Best whiny, pretentious emo/punk band?

[G-Max]

Serious question. Green Day? Simple Plan? AFI? I'm looking to expand my familiarity with this genre and I'd like suggestions.

 

[Kyriakos]

Do you have the time to listen to me whine- first line of their first ever single. Not a good omen.

 

[shadowplay]

Assuming you're referring to the mall-punk bands of the 90s and onwards (isn't 'emo' more of a pejorative term than an actual genre anyways? I certainly don't see Green Day as affiliated with bands typically classified as 'emo' but whatever), I would say Green Day are the kings of the genre and are largely responsible for bringing it mainstream again.

 

[_random_]

Link to video.

 

[Azale]

I actually agree with random, Bayside isn't bad. I like Nico Vega alot too, but I dunno if they'd classify as emo/indi rock.

 

[G-Max]

isn't 'emo' more of a pejorative term than an actual genre anyways? I certainly don't see Green Day as affiliated with bands typically classified as 'emo' but whatever

I tend to think of Emo as the ******** bastard child of punk and goth that they keep locked in the closet/basement/attic whenever guests come over.

 

[Leoreth]

Do you have the time to listen to me whine- first line of their first ever single. Not a good omen.

I've always taken that song's lyrics as ironic. It certainly has a pretty uplifting mood and is not what I would consider "Emo" or "whiny".

 

[sophie]

None of them are worth listening to.

Go listen to The Clash or The Sex Pistols instead.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Gang of Four. They're certainly punk, and given their ideology, I think we can call them pretentious. Also, the Clash. I don't really like the Sex Pistols, but they were pretty important for the visibility of punk in the mainstream. Television's also really good, and pretentious (in a good way).

And that's not even mentioning post-punk like Joy Division (who also are much more depressing than any emo band), Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pere Ubu, Talking Heads, etc., etc., etc. Many find post-punk to be their favorite genre, in fact.

I don't much like Green Day, and I wouldn't call them punk (or particularly pretentious for that matter). They're more pop punk, pop/rock, or power pop (I don't mean that in a disparaging way. I happen to dislike them, but being more punk does not make one necessarily better)

EDIT:

I tend to think of Emo as the ******** bastard child of punk and goth that they keep locked in the closet/basement/attic whenever guests come over.

Actually, emo developed out of hardcore in the mid 80s. Main bands of this wave include Rites of Spring and Embrace. A second wave of emo bands developed in the 90s. These include Moss Icon, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Mohinder. This second wave was heavily connected to indie rock and post-rock and is fairly experimental. However, bands like Weezer and Jimmy Eat World began to take over the emo scene around the new millennium, creating emo-pop, the most visible subgenre of the emo scene. Bands like AFI and My Chemical Romance brought this subgenre into mainstream attention. Meanwhile, descendents of the second wave, such as the Brand New, continued in under the subgenre "Indie Emo." Thus, emo actually refers to three or four different scenes that have developed since the 80s.

Meanwhile, goth is a subgenre of post-punk, first developing around 1980 by bands such as Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Cure. The goth scene has also embraced synth pop (either as darkwave or EBM/futurepop) and industrial music, but at its core, gothic rock is post-punk typically in minor key with "gothic" subject matter and usually heavy use of echo effects on the guitars. It has little to nothing to do with emo, though some bands of the emo-pop movement borrowed some of the "dark" aesthetic from gothic rock. Major goth bands include (arguably for the first three) Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, and Fields of the Nephilim.

 

[shadowplay]

There's nothing whiny or pretentious about the Clash.

 

[Tee Kay]

MCR4lyfe

 

[Huayna Capac357]

I was stretching pretentious a bit to refer to their genre-jumping (punk, reggae, dub, new wave, etc.) and sometimes a bit experimental tendencies. Mainly I was focusing on "Best [...] punk band"

EDIT: X-post

 

[Wolfbeckett]

The Clash is great obviously. Any fan of punk owes it to the genre to listen to Never Mind the Bollocks by the Sex Pistols at least once just so you can understand your roots. But my favorite punk band of that era was the Dead Kennedys, definitely check them out, they are way way better than any of this 90's mallpunk trash.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I thought the entire point of punk is that it's not pretentious at all, because that's one of the main traits of progressive rock.

 

[Angst]

Link to video.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I thought the entire point of punk is that it's not pretentious at all, because that's one of the main traits of progressive rock.

That's what pretentious punks want you to think.

 

[G-Max]

Oh, Good Charlotte is another one. They did the opening theme for Undergrads.

 

[azzaman333]

The genre you seem to want to talk about is called pop punk, not whiny pretentious emo punk.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

There's a lot of pop punk bands that are neither whiny nor pretentious.
For example Die Ärzte


Link to video.

Well, that clip might be a bit pretentious...

 

[Virote_Considon]

Link to video.

This is the best whiny punk band.