EVERY GENRE PROJECT - February 18 - Emo

Genre of the Day - Emo 

Album of the Day - Pinkerton by Weezer (1996)

Today’s column examines one of the most RateYourMusic albums possible, so there’s a part of me that wants to tread carefully. It’s also funny to me that the day after I go out to a radio club function, I am served with Pinkerton by Weezer. Sometimes you choose to listen to a Weezer album for the first time, and other times the universe demands that you do. Listen to the quirky lyrics, the universe says. Play “Undone - The Sweater Song” and sing along on the balcony—okay, it was my roommate doing that yesterday, but perhaps next time I’ll partake. The takeaway: the youth still yearn for the Weez.

No history of Weezer, though, would be complete without a history of emo music, although they feel one and the same in a way. In the mid 80s, a few punk rock bands in Washington, D.C. started taking a more confessional, cathartic, self-loathingly introspective turn in contrast to the more outward aggression commonplace in hardcore rock across the time. Essentially punk if the anger was mostly pointed at yourself. Everyone loves some good self-loathing music from time to time, and emo music brought that to the forefront of hardcore rock while maintaining its sonic instrumentation with guitar textures and melodic dynamics.

There’s always been a disdain internally among artists and externally among fans for the term emo. With emo’s transition from just a sound to a whole distinctive movement, rife with the stereotype of dyed hair, piercings, and a sort of maximalist goth take, the word itself has been pigeonholed. Even initially when the term came into a musical lexicon, the artists classified as emo hated it. Makes sense: men don’t often like being called emotional. Emo has historically been seen as reductive or a write off: hence the people who claim that Pinkerton isn’t an emo album, that it just has been massively influential on emo bands. In the words of someone I don’t want to credit for this quote, I like some of the Weezer’s songs; what the fuck do they know about genre classification? Clearly, RYM users are the godly authority here. Maybe not (from experience!) But at least they’re right here. This is an emo album. And I’m not just saying that because I’ve already listened.

Rivers Cuomo painstakingly sketches a no-holds-barred, melancholic, irreverently self-deprecating album. That seems pretty at the heart of emo to me, especially married to the plaintive beauty of the guitar melodies developed here. As a listener, you get to wallow in the loserdom of situations ranging from falling for a lesbian (“Pink Triangle”), wondering what’s the use of falling for another person when you know your heart is invariably going to be broken (“Why Bother?”), and an oversharing, debilitating overseas crush (“Across the Sea”). It’s self-incision done with maximalist power pop flair; it shocks and surprises while remaining resonant throughout. We all need a little touch of emo in our lives to bring us back to earth and feel a little pathetic. But everything in moderation.