Emo is music derived from punk or alternative with emotionally fraught themes and lyrics.
Emo began in the middle of the 1980s as a post-hardcore subgenre in the DC hardcore scene influenced by hardcore punk bands like Bad Brains, Scream, The Faith and Minor Threat as well as early post-hardcore bands like Hüsker Dü, Gray Matter and Dag Nasty. The pioneers of emo were Rites of Spring. Then soon more emo bands came in DC and Maryland like Embrace, One Last Wish, Rain, Happy Go Licky, Moss Icon, The Hated and others. At first emo was first shortened for emotional hardcore/emotive hardcore, but Guy Picciotto from Rites of Spring didn't like the emo label. Ian MacKaye from Embrace, hated the emocore label, and once at an Embrace gig he spoke about the term. In the 1990s, the DC hardcore scene faded a little which split all the emo bands, so then emo was remade being in genres like alternative, indie and pop punk. Although Jawbreaker later became an emo band with their 2nd album with the emo-punk as an emo revival. Bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Weezer, Dashboard Confessional, The Promise Ring had the alternative/indie traits while bands like The Movielife, The Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World had the pop punk traits (calling it "emo pop"). Many 1980s emo fans didn't accept this regeneration as emo at all. Even in the 1990s the genre screamo came up with bands like Heroin, Saetia, and Pg. 99. These bands were influenced a lot by hardcore punk but added extremely raw songs and even had screaming. 1990s screamo was often nicknamed as skramz. Other screamo artists include The Saddest Landscape, Alexisonfire, Neil Perry and Circle Takes the Square. In the early 2000s, emo then came up with bands like Jimmy Eats World and The Get-Up Kids, who both had mostly a pop punk sound and the indie emo band Dashboard Confessional. Becoming a popular music style, emo then even expanded later with bands from even genres like post-hardcore and alternative rock. Before 2005, some other emo artists/bands even included My Chemical Romance, Hawthorne Heights, The Used, Senses Fail and Silverstein. Some of these bands had got famous. Most of them have a lot of 1990s emo traits but made their own style and some even began off sounding very old-school emo. Today, many bands are mislabeled as emo. Although many people restrict emo the strictly only the punk-influenced, underground or something type of bands, or bands that don't have fans who have a hair fringe and stuff. But emo still went into many genres of music and these so-called "fake emo" bands play that.
Emo bands:
Rain
Rites of Spring
Thursday
Title Fight (sometimes)
Jawbox
Glassjaw
Heroin
Hot Cross
Policy of 3
Jawbreaker
Alkaline Trio (sometimes)
Silverstein
Bright Eyes
Saves the Day
Matchbook Romance
Drive Like Jehu
Senses Fail
Sunny Day Real Estate
American Football
Midtown
The Movielife
The Get Up Kids
Jimmy Eat World
Cap'n Jazz
Scary Kids Scaring Kids
Saosin
Hawthorne Heights
Thrice
Alexisonfire
I Hate Myself
Indian Summer
You & I
Dashboard Confessional
The Promise Ring
Weezer
The Wrens
Break the Silence
The Hated
Moss Icon
The Used
Underoath (After first two albums especially their 3rd album.)
The Starting Line
Loud?
Braid
Texas is the Reason
Saosin
Brand New
Joan of Arc
Hey Mercedes
Something Corporate
Transit
Bayside
The Story So Far
The Wonder Years
Such Gold
Captain, We're Sinking
Jets to Brazil
Saetia
Orchid
The Saddest Landscape
Pg. 99
One Last Wish
Happy Go Licky
Seaweed
My Chemical Romance (Earlier work. Eg: The debut before they were famous sounded more like old emo.)
Bands and artists mislabeled as emo or screamo:
Black Veil Brides
Avenged Sevenfold
Blink-182
Green Day
Asking Alexandria
Arch Enemy
In Flames
Whitechapel
Suicide Silence
Bullet for my Valentine
Misfits
Murderdolls
Motionless in White
The Cure
Linkin Park
Chelsea Grin
Bring Me the Horizon
All That Remains
As I Lay Dying
Devil Wears Prada
Make Me Famous
Pierce the Veil
Blood on the Dance Floor
August Burns Red
Evanescence
Marilyn Manson
OTEP
Cannibal Corpse
Job for a Cowboy
Waking the Cadaver
Trivium
Any death metal band
Song About an Angel
Sunny Day Real Estate Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
sleep close my eyes
an image of your face
traced in white sand
underneath undefined, i lay down
arms outstretched i embrace the fall.
and all the time i tried
to let you know
discomfort comes clearly.
*humming*
sometimes you see right through me,
wait
wait
you're married to your pain
you're married to your pain
you're married to
although you hit me hard i come back
the earth cries ease the pain. on the inside
running behind.
which one will i face?
running behind.
which one, will i
thin comfort in what i say
my back is turned
a halo my soul for a while
and all the times i tried to let you know
discomfort comes clearly
when i'll show
*humming*
sometimes you see right through me,
wait
wait
you're married to your pain
you're married to your pain
you're married to
although you hit me hard i come back
the earth cries ease when i fall, on the inside
running behind.
which one will i face?
running behind.
which one, will i
The opening lines of Sunny Day Real Estate's "Song About an Angel" illustrate a longing for escape and a break from reality. The singer desires to “sleep” with closed eyes, imagining the face of their beloved traced in white sand beneath them. The singer stretches their arms, embracing the fall - an alluring image that implies surrendering to something larger than oneself, giving in to the forces of nature or fate. The image is both peaceful and unsettling, as if the singer is looking for a way to escape the harsh realities of life. Throughout the song, there is a sense of melancholy that evokes a deep pain in the lyrics. However, these emotions are expressed with a raw vulnerability that seems cathartic for the singer.
The chorus of the song repeats the phrase "you're married to your pain" - a clear indication that the person being addressed is bound to their own suffering. There is a sense of frustration here, as the singer admits that even when they attempt to explain their discomfort, their words fall on deaf ears. The humming after the chorus adds to the feeling of being stuck, unable to move forward. The final lines of the song end with a question - "which one will I face?" - suggesting that the singer is torn between two contrasting options: to continue to run away from their pain, or to confront it head-on.
Line by Line Meaning
So i say, still away
I am suggesting that we avoid our problems by staying in place.
sleep close my eyes
I am going to sleep now, hoping to forget the pain.
an image of your face
I can't forget you, your face stays in my mind.
traced in white sand
Just like a drawing in the sand, our memories are fading away.
underneath undefined, i lay down
I am lost, confused and tired, looking for a way out of this situation.
arms outstretched i embrace the fall.
I am ready to face the consequences of my actions, and accept the outcome.
and all the time i tried to let you know discomfort comes clearly.
I have tried to express my feelings to you, but you don't seem to understand the pain and anguish I am going through.
*humming* sometimes you see right through me, wait wait
Sometimes you are able to see through my facade and understand my true emotions, but other times I need to wait for you to truly understand me.
you're married to your pain
You are so engulfed in your own pain that it consumes you, much like a marriage vows couples together.
although you hit me hard i come back the earth cries ease the pain. on the inside
Even though you have hurt me deeply, I am able to recover and move forward with the help of nature's healing powers.
running behind. which one will i face?
I am always playing catch up, trying to figure out a way to solve my problems before they catch up to me.
thin comfort in what i say
I am just trying to find some solace in the words I express, even though they may offer little comfort.
my back is turned
I am giving up on trying to get through to you, turning my back on our past and trying to move forward without you.
a halo my soul for a while
I am trying to find some peace and spirituality within myself to help ease my troubled soul.
and all the times i tried to let you know discomfort comes clearly
Once again, I have tried to communicate with you about the way I feel, but it always falls on deaf ears, leaving me in a state of discomfort and pain.
*humming* sometimes you see right through me, wait wait
Reiterating that sometimes you can see my true feelings, but other times I need to wait for you to truly understand me.
you're married to your pain
This line is repeated to emphasize how much pain and anguish you are going through, and how you are consumed by it.
although you hit me hard i come back the earth cries ease when i fall, on the inside
Even though you have hurt me deeply, I am able to take solace in nature's ability to heal us, both physically and emotionally.
running behind. which one will i face?
Once again, I am struggling to keep up with everything, trying to figure out which problem I should address first.
running behind. which one, will i
This line is repeated to emphasize how lost and confused I am, not sure which direction to take in my life.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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