Why? Does the truth hurt?
Wait a minute. Aren't the Smiths one of those tiny up-stream paddling groups who went in another direction before the emo thing actually made fruit?
I think they split up before the emos came along.
Hell, I've heard that the roots of emo were
in The Who. But, most of that was angry, not
whiny.
I disagree with this position. (You are not the first to make this parallel) I think that the roots of emo lead us directly to Robert Plant and Ray Charles, before him. Jerry Lee Lewis, across the genres and Hank Williams on another island at the same time as the other two.
It doesn't really matter, because all those guys had music that gave an impetus to their generations, aside from cutting, crying, giving up, etc.
I would like to know when Giving Up/conceding to defeat became the norm?