Goth vs Emo

Yep, I'm sure a lot of people have seen this kind of debate for quite a long time now. A lot of people think of them as the same thing and from an outside perspective, I can understand why they would think that. But once you get inside and delve within the subculture, you are bound to find some differences and that is what I'm going to try and address in the post today.

 

Blutengel (German Darkwave band)

In my earlier post titled "What is Goth", I go into quite a lot of detail about the subculture so feel free to check that out if you're curious. Nevertheless, I'll just post the gist of it here. The Goth subculture predominantly accepts and embrace things considered dark, macabre, and eerie. Things that the general norm ignore or find unpleasant. From cemeteries/graveyards, black roses, ravens, skulls, Gothic inspired architect, dark literature, etc. However, it is also a music subculture that was an offshoot of the 1970s Punk rock scene and came full circle in the 80s. During it's heyday, black was a very big color and still a basic one today but other colors (most often dull) are another popular color choice and giving a nod to Cyber Goth, neon colors are quite favored. In terms of clothing, garments like fishnets, lace, velvet, satin, corsets, ruffled tops, boots, ornate jewelry (crosses, skeleton keys, ankhs, pentacles, etc.), chokers, gloves (fingerless & full), bondage belts, and facial piercings are quite common. Some misconceptions of Goth include that they are devil worshipers, depressed, obsessed with death, and violent but these are all far from the truth. Some Goth bands include classics like Bauhaus, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, Siousie and the Banshees, The Cure (early), Christian Death, Specimen, and Sex Gang Children. Bella Morte, Big Electric Cat, Switchblade Symphony, Rosetta Stoned, Nosferatu, Eva O, Miranda Sex Garden, and Clan of Xymox are some others popular ones. Other music styles quite popular in the Goth subculture are Darkwave, Deathrock, Industrial, Futurepop, Neoclassical, Steampunk, Dark Cabaret, EBM, Synthpop, & New Wave.

 

Alesana (Post hardcore band)

Emo, I'm honestly not too familiar with as I never was into the movement but fortunately, I have read up a few things about it. Like Goth, it was another offshoot of the Punk rock scene in the late 80s and came full circle in the 90s. Emo stands for "Emotional Hardcore". It was a type of rock music that instead of shunning emotions, embraced them. The style has definitely changed for the most part as the years went on as it become more of a somewhat, teenage fashion fad what with the reinvention of the word and becoming a bit more punk in look with the edgier hair (including the oh so notorious fringe) and gaining mainstream attention. Unfortunately, the style has went under fire and became just as misconceived in the media than Goth in some ways. Some stereotypes of Emo include self harm/cutting, attention whoring, "being faggots", and emotionally unstable. Like Goth, they are just stereotypes and nothing more. Some Emo bands include Rites of Spring, Jawbreaker, Sunny Day Real Estate, Glassjaw, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, Emanuel, and Jimmy Eat World. Contrary to popular belief, Emo's beginnings were not screamo. In fact, in most Emo bands, the singer hardly ever screamed. With that said, the music styles Screamo, Post-Hardcore, and Hardcore punk are quite popular within it.



From the outside, like I mentioned, I can understand why they would be considered the same. I feel one reason what started the whole Emo is the same as Goth debate was when the band, My Chemical Romance acquired media attention with their album "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge'. The popular music video for their hit song "Helena" looked and felt quite dark what with their darker look and the atmosphere they went for. Personally, I never thought of MCR as an Emo band but just an alternative one. MCR's frontman, Gerard Way even addresses the Emo classification with this statment ---

"Basically, it's never been accurate to describe us. Emo bands were being booked while we were touring with Christian metal bands because no one would book us on tours. I think emo is fucking garbage, it's bullshit. I think there's bands that unfortunately we get lumped in with that are considered emo and by default that starts to make us emo."

Nonetheless, I'm fairly certain this was one of the factors that played in the debate. But seriously, if you listen to Sunny Day Real Estate's "Seven" and Bella Morte's "Remorse", I'm sure you could see how they differ. Clothing wise, Goth is pretty diverse going from a more romantic inspired look like Victorian & Romantic to an edgier look like Deathrock or Trad Goth. From what I've seen and read about Emo, the style was pretty laid back usually adopting jeans, converse, and band tees. When it went through it's reinvention, the short fringed hairstyle, slimmer fitting jeans, vans, studded belts, and wristbands became more prominent.

At the end of the day, I personally don't think about this topic too much these days. I admit I did a few years ago when I was curious myself but as they say, "knowledge is power!" I learned a lot from them. To fellow Goths who get upset when they are grouped in with "Emo", try to take it with a grain of salt. Some people don't know that they are quite different and biting someone's head off won't make it better. To those who enjoy Emo, continue to do so but I have to urge that you should't buy into the stereotypes (cutting, being constantly depressed), just be you and have fun. With that said, I hope that this helped somewhat show the differences among the two. I apologize if I left something out and feel free to comment if you'd like. Until my next post, see you later and have a nice day/night!

Currently listening to: "Shutterbug" - Veruca Salt
Currently watching: King of the Hill