Scan barcode
rfriedman22's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This is a well-written and informative history of emo music through 2003. The third section, which follows Chris Carrabba on tour, was a little long. There is a lot of commentary, especially in section four, on how the emerging internet influenced emo subculture, which is very interesting to reflect on 20 years later.
hamandaj's review
3.0
I would suggest this book to a person who is just beginging learn about the genre of emo. I would hand this book to a kid today who grew up thinking that the acoustic guitar and whiney voices they heard was all the emo ever was. Sure, it's not the greatest exmeplar of a historically accurate novel, but it's well written and funny. I am an English Major and I always keep a pencil with me when reading and I found myself underling passages I liked and circling bands I didn't know. I ended up compiling that list and finding some great music! I don't think this book should be the bible of emo or the end all be all of music books, but I think it is a good start.
kabukiboy's review
4.0
An enjoyable read, written well enough for me to go check out some of the music, which still doesn't do it for once it moves out of the Rites of Spring/Superchunk eras. The chapters discussing late 90s/early 2000s internet forums got me all nostalgic.
sweeneygreen's review
1.0
Honestly? It's taken me about two or three times before I could finally make it past the first chapter or two. It was an okay book, but it was kind of hard to get through because I found it to be boring at times. Maybe I'm just past the point caring about that kind of stuff.
taratearex's review
3.0
andy greenwald from spin magazine writes about how the music genre 'emo' developed out of punk rock and why its so sacred to the teenagers who listen to it. i really liked the book since i listened to a lot of 'emo' but he made it seem like only high schoolers liked it, i listened to those bands in high school but also my first two years of college a lot and he also made it seem like it was only sad kids listen to it, but i wasnt all sad and depressed when i listened to it either. but it was still interesting to hear someone try to define the genre especially the whole chapter on how it came out of punk rock. i will always love me some Jimmy Eat World
tomatofan2's review
4.0
I'm not sure if this book is well-researched or is simply just the only book of its kind, therefore well-researched because there's no comparison. I did like it, though, mostly for its timely release in 2003. After 2003, emo broke into the mainstream and became alt-rock to casual ears so Greenwald's standpoint becomes even larger as its on the brink of everything changing. For instance, there are brief paragraphs and interviews about the absence of women in the genre and, little does anyone know, Paramore will reinvent the scene in five years.
That being said, the genre is absolutely riddled with self-congratulatory misogyny, sexism, and overall laziness through mall walker marketing. We can blame Dashboard Confessional, who is profiled frequently inside the book's chapters, offering a perspective of a singer who scratched teenage poetry, saw an opportunity with an acoustic guitar, and quickly got onto MTV Unplugged. When Greenwald gets around to interviewing Geoff Rickley from Thursday, the book shifts (not purposely, I don't think) and suddenly there's an alternate view on the emo movement. MTV and major record labels served emo undercooked while bands like Thursday, who wrote about politics, capitalism, war, and grief, could have prevailed. Instead, bands like The Starting Line ended up selling impressionable teenagers their own bullshit and rinse and repeat. Until, perhaps, My Chemical Romance and Paramore in 2005.
In the future there will be a more definitive book about emo. Maybe Greenwald can do it as he's clearly versed in the genre, but the extreme focus on the mainstream damages what's authentic and should have been.
That being said, the genre is absolutely riddled with self-congratulatory misogyny, sexism, and overall laziness through mall walker marketing. We can blame Dashboard Confessional, who is profiled frequently inside the book's chapters, offering a perspective of a singer who scratched teenage poetry, saw an opportunity with an acoustic guitar, and quickly got onto MTV Unplugged. When Greenwald gets around to interviewing Geoff Rickley from Thursday, the book shifts (not purposely, I don't think) and suddenly there's an alternate view on the emo movement. MTV and major record labels served emo undercooked while bands like Thursday, who wrote about politics, capitalism, war, and grief, could have prevailed. Instead, bands like The Starting Line ended up selling impressionable teenagers their own bullshit and rinse and repeat. Until, perhaps, My Chemical Romance and Paramore in 2005.
In the future there will be a more definitive book about emo. Maybe Greenwald can do it as he's clearly versed in the genre, but the extreme focus on the mainstream damages what's authentic and should have been.
librarimans's review
1.0
I am not going to bother to finish this book, as quite frankly, it is not very good. As a fan of bands like Jawbreaker, the Promise Ring, Braid, the Get Up Kids, and their ilk as well Andy Greenwald's writing for Grantland (can't say I remember anything he wrote for Spin) to this was a disappointment would be a vast understatement. It did not strike me as a all together well researched book, and some of his claims were downright hilarious--at one point he was talking about underground music 'zines and referenced Punk Planet. Punk Planet, the zine that is/was so underground you could buy it Borders and Barnes and Noble!
I think there is still an interesting book that could be written about this era of music, but Greenwald was not the one to do it.
I think there is still an interesting book that could be written about this era of music, but Greenwald was not the one to do it.
abetterbradley's review
4.0
This book was published ten years ago so it was really interesting to read this and have seen how popular the "emo" genre of music has become.