Editing Emo (section)

===1984–1991: Origins===
{{main article|Revolution Summer (music)}}{{Quotebox
| quote = The one fact that no one seems to debate − or at least debate that loudly − is that emo emerged from hardcore.
| source = Music critic [[Andy Greenwald]], in the book ''Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo'' (2003) <ref> Greenwald, Andy. ''Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo''. (published November 15, 2003) St. Martins Griffin. pp. 9.</ref>
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Emo, which began as a post-hardcore subgenre,<ref name="postHC" /> was part of the 1980s hardcore punk<ref name="EmoAM" /> scene in [[Washington, D.C.]], as something different from the violent part of the [[Washington, D.C., hardcore]] scene.<ref name="SubgenresofPunk">{{Cite web |last=Cooper |first=Ryan |title=The Subgenres of Punk Rock |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/subgenres-of-punk-rock-2803348 |access-date=August 9, 2018 |publisher=[[ThoughtCo]] |archive-date=June 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613234248/https://www.thoughtco.com/subgenres-of-punk-rock-2803348 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|pp=9–11}}{{sfn|Blush|2001|p=157}} Minor Threat fan [[Guy Picciotto]] formed [[Rites of Spring]] in 1984, using the musical style of hardcore punk and combining the musical style with melodic guitars, varied rhythms, and personal, emotional lyrics.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|p=12}} Many of the band's themes, including nostalgia, romantic bitterness and poetic desperation, became familiar [[Trope (music)|tropes]] of later emo music.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|pp=12–13}} Its performances were public, emotional purges where audience members sometimes wept.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|p=13}} Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat became a Rites of Spring fan (recording their only album and being their [[Road crew|roadie]]) and formed the emo band [[Embrace (American band)|Embrace]], which explored similar themes of self-searching and emotional release.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|p=14}} Similar bands followed in connection with the "[[Revolution Summer (music)|Revolution Summer]]” of 1985, an attempt by members of the Washington scene to break from the usual characteristics of hardcore punk to a hardcore punk style with different characteristics.{{sfn|Blush|2001|p=157}} Bands such as [[Gray Matter (band)|Gray Matter]], [[Beefeater (band)|Beefeater]], [[Fire Party]], [[Dag Nasty]], and [[Soulside]] were associated with the movement.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|p=14}}{{sfn|Blush|2001|p=157}}

{{Listen
| filename     = Rites of Spring - Remainder.ogg
| title        = "Remainder" by Rites of Spring (1985)
| description  = The melodic guitars, varied rhythms and personal lyrics of [[Rites of Spring]] changed the hardcore punk scene and helped launch the "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" style in the 1980s.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|pp=9–11}}
}}
Although the origins of the word "emo" are uncertain, evidence shows that the word "emo" was coined in the mid-1980s, specifically 1985. According to [[Andy Greenwald]], author of ''[[Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo]]'', "The origins of the term 'emo' are shrouded in mystery&nbsp;... but it first came into common practice in 1985. If Minor Threat was hardcore, then Rites of Spring, with its altered focus, was emotional hardcore or emocore."{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|p=14}} [[Michael Azerrad]], author of ''[[Our Band Could Be Your Life]]'', also traces the word's origins to the mid-1980s: "The style was soon dubbed 'emo-core,' a term everyone involved bitterly detested".{{sfn|Azerrad|2001|p=380}}  Other accounts attribute the word to an audience member at an Embrace show, who shouted as an insult that the band was "emocore".<ref name="DePasquale">{{Cite web |last=DePasquale |first=Ron |title=Embrace: Biography |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p12874|pure_url=yes}} |access-date=April 21, 2009 |website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref><ref name="Popkin">{{Cite web |last=Popkin |first=Helen |date=March 26, 2006 |title=What Exactly Is 'Emo,' Anyway? |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/what-exactly-emo-anyway-wbna11720603 |access-date=April 21, 2009 |website=Today.com |archive-date=August 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807164925/http://www.today.com/popculture/what-exactly-emo-anyway-wbna11720603 |url-status=live }}</ref> Others have said that MacKaye coined the word when he used it self-mockingly in a magazine, or that it originated with Rites of Spring.<ref name="Popkin" /> The "emocore" label quickly spread through the DC punk scene, and was associated with many bands associated with [[Ian MacKaye]]'s [[Dischord Records]].<ref name="DePasquale" /> Although many of the bands rejected the term, it stayed. [[Jenny Toomey]] recalled, "The only people who used it at first were the ones that were jealous over how big and fanatical a scene it was. [Rites of Spring] existed well before the term did and they hated it. But there was this weird moment, like when people started calling music '[[grunge]],' where you were using the term even though you hated it."{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|pp=14–15}} The Washington, D.C., emo scene lasted only a few years, and by 1986, most of emo's major bands (including Rites of Spring, Embrace, Gray Matter and Beefeater) had broken up.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|p=15}} However, its ideas and aesthetics spread quickly across the country through a network of homemade [[zine]]s, vinyl records and hearsay.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|pp=15–17}} According to Greenwald, the Washington, D.C., scene laid the groundwork for emo's subsequent incarnations:

{{blockquote|What had happened in D.C. in the mid-eighties—the shift from anger to action, from extroverted rage to internal turmoil, from an individualized mass to a mass of individuals—was in many ways a test case for the transformation of the national punk scene over the next two decades. The imagery, the power of the music, the way people responded to it, and the way the bands burned out instead of fading away—all have their origins in those first few performances by Rites of Spring. The roots of emo were laid, however unintentionally, by fifty or so people in the nation's capital. And in some ways, it was never as good and surely never as pure again. Certainly, the Washington scene was the only time "emocore" had any consensus definition as a genre.{{sfn|Greenwald|2003|pp=15–16}}}}