Emo music is the boat that brought the term “emo” down the river. Emo music is a type of hardcore punk music. They type of music has slowly evolved over the years. This typic of music is very melodramatic and filled with lyrics of a depressing state. Emo music is said to have began with DC bands like Embrace and Rites of Spring but is in not limited to them, in 1985. Basically, the sound involved a slower and emotional (therefore the name "emo") version of hardcore music. The vocals are generally sung in a whiny sounding voice, or with screams that leave the lyrics indistinguishable.
Emo music today has created many opposite and contradicting combinations that all proclaim to be emo, rendering it somewhat useless. Here are some examples: there's political, scream-and-flail-on-the-floor, emo like Frail, Swing Kids, Impetus Inter, and a slew of San Diego based bands; there's the really slow, discordant, artsy emo like Cap'n Jazz, Joan d'Arc, Evergreen, etc.; then we have the more popular melody/pop-oriented bands like Texas is the Reason, Sensefield, Mineral, Promise Ring, Split Lip (now Chamberlain), etc.; and last but not least we have the slow, stop-and-go, melody-thrash alternating groups like Amber Inn, Still Life, and others I can't think of right now.
