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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shouting, but I can still hear the words When someone is singing, what should come out? | mixed | 80% | ×3 |
| 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 |
| Weighted mean | 89% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 3 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2 out of 7. Emo ties with the next, and won on being the broader of the two. 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
-
No wave 89%
A total refusal of melody and standard tuning. Short-lived, extreme and hugely influential on noise rock.
5 steps from Emo, meeting it only at Punk rock.
The way into No wave -
Noise rock 83%
Alternate tunings, feedback as an instrument and rhythm sections that hit like machinery. The grandfather of sludge.
6 steps from Emo, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Noise rock
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.
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.