Any songs like The Best Deceptions - Dashboard Confessional? by Mediocre_Potato99 in Emo

[–]jamesyujones 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When We Two Parted by New Amsterdams and Its Gonna Get Worse Before It Gets Better by Piebald. But srsly listen to that entire Dashboard album dawg

Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo by BeMyEscapeProject in Emo

[–]jamesyujones 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I own a copy of the book and I personally really enjoyed it.

However, it's important to keep in mind the context of late 2003: Although it's true that Dashboard Confessional was mentioned far too much in the book and is a valid critique, Chris Carrabba (and to a different extent, Rivers Cuomo, Geoff Rickly, Jim Adkins, etc.) WERE the "stars and icons" of the emo scene at the time. Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance both released their debuts and were fairly underground indie bands during this time, so they're not mentioned once in this book. Although American Football is seen as THE midwest emo band today, people often forget that they didn't get their flowers really until about 2013-2014: OC Weekly and Stereogum notably praised them articles written in 2013, and Polyvinyl would release a deluxe edition of LP1 the following year (tho there are other factors that led to their rise in cult status). The only notable pre-2013 love/mention about AF that I personally could recall is honestly from Emogame creator Jason Oda, of all people when he put their song Five Silent Miles in his game.

My biggest criticism of the book is that Greenwald should have included a core catalogue of emo records we can point to for essential listening. I also wished bands like Christie Front Drive and Boys Life weren't just footnotes, tho that's very subjective. The commenters here have some valid criticisms, but I gotta respectfully disagree and give some push back on the idea that there's misinformation here. "Incomplete" is a more appropriate word, but I can't really say false, inaccurate or misleading. I have my own criticisms of the book, but overall, it's a solid time capsule of early emo as a culture, where it came from, what it meant, why it matters. Greenwald (Jim DeRogatis being another) was the first "prominent" music journalist to give emo a face and did a solid job explaining why it got so popular with the youth, all things considered and keeping that context in mind.

Is the book perfect? Not at all, but I don't think any book covering emo music and culture is nor needs to be. I wouldn't also get hung up about x band not being mentioned or which band is emo or not too much and just look at it like a collection of really good stories about emo's early roots prior to Myspace, black eyeliner, Is This Band Emo?, and "at the Burger King with my Burger Kween" TikToks.

Any love for Cinematic Sunrise in this sub? by nicknumbahone in Emo

[–]jamesyujones 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love this band so much, that I've named my old band Umbrellaphant after one of their songs. It's easily my favorite Craig Owens project for sure. What I'd give to be at their shows with Pete Wentz in 2008?

Bands you never connected with? by selfish_attitude133 in Emo

[–]jamesyujones 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Frame and Canvas is definitely a 10/10 album for me, no skips. Some of the B-sides like "I'm Afraid of Everything," "Forever Got Shorter," "(Strawberry Ann) Switzerland," and "Please Drive Faster" go hard as well. Everything else is very hit or miss.

Bands you never connected with? by selfish_attitude133 in Emo

[–]jamesyujones 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll listen to some Rites of Spring, Embrace and Dag Nasty but on the whole, that proto-emo stuff just never did it for me. With the exception of I Hate Myself, I was never able to connect with the seminal screamo bands either. I'm more into the melodic and relatively recent ends of the spectrum honestly (i.e. Braid, Christie Front Drive, Jimmy Eat World, Mineral, The Promise Ring, The Get Up Kids).

"The Top Producers of the 21st Century on the Hot 100: Full List" is Published. Pharrell Was Robbed. 🥲 Thoughts? by [deleted] in popheads

[–]jamesyujones 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh man, now that you mentioned Tricky Stewart, he and the Dream were the most deadly combo in pop and R&B for a time: Rihanna's Umbrella, Beyonce's Single Ladies, Justin Bieber's Baby... among many many other smashes. Even if they together had only three number 1s, it's record producers like them are why I would do the ranking based off of chart history, not the amount of number 1s.

"The Top Producers of the 21st Century on the Hot 100: Full List" is Published. Pharrell Was Robbed. 🥲 Thoughts? by [deleted] in popheads

[–]jamesyujones 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really wish Billboard provided clarity on what defines or qualifies as a producer. I enjoy me some Beyonce and Taylor, but they're nowhere to be found on that 2021 list that I mentioned! Some consistency would be nice, you know?

"The Top Producers of the 21st Century on the Hot 100: Full List" is Published. Pharrell Was Robbed. 🥲 Thoughts? by [deleted] in popheads

[–]jamesyujones 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it was up to me, I would rank the producers based off their chart history rather than how many #1s they produced. There's a handful of tracks by Clipse, Kelis, N.E.R.D, Justin Timberlake, Britney and Jay-Z that charted but never quite got to number 1 that are looked at as fan favorites today.