I realize that there will be some young punk who will take exception to what I’m going to say. There are probably some older guys who had a better vantage point on the alternative music scenes that will also take exception. Nonetheless, this is how I see it.

Growing up in Southern California, skateboarding was a big part of my childhood. I remember being at a skateboarding competition in about 1983 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing. After about two minutes, my impression - as a 12 year old - was that they stunk. Later, when I was in junior high, the older kids (16-18 year olds) listened to what would later be called skate rock. These were bands usually advertised in skate boarding magazines: Agent Orange, Minor Threat, Circle Jerks, The Faction, Dag Nasty, Bad Brains, Bl’ast, etc. So it was natural for us younger, impressionable juniors to follow along. This was my introduction to alternative music.

As I grew older, I started to appreciate music more. I can honestly say that seeing Bad Brains changed my life. Not only were these guys black and Rastafarians but they were playing punk rock music with socially-conscious and religious themes. For a white kid from Orange County, these were things that were not a part of my world-view and simply didn’t mix. Other bands - mostly from D.C. - that affected me were Scream, Jawbox, Fugazi, and Soulside. And, coming just around this time, was a band called Three.

Three was what people called “emo” music. It was a band of guys who had previously been in punk rock bands (Jeff Nelson was the drummer from Minor Threat) and who played faster-style music but they incorporated acoustic guitars and very “emotional” lyrics. It was still considered punk, just something with a different sound and it sort of faded as the 80’s came to a close. There were others around this time too, for example, Rites of Spring (although they could probably be attributed with starting the whole thing) but Three was one of my favorites.

That was until a band called Sunny Day Real Estate (SDRE) came around in the 1990’s. I had a close friend who became obsessed with SDRE and it was by way of his obsession that I came to appreciate them. They came out of the same Seattle scene from which Soundgarden and Mudhoney had come but they cast off the flannel-wearing, dirty long-hair look and didn’t sound like “grunge”.

Folks started bringing up the title “emo” again and they pointed to SDRE. And even though the music was radically different, the singing style and the lyrics were definitely on the “emotional” side. Later still, as my time in the scene was winding down, there came a band called Texas is the Reason. They too, picked up the “emo” label.

Now I’m older and wiser. I get nostalgic about music and bands now and again. I get handed tidbits of information about bands from friends still in the scene, friends with younger siblings, iTunes, and just plain looking around on the internet. About five years ago, someone was trying to tell me about these new “emo” bands that have emerged: Dashboard Confessional, Saves the Day, and The Used. And, they started putting the label to other bands that I grew up listening to: Sensefield, Avail, and Drive Like Jehu.

If all those bands are “emo”, the label is just plain meaningless. What do they all have in common? They’re non-mainstream (and non-alternative-mainstream), they sing about their feelings and experiences, and they have some link to punk-rock (sometimes attributed as post-punk). That’s all I can think of. Yet, the original bands like 3 and Rites of Spring would never sing songs about “falling in love” the way these newer bands do. So, I had become a sceptic about calling any band post-1991 an “emo” band.

However … even though I don’t like the label, one band in particular that I decided to try out and I haven’t gotten tired of yet is Copeland. They sing songs about love and girls and emotions, but their music is exceptional and their lyrics pretty catchy. Maybe as I get older, I’m not the sceptic I used to be and singing sounds about girls is, I guess, alright now. After all, its only music.