Your way in
Emo 1985
Hardcore in which the lyrics turn confessional and the voice cracks. The term started as an insult and became an entire decade of fashion.
- Heaviness
- 3
- Speed
- 5
- Melody
- 9
- Where from
- Washington DC, USA
- Tempo
- 120-170 bpm
- Song length
- 3-5 min
- Written about
- Failure at intimacy, Memory and place, Shame, Self-accusation rather than blame
- Vocals
- Sung and screamed
Why this one
| You said | Emo | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light How much weight do you want behind it? | 3 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| A steady walk What pace? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The seventies and eighties Does it matter when it was made? | 1985 | 100% | ×1 |
| The inside of a head What should the words be about? | Failure at intimacy, Memory and place, Shame, Self-accusation rather than blame | 100% | ×1 |
| Normal How long should a song be? | up to 5 min | 96% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 97% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1, length 1 out of 7. Emo leads the next by 3 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Refused, The Shape of Punk to Come 1998
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come. The title was an arrogant joke that came true.
- 2The one to put on first
Sunny Day Real Estate, Diary 1994
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary. The bridge between DC hardcore and everything that followed.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Post-hardcore, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Emo's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Alternative rock 94%
An umbrella for everything that grew outside commercial radio and then conquered it. Defined originally by the college-radio network, not by any one sound.
5 steps from Emo, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Alternative rock -
New wave 92%
Post-punk's commercial face: synthesizers, hooks and jerky rhythms. Punk without the rage, but with the same ideas.
5 steps from Emo, meeting it only at Punk rock.
The way into New wave
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- Light put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Death metal, Brutal death metal, Sludge metal. Worth 2 of 7.
- The seventies and eighties put 4 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Kawaii metal, New nu metal, Progressive metalcore. Worth 1 of 7.
- The inside of a head put 88 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Black metal. Worth 1 of 7.
- Normal put 13 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Progressive rock, Krautrock, Acid rock. Worth 1 of 7.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.