[LMB] AKICOTL: goth, emo and jrock

[Mandos Mitchinson]

> Subject: [LMB] AKICOTL: goth, emo and jrock

'One of these things is not like the others' as they say on sesame street.

> I've just been informed (rather scornfully) that my daughter 
> isn't goth, but that her personal style is more accurately 
> called jrock. Another friend told me that she sometimes comes 
> across as emo, but that friend had never heard of jrock, and 
> so couldn't really comment. I suspect that, here in the staid 
> midwest of the USA, the distinction passes unnoticed, but it 
> may be something that means more on the west coast.
> 
> I did some google image searching, and yeah, I can sorta see 
> the difference, but I can't articulate it. Can someone who is 
> more in touch with teen culture tell me what the difference 
> is between goth, emo and jrock?

This is my take on it all, opinion on what is and isn't within a
genre/culture is often debated and open to interpretation. 

Emo and Goth, despite both groups denying it, are pretty much the same but
with a generational difference. Goth is the older with Emo being the
younger. Both groups however have a large range of types and subgroups so
both can be hard to distinguish at times, particularly Emo which has styles
associated with it but no really clear and destinctive one like the Goths
full black white make-up look. (noting that not all goths dress like this). 

Jrock fits in with Emo like New Wave fitted in with Goth. The less
depressive angsty versions of the same thing :-) 

But as with all things like this what it means to each person within the
social group will differ and often the bands that define the culture may
also fit into other categories.

> (I can't really tell the 
> difference between all the hundreds of varieties of metal 
> music either, although Wikipedia assures me that it is there.)

Some of it is easy to tell, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal and Death Metal are
all pretty distinct. The rest of the groupings like Darkwave, Symphonic
Metal and others are a bit harder. Try listening to Guns'n'Roses, Slayer,
Morbid Angel and Cradle of Filth. You will definatly hear a difference :)

Mandos
/s