Is Leonard Cohen emo?

Pawel Gorny · Post by **Pawel Gorny** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:32 pm

Hi

When I was looking for blogs with "Leonard Cohen" keywords, I found:
http://ephemerist.wordpress.com/2007/10 ... with-care/

Is Leonard Cohen emo? Or is liking Leonard Cohen akin to having “an emo side.” Me, I adore the L.C. and don’t like emo in the least. I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than listen to a Dashboard Confessional album. Have I deluded myself?

A quick Google of “Leonard Cohen, emo” produced only one tangible result, a customer review from Amazon that proclaimed “Leonard Cohen’s third album [Songs of Love and Hate] is Emo before Emo music, or rather the original example of masterful, subdued, confessional songwriting.”

I’m not convinced. I see where the author was going with painting the sensitive side of Alex Balk, but I’m not buying it. Only because I refuse to accept that my appreciation of Leonard Cohen can in any way can be related to the kids and their emo music. But please, correct me if I’m wrong.

So - Is LC emo?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-6Dmg_4ZA2Y
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4nRNYG_xM2U ;-)

Paula · Post by **Paula** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:28 pm

Pawel - "It is a long way to Tipperary" - can I just say it does depend on where you live as of course it might not be a long way at all.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 11:19 pm

He's (very) emotional, maybe the most emotional, but he's not "emo" (this shows how labels are mostly wrongly invented and sticked to music).

osmachar · Post by **osmachar** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:27 pm

What does 'emo' mean???

cortez · Post by **cortez** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:35 pm

it´s the oppo0site of homo

david birkett · Post by **david birkett** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:36 pm

I'm sorry - I thought Emo was one of those somewhat hirsute people who inhabited Sesame Street?

Was he really Leonard Cohen all this time?

And he said he was up a mountain! Gadzooks, what a fiendish deception.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:16 pm

That's my only association with the term, too, David

. I wondered why anyone was asking such a question!

~ Lizzy

Manna · Post by **Manna** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:35 pm

I once knew a dog named Emo. A Great Dane, and all that that implies, so obviously, Leonard is not Emo. Being the mother of a four-yr-old, I happen to know that the name of little red three-year-old monster with the terrible voice on Sesame St. is Elmo. But my child forgives your blasphemy.

HonestlyBlunt · Post by **HonestlyBlunt** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:38 am

video about EMOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2Vr7hhPREs

Joney · Post by **Joney** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:26 am

I love the whole Emo concept / movement. My kids are always going on about Emos. Whenever I have a moment and complain about nobody appreciating me they call me an Emo. However I have too many happy moments to be truly Emo apparently, however I'm working on it. I've been reliably informed by the expert (my daughter) that in order to be a real Emo you should preferably be under 30 so I'm not really sure if Leonard could be Emo.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:33 am

This voting is questionable at 37% No, 62% Yes. There's no Undecided there for the other 1%. The voting machine must've come from Florida or Ohio. This soon into the election and we already have a hanging chad.

~ Lizzy

Teratogen · Post by **Teratogen** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:22 pm

From what I understand, seeing as this whole fad began getting popular around the time I was finishing up college, is that emo is a label for a genre of music, nothing else. However, it seems that if you are a listener of such music, you can be labeled emo as well. I guess it's safe to say that emo is short for emotional, but then how vague is that? Especially when it's applied to music. But basically, I guess you could say, the qualities of emo music are akin to a mixing of '80s melodramatic pop (The Cure, The Smiths, etc.) combined with today's brand of metal music along with the punk/goth visuals. I cannot stand this for several reasons.

1) While the melodramatic pop of any era has its amusing qualities, most of the lyrics to these songs are just painfully unamusing. 2) Not only are they bad, but the vocals are even worse because there's usually the "singer" who whines, whines, whines, and then a second vocalist, usually a "screamer," who just belts out vocals in an angry fashion. 3) While I dig heavy metal, this stuff is whiny metal with music that is either too heavy to discern any kind of melodic chord progression or too drowned out by whines and screams. 4) While I'm an avid fan of make-up wearing for guys, I got it off of Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Marc Bolan and KISS. These emo guys look like wussy male supermodels with manorexia and obligatory eyeliner. They make us look bad.

So that's a basic rundown of emo. To think that a few fads rolled into one bad one could spawn its own subgenre you'd sadly be correct, for the heavier version of emo is known as "screamo." I'm only 23 and I feel so out of touch with the youth. I just don't understand the appeal of this music.

osmachar · Post by **osmachar** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:40 pm

Sorry, I still haven't got a clue what 'emo' means (except for the Sesame Street one).

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:39 pm

THAT was a trip, Teratogen

. I don't need to know the exact groups in the ones that have 'devolved' [I guess you'd say

], but I definitely have the idea. In your own group, I know who you mean by everyone except Marc Bolan. I love all of your "1-4" paragraph. Is it because you're unfamiliar with the groups in Tera's explanation, Osmachar? If this is a fairly accurate rundown, then Lenno is deffo not emo.

Thanks for your high and funny elucidation, Teratogen.

~ Lizzy

osmachar · Post by **osmachar** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:55 pm

You learn new things everyday....