Favourite Music Reads of the 00s: #3 (Emo Boys)
Posted by s woods on November 6, 2009
Emo: Where the Girls Aren’t
- Jessica Hopper, Punk Planet, 2003
“And then something broke — And it wasn’t Bob Nanna’s or Mr. Dashboard’s sensitive hearts. Records by a legion of done-wrong boys lined the record store shelves. Every record was a concept album about a breakup, damning the girl on the other side. Emo’s contentious monologue — its balled fist Peter Pan mash-note dilemmas — its album length letters from pussy-jail — its cathedral building in ode to man-pain and Robert-Bly-isms — it’s woman-induced misery has gone from being descriptive to being prescriptive. Emo was just another forum where women were locked in a stasis of outside observation, observing ourselves through the eyes of others. The prevalence of these bands, the omni-presence of emo’s sweeping sound and it’s growing stronghold in the media and on the Billboard chart codified emo as A SOUND, where previously there had been diversity.”
