The Two Branches of Emo

Over the past year or two, the genre/branch of music and musical artists dubbed "Emo" has exploded in size. If you talk to most teenagers these days, they will tell you that their favorite band has been called an "emo" band at least once. Examples of some of these bands could be Hawthorne Heights, My Chemical Romance, The GetUp Kids, or Sense Fail. Many other poppunk bands have been coined "emo" but the list would be too long for me to include in this post. Now, recently, I'd say since just after the emo style of music, clothing, and behaving became really popular, people started crying, "Foul!" Mostly, these were people who had been into a different emo scene for years, listening to bands such as Rites of Spring, The Promise Ring, or early Fugazi. They argued that bands that were being coined as "emo" bands, such as the ones I listed in the previous paragraph, did not really fit the bill of what was true emo. Many such fans made entire websites devoted to distinguishing between the newer poppunk affiliated branch of emo, and the emo that had it's roots in the D.C. scene. Now, I'm not saying that either use of the term emo (when referring to a genre and style of music) is right. In fact, I think they are both right. But in this day and age, where bands that can be casually called emo are prominent on the airwaves and televisions screens, some clarifications have to be made. One is that when someone is referring to an emo band, they could be doing so to a band that does not entirely fit the bill of "true" or "real" emo. As awareness of how emo really started has spread, so does the need for people to remain open minded about what another person means when they use the term. The other clarification that needs to be made is that if someone uses the term "emo", it is usually best to assume that they are referring to the poppunk branch of emo which is popular in the mainstream today. Other than internet forums such as the one on this site I have only known one person that has known about the "true" emo scene, a.k.a. the one that isn't popular. Does it not make sense to assume that someone is talking about the more popular version of something in the case that two versions exist? I think it does. So, from now on, if someone is talking about emo, please assume that they mean the form of emo that this decade will no doubt be remembered for unless they state otherwise.