The more emo soft style of Sparta

Hmmm. I'd hardly call them soft. There's definitely that emo styling still to the song, but it rocks a lot more than any AtDI album ever did. Maybe you meant something else by soft -- non-experimental?

Unfortunately, I never saw any shows.

Question: what do you guys think of Dashboard Confessional?

I haven't heard a whole album, but the videos I've seen were a little bland, but not offensively so.

I see a lot of good responses to my questions, but I think everyone's approaching it from the "based on my listening habits" or "the artists I like to listen to" angle. But what about the population at large? Since we all know this boils down to dollars and cents, what if the pay-per-single mechanism becomes more profitable?

True, artists nowadays go into the studio to record an album, though I think a lot of "fudging" goes into that process.. A lot of times, an old track will find its way onto a new album, and bands will often record two or three other songs at another studio a few months later to "fill out" an album. The album is also the vehicle for creating live tours, but that could evolve into a "we tour after we've released enough singles to generate interest" process, or even "we release 10 singles at one time and tour on the strength of those" process. I guess my point is that there are other logistical reasons why the album concept works, but none of them seem like showstoppers.

For instance, in response the "same producers and engineers" angle, wouldn't it behoove record companies to put out singles first, to find out which producer/artist combinations yield profitable tracks, and then keep going to the well with that combination?

I totally agree with the art of song placement, even on non-concept albums. And I personally am with all you guys who are defending the concept of the album as art... I just think that the artistic angle is the ONLY angle that's really holding it up. Well, that, and the big labels' refusal to ever try anything new... But really, it's one of those "what's old is new again" things, because music started out with singles... I was just seeing if anyone else thought that electronic distribution might be signaling a return to those days.

I, for one, was not applying my personal listening habits to the entire population. I agree with what you're saying, I was just stating my concerns based on how I listen to music. I don't like how any of it is going.

Well, I hope they aren't indicative of what all emo is like, because I saw them in concert (why they were opening for Beck I'll never know), and bland was certainly the word I would use, except I thought it was pretty offensive.

Oh well, a friend of mine promises me there are some good emo groups. I'll believe that when I hear it.

Apparently The Used are labeled as emo. I think they're pretty excellent.

Okay, in the style of the gentleman pictured in my avatar, I seem to have missed a memo regarding this "emo" music. I've heard people mention it, and knew it was associated with punk in some way, but what elements make up "emo" music? I did some homework on AMG's emo page which has done nothing but confuse me more. The most confusing part for me was their notion that Sunny Day Real Estate's early albums are considered defining recordings for the emo style... I own both of their first two albums, and just consider them alternative/pop rock albums. What makes them emo? The AMG page mentions a bunch of tangible elements that I can find in many other styles of music... So is this just another case of someone inventing another style of music to fit around a somewhat arbitrary group of bands that they like?

All I know about it (or was told) is that emo is short for "emotional."

All I know about it (or was told) is that emo is short for "emotional."

Ah! So finally someone has been clever enough to combine emotions and rock music! What a superb idea! I better go dig into those artists some more.

im way late jumping into this but.. some albums ive been listening to lately are

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - The Reincarnation of Luna
review
Hate Dept. - Technical Difficulties
amazon reviews

when suggesting these albums i must keep in mind that not much of the music i listen to ever gets radio play, so it may not be what your into after all. meh, thats what makes us human i guess.

Apparently sometimes it can go wrong. That band I was talking about is pretty bad. The guy (I think it's one guy) seems to combine random words to make the songs sound more emotional. My personal favorite is "Screaming Infidelities." Wow.

I was just going to give a couple more examples, but the entire album is great:

1. Swiss Army Romance
2. The Best Deceptions
3. Remember to Breathe
4. The Good Fight
5. The Sharp Hint of New Tears
6. So Impossible
7. The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
8. Turpentine Chaser
9. Living In Your Letters
10. For You To Notice
11. The Brilliant Dance
12. Screaming Infidelities
13. Saints And Sailors
14. Again I Go Unnoticed
15. Hands Down


Like I said, I've been assured that there are better bands than this out there, but I was led to believe that while other bands can sometimes fall into the category of emo (I wouldn't have picked Sunny Day...), Dashboard Confessional is all emo. I mean, just look at this guy. He's trying to get the ladies.

Good points Tony. There are some other factors to keep in mind here as well: Increasingly the record companies are loosing control of this business, and it’s not just due to mp3s. I am working on an album right now that we are recording in my best friend’s spare bedroom, and the quality is absolutely stunning. Now granted he has quite a bit of hardware, but the barrier to having a quality studio is MUCH lower than it was even ten years ago. Why does this matter? Well, the truth is that you can get a good recording for much cheaper now, which makes you start wondering: what do we need the record companies for anyway? Oh right, they can get you played on the radio. But see, this is becoming less of a factor too. I’ve scoured mp3.com and found a lot of really great independent stuff as well as even more really terrible stuff, but the point is I don’t have to waste time listening to DJ’s and commercials to find good bands. So maybe being on the radio isn’t such a great big deal anyway. So soon we may be able to cut record companies out of the equation all together (not that they won’t still exist, but possibly they will become more “optional”).

If this all happens the way I think it will, then we may end up seeing a lot of “singles” getting promoted on the radio and becoming “one-hit-wonders.” And “albums” may bite the dust. But then we’ll get something else entirely. For those who just record their own high-quality homegrown stuff (and like I said, the technology is almost here), they’ll just start putting out a TON of stuff with no intention of ever getting “single” type radio play. They may not have “albums”, but you won’t have to worry about not getting the occasional “experimental” track. In fact, what you’ll probably see is the cutting out of a lot of the “single” garbage that bands put out just to get noticed (then again, maybe not. Even on the Internet something has to point you in the direction of a band). The point remains that people will just be able to record whatever they want and stick it out there.

So I think that you might be right about the death of the album. But I don’t think it will be a bad thing. The only thing we’re going to really need is a way to filter through all the stuff that’s about to be available. It used to be we could rely on the record companies for that, but they’ve forgotten their purpose. Now something else will have to rise up, whether is like mp3.com or something I haven’t conceived of. Sorry to ramble, but that’s where I think this is all going. But who can tell at this point?

in general, i think the market today doesn't have the attention span for whole albums.

25 years ago, when the album was king, there were technological factors that made it more likely that you'd listen to the whole album, in order, each time you played it. how easy was it to skip a track on a turntable or tape deck if you didn't like it? not very.

after several listens, maybe some of those tracks would grow on you in a way you didn't expect. today, it's so easy to skip past those tracks, that if it doesn't have the right hook and the right sound the first time around, there's no real need to give it another chance.

end result: singles will dominate. music will be tailored to the extremely short attention spans of the market, and grow ever less sophisticated so it can be easily consumed by the most people on the first listen.

--dan.

we may end up seeing a lot of “singles” getting promoted on the radio and becoming “one-hit-wonders.”

I don't think it's singles that makes one hit wonders, I think it's just a lack of instantly catchy tunes. I would predict that there will be fewer one-hit-wonders, since artists would probably be focusing on making those fewer songs as pop as possible, thereby giving them more hits.

I'm not saying this is a good thing, though.

What makes them emo?

If you heard a bunch of emo albums in a row, you'd get it more, I think.

Okay, I just read that AMG page, and while they're probably technically accurate, it's a little too encompassing for what most folks these days would refer to as emo. (Personally, I'm not a big fan of pigeonholing things, but I understand the need to draw similarities.)

SDRE is defininitely one of the big names in emo. Most of the music that's called emo these days is going to be musically similar. Usually distorted guitars, almost whiny singing, often almost cloying melodies, but melodies nonetheless, and often very pop-oriented at the core.

Lyrically, it originally involved a lot of depressed teenager diary material, but most of the bands that are still around have gotten past the juvenilia, but still speak about the same sorts of personal reflections. There are some bands considered emo almost solely for the music, though. (That is, the lyrics don't have the same personal quality.) Even some geek rock (Weezer, Nerf Herder, Ozma, etc.) can fall in the emo category.

There have been a few popular acts in recent years that might fit the category, if on the very edges, like Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, the aforementioned Weezer, uhhh, I feel like there's some I'm missing.

There are also some hardcore bands whose lyrics are emo-like, but the music is not. These can be categorized emocore. Snapcase comes to mind. I supposed I can see how Zen Arcade (referenced in the AMG article) might be a progenitor of this in a way, but only as much as you might call Neil Young grunge.

Really, like most such things, it's hard to define in words. Personally, I'd ignore everything in the article before it mentions SDRE and you'd be closer to reality.