ok
I ran my mouth off a bit too much oh what can i say
Well you just laughed it off it was all ok
And we’ll all float on ok
And we’ll all float on ok
And we’ll all float on ok
And we’ll all float on any way well
Well, a fake Jamaican took every last dime with a scam
It was worth it just to learn some sleight-of-hand
Bad news comes don’t you worry even when it lands
Good news will work its way to all them plans
We both got fired on the exactly the same day
Well we’ll float on good news is on the way
And we’ll all float on ok
And we’ll all float on ok
And we’ll all float on ok
And we’ll all float on alright
Already we’ll all float on
Now don’t worry we’ll all float on
Alright already we’ll all float on
Alright don’t worry we’ll all float on
And we’ll all float on alright
Already we’ll all float on
Aliright don’t worry even if things end up a bit to heavy
we’ll all float on alright
Already we’ll all float on
Alright already we’ll all float on
Ok don’t worry we’ll all float on
Even if things get heavy we’ll all float on
Alright already we’ll all float on
Don’t you worry we’ll all float on
All float on
You probably have heard emo music. Probably someone emotional recommended you check emo out. Possibly they were crying, wearing a tight sweater or quoting impossibly saccharine lyrics from songs about crushed hearts using celestial imagery. Needless to say, emo, or emocore as it sometimes is known, is one of indie rock’s most misunderstood genres. Did you know emo’s roots lie in hardcore music? Did you know that emo originally had nothing to do with diary-like confessions? Oh, young grasshopper. Read on. And understand what all the fuss (and eyeliner) is really about.
The Birth of Emo: Emo was born in the late 1980s as an outgrowth of the hardcore punk movement in Washington, D.C. The term “emo” itself was derived from the descriptor “emotional hardcore.” Early emo bands — like Rites of Spring, Embrace and Rain — took the intense punk-based sounds of Minor Threat and added a visceral, emotional element. Amid racing punk drum beats and heavily distorted guitars, vocals grew melodic, lyrics became self-questioning and the dynamics veered between loud/soft extremes. At the climax of a song, it was not unusual for a singer to emit a scream, growl or moan.
Emo Catches On: Many of these D.C. hardcore bands turned toward emo in response to the over-masculinization of hardcore music. Eventually, emo allowed some bands to be wildly experimental in their song writing and intricate, sometimes even delicate, guitar-work became a part of the emo sound. As the movement spread outside D.C., many hardcore and punk scenes adopted the aesthetic and emotional focus of emo. In San Diego, bands like Drive Like Jehu, Heroin and the Swing Kids developed their own, more aggressive strain of emo, dubbed “screamo.” However all emo had one thing in common: a guttural, driven approach to self-expression.
Emo Weds Indie & Pop Punk: By the early ’90s, a new crop of melodic punk bands like Jawbreaker and Samiam began to incorporate the heaviness of emo into their pop punk sound. In addition, indie bands, like Sunny Day Real Estate and Jimmy Eat World, starting adding the introspective lyrical focus and trademark high/low dynamic structure to their heterogeneous indie music. In the Midwest, a group of emo-influenced bands began to abandon much of the atonality of hardcore emo, while still clinging to the intensity, the emotional rawness and the genre’s serious bent. These bands included Cap’n Jazz, The Promise Ring, Braid and The Get Up Kids.
Emo Loses Ground: By the late ’90s, mainstream media began to tout emo, but the vital years of the movement had passed. Many emo bands continued playing, but abandoned emo’s trademark sound. Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids and The Promise Ring all got attention from the press, but produced music less like emo and more like pop punk, soft rock and indie pop, respectively. Regardless of their stylistic metamorphoses, however, the label “emo” was stuck on each band. As new groups sounding like these groups were born, they too became labeled emo — regardless of the fact that their music was far removed from the origins of the term.
Emo Survives, Regardless: These days, the term emo is used to describe any band playing guitar-based music that is emotional either in approach, lyrical focus or affect. 2003 brought the diary-like hit Dashboard Confessional and since then, indie-rock cross-overs Bright Eyes and Death Cab For Cutie have become successful pop acts while maintaining — if erroneously — the label emo. In addition, more emotional pop punk bands like Brand New, Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday and Thursday are all ascribed the label regardless of whether they claim it for themselves. Today, “emo” can describe almost anything emotional. Even this profile. Sniffle.
Over the course of its three-decade history, punk has consistently taken rock and roll’s inherent rebelliousness and politicism and made those qualities violent and explicit. Its most obvious roots lie in the aggressive, sometimes abrasive rhythms of ’60s garage rock, the theatricality of glam rock, the ironic nihilism of New York’s The Velvet Underground and The New York Dolls, and the raw, visceral power of Detroit proto-punk icons The Stooges and MC5.
Punk rock as a genre unto itself exploded in late ’70s England when angry working class kids, frustrated with the rigid norms and class polarization that ruled their country, formed fast, loud, primitive rock bands with names like The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols, through which they expressed their rage and alienation. Similarly minded bands emerged all over the U.S. — The Ramones in New York, The Dead Kennedys in San Francisco, and X and Black Flag in Los Angeles. These bands had different aesthetics, different agendas, and different sounds, but they were all united by their rejection of institutional authority, their penchant for self-destruction, and their music’s raw, wounded emotional power.
As you might expect of such a huge social phenomenon, punk has been endlessly co-opted by mainstream culture. But as long as smart kids with challenging things to say can get their hands on noise-making devices, punk rock will endure.
Indie rock can denote any Rock music on an independent label. As a genre, however, it refers to catchy, guitar-based alternative rock from the ’90s and ’00s. Usually indie rock is released by independent labels, but similar sounding music from a major label is also often called indie rock.
In the ’90s, the biggest named in indie rock were American acts like Pavement, Guided By Voices, Built To Spill, Sebadoh, Superchunk, and Liz Phair. In the ’00s, indie rock is used to describe a wide variety of music, from second gen Post-Punk UK acts like Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys, to arty Canadian groups like The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, to US Americana acts such as Bright Eyes and Neko Case.
Indie Rock Origins: As with many forms of alternative music, indie rock’s earliest inspiration are New York DIY Rock outfit The Velvet Underground. The “can do” attitude of Punk Rock, along with its emphasis on substance over style, was also foundational. Most directly, indie rock grew out of the American Underground movement of the ’80s, which included The Replacements, and Dinosaur Jr., and Hüsker Dü. These acts took the ethos of Punk Rock and expanded its palette in various ways, sometimes with classic Pop songcrafting and other times with the guitar solos abhorred by the first wave of Punks.
The First Indie Rock Era: After Grunge shifted the focus of listeners to alternative music in the early ’90s, a number of bands cropped up whose DIY approach was a reaction to the mainstreaming of the alternative sound. Many of these acts were signed to Matador Records.
California quintet Pavement were at the center of ’90s indie rock, attaining rave reviews for early ’90s albums Slanted And Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Liz Phair was celebrated for her smart, frank songwriting on 1993’s Exile In Guyville. With a nod toward ’60s pop, Ohio’s Guided By Voices received great praise for their mid-decade releases. During this same time, Boise, Idaho’s Built To Spill received accolades for their jammy take on indie rock.
21st Century Indie Rock: In 1991, New York’s The Strokes revived Punk-inspired guitar music and ushered in a new generation of indie rock bands. Within the genre, these acts found diverse forms of expression. Other NYC bands, like Interpol and TV On The Radio, gained notoriety in the first half of the ’00s. In the UK, Punk Rock revivalists The Libertines initiated another strain of indie rock founded on the sound of The Clash. Groups like Arctic Monkeys have followed suit. Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand turned Post-Punk into danceable pop. From the alt-country of the ’90s, Bright Eyes and Neko Case craft an Americana strain of indie rock.
Indie Rock’s Future: While its specific direction remains to be seen, it seems clear at this point that indie rock will continue to evolve and to flourish. As more and more contemporary indie rock bands sign to major labels, new acts and sub-genres will emerge. With releases from indie label artists like The Shins and Modest Mouse placing in the Top 5 on the Billboard charts in 2007, indie rock may even overtake a music industry once dominated by major label pop stars. One can only hope.
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