Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid–1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, among others, pioneered the genre. In the early-to-mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and pop-punk bands, including Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from Midwest emo, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, the Used, and Underoath.
Constantines is an indie rock band from Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Gordon Edgar Downie was a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician, writer and activist. He was the singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, which he fronted from its formation in 1984 until his death in 2017. He is revered by many as an inspiring and influential artist in Canada's music history.
Rheostatics are a Canadian indie rock band. They were formed in 1978, and actively performed from 1980 until disbanding in 2007. After a number of reunion performances at special events, Rheostatics reformed in late 2016, introducing new songs and performing semi-regularly.
L'Étranger was a Canadian punk rock band based in Toronto, Ontario. Named for the novel L'Étranger by Albert Camus, the band played a politically minded brand of punk music that drew on both Clash influences and the band members' social justice-oriented Roman Catholic faith. The band was best known for their anti-apartheid single "One People", one of the first independent videos ever to gain airplay on the then-new MuchMusic.
The Inbreds were a Canadian alternative rock band formed in 1992. Originally from Kingston, Ontario, the band relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1996 and remained based there until breaking up in 1998. The band was a duo, consisting of vocalist/bassist Mike O'Neill and drummer Dave Ullrich.
Jaymz Bee is a Canadian musician, writer, emcee and radio personality based in Toronto, Ontario.
Billy Talent is a Canadian rock band from Mississauga, Ontario. They formed in 1993 with lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. There have been no lineup changes, although Solowoniuk has been on hiatus from the band since 2016 due to a relapse of multiple sclerosis. In the three decades since their inception, Billy Talent has sold well over a million physical albums in Canada alone and nearly 3 million albums internationally. During their most successful period, they were ranked as one of the top 10 best-selling native bands in Canada.
Riverdale Collegiate Institute is a semester high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by the Toronto Board of Education until its amalgamation in 1998 into the Toronto District School Board.
The Monks were a British pop punk/new wave band, formed in the late 1970s by three former members of Strawbs—Richard Hudson (guitar), John Ford and Brian Willoughby—along with Terry Cassidy and Clive Pierce (drums).
The Meligrove Band is a Canadian indie rock band, based in Toronto, and consisting of Jason Nunes on vocals, guitar and piano, Darcy Rego on vocals and drums, Brian O'Reilly on guitar and synthesizer, and Michael Small on bass guitar.
"Kill You" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his third album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000). It was released as a promotional single from the album in 2001, and was featured on the deluxe edition of his 2005 greatest hits album, Curtain Call: The Hits. The song peaked at #2 on the Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.
Chalk Circle was a Canadian alternative rock band formed in 1982 in Newcastle, Ontario. The band originally consisted of lead singer and guitarist Chris Tait, bassist Brad Hopkins, keyboardist Tad Winklarz and drummer Derrick Murphy.
Blocks Recording Club was a Canadian co-operative of musicians, which served as both a collaborative artist community and a record label for its member artists.
The Creeping Nobodies were a Canadian rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 2001. They played their final gig in 2009.
Duplex! is a children's music band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that claims influences from urban folk to punk rock. The members range in birth years from 1967 to 2002; both toddler Abe Caruso and noted Canadian musician Veda Hille played on the debut album.
JW-Jones is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He is a Juno Award nominee (2015), Billboard magazine Top 10 Selling artist, and winner of the International Blues Challenge for "Best Self-Produced CD Award" for his release 'High Temperature' in 2017 and Best Guitarist in 2020.
Andrew Bernstein, better known by his stage name Abdominal, is a Canadian rapper from Toronto, Ontario.
Simply Saucer is a Canadian rock band formed during the 1970s. Based in Hamilton, Ontario, the band consisted of guitarist and vocalist Edgar Breau, keyboardist John LaPlante, bass guitarist Kevin Christoff and drummer Neil DeMarchant. The band's style has been described as a hybrid of proto-punk and psychedelia and they form a "Rust-belt punk" style, along with The Stooges, MC5 and Alice Cooper. The group's references also included German progressive rock, or Krautrock, and early electronic music pioneers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Canadian hardcore punk originated in the early 1980s. It was harder, faster, and heavier than the Canadian punk rock that preceded it. Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A. may have helped to popularize the term with the title of their 1981 album, Hardcore '81. Hardcore historian Steven Blush said that the term "hardcore" is also a reference to the sense of being "fed up" with the existing punk and new wave music. Blush also states that the term refers to "an extreme: the absolute most Punk." An article in Drowned in Sound argues that 1980s-era "hardcore is the true spirit of punk", because "after all the poseurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend of skinny pink ties with New Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics", the punk scene consisted only of people "completely dedicated to the DIY ethics". One definition of the genre is "a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock."
