Evanescence...

Evanescence breezed into the top ten scene from Little Rock, Arkansas a year or so back in time. This band describes itself as plain old "rock" with female-fronted vocals, making use of the usual guitar, drums, and bass as well as very well-engineered synth sounds.
Those who listen to Amy Lee's chilling vocals and Ben Moody's minor key guitar riffs often coin their music gothic rock.

This band, among my friends, (and probably among stuffy music critics as well) has generated some controversy. Those among my relations that like this band simply do because of the angelic beauty of Amy's voice, the dark undertones of the music itself, and the easily-identified-with lyrics.
But those who don't like the band make their voices heard loud and clear.
    "I believe that Evanescence cares more about style than music," says one of my friends that I questioned. And, looking at Amy Lee's fancy corsets and dark gothic makeup, this could possibly be true. Possibly.
"They are not gothic, nor are they rock," scoffs one of my other friends, well noted for his music taste. "They are pop music, and unoriginal pop music at that."
Okay.
Well. Let's get a few things straight here. When I first listened to this band, it was on the radio. I recall that it was raining outside, and I was listening lazily to the drops of rain plummeling the roof and looking out the window. It was somewhat of a depressing atomesphere, but something about the wind and the rain and the colors of the clouds made it look strange outside, almost surreal, and definitely beautiful.
When I turned on my radio, there was of course, the menagerie of pop music bursting out through my speakers. I listened to it impatiently. Nothing good or original (according to me) had been in the top ten for weeks. There were the usual R+B hits, but they seemed dead and uninspired now...it had been a while since I'd found an R+B song that I really loved. There were the boring, normal everday guitar riffs of radio rock bands that I couldn't name for beans. They all sounded alike to me.
And then, Evanescence's first single burst onto the air. "Wake me up inside...
(I can't wake up)
Save me..."
A caphony of sound washed from the speakers. It sounded a bit like a medieval epic song mashed with a guitar, and the music matched my atomesphere perfectly. Moody, melancholy...beautiful.
Despite certain opinions of certain stuffy music critics, I believe that Evanescence is a refreshing thirst quencher for this year's dry radio scene.
Evanescence may be "unoriginal" as far as other bands of their time go, but as weighted with the other "hits" on the radio today, Evanescence is the paragon of oringiality. Well, as so far as the radio goes at least. (Beyond the radio lies so much more origniality, but we won't go there.)
As for tagging the style of music Evanescence plays--that is a toughie. My music critic friend somewhere up in the latter paragraphs mentioned that he thought Evanescence was not gothic nor rock, but just pop music. Maybe.
First, we must look at the general definition of pop music. Worldnet Dictionary defines pop music in this fashion:

Pop music. N: music of general appeal to young people.

If that is the case, then Evanescence is truly "pop music." It has gained a large fan following. Everyone loves Evanescence. Amy Lee's beautiful vocals has got everyone buying and gobbling up the Fallen CD. Of course, there is a sub-genre labeled pop music. Worldiq.com defines that sub-genre this way: "The subgenre of pop is perhaps the most widely crowd-pleasing form of popular music. As a rule, pop music features simple, memorable melodies with catchy, singalong choruses, and instrumentally features heavy use of synthesiser backing. It is instantly accessible to anyone culturally initiated, even the musically uninitiated. Successful pop music (and successful pop music is usually measured in terms of its commercial success without any pretence to broader artistic goals) is usually performed by charismatic performers who may or may not be musically talented but who look attractive and may dance well. Songwriting and arranging may be performed by anonymous but well-paid producers." But with that kind of a definition, it doesn't seem like being pop music is too bad. (Well, some popbands are bad, obviously-but good ones with musical talent are not, in my opinion.) That also makes Linkin Park, and Rammstein(a band that my music critic friend happens to like very much) and other popular rock bands pop music, because of their heavy uses of syntheziser and often enought melodic voice. So being pop music, that is, having a large young people fan following, is not nessesarily a denotation or an insult. Neither is having a catchy rythmn or synthesizer, unless the music itself is very bad, and it is only the artist's sex appeal which keeps the band moving (Amy Lee has explicitly expressed that she never wants to become another Brittany Spears, so we may rule that out.) If calling Evanescence's music "pop" is an insult, then it is kind of a very bad one.
As for my music critic friend saying that Evanescence is not gothic--I believe in the truth of that. Gothic rock generally holds an ironic, sad, cynical view of the world around it--something Evanescence does not convey. Evanescence may be moody, melancholy, and sometimes sniffling; but it is not cynical or darkly funny, like goth music likes to be. Goth music is of course dark, but more metal-ish than the stuff of Amy Lee and Ben Moody. And the most important evidence there is is a direct quote from Amy Lee herself, in a VH1 interview:

"VH1: So many people have labeled your music, how would you describe it?

Lee: I wouldn't call it goth. I would use dark instead. It's dark and epic, beautiful, heavy, rock."

So obviously, if the band denies being goth rock and their music does not convey the essence of goth rock, than the music of Evanescence is not goth rock.

What is it then?

It is pop music, but pop music, I believe, in its "darkest" sense.
Ben Moody, guitarist of Evanescence, repeats over and over again," we are definitely rock." Are they rock,exactly? Let's do that dictionary thing again.
Rock n' roll,according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is characterized by electronically amplified instrumentation, a heavily accented beat, and relatively simple phrase structure. That would make Evanescence, generally speaking, rock. But what about those itchy little subtitles people are so worried about?
Of course, we have already reconized the fact that Evanescence is not one of those itchy subtitles; it is not gothic rock. So WHAT IS IT?
If a person were to go on Amazon.com, and go through the thousands of CD's available to be bought, he/she would begin to see a pattern emerging among the alternative underground bands of the "darker type." There are the goth bands of course, and heavy metal bands that aren't goth but aren't mainstream either, and then there is something else.
What is it? It is the dark music that won't fit into the goth or metal catergory. It is the dark music that was shoved into the catergory simply because it was "catergoryless."
The bands that play it often use synth instruments quite a lot as well as the usual guitar/bass/drums, and the music patterns vary widely. It is quite like pop music, but quite unlike it as well. These artist often deal with darker topics (suicide, moodiness, etc.) not usually in the mainstream pop music. This music could be defined as underground pop music.
They call it Darkwave. Darkwave singers often have the same obsession over beautiful voice sounds that Evanescence has--it is often more on emphasizing the singer rather than the music, though the music still counts for brownie points. Darkwave is obviously dark, often moody, and much of it has an epic sound to it, like Evanesence, or sometimes a strange 80's syntho jibe, which Evanescence obviously does not have, but no matter. Not a lot of these bands have that 80's techno beat going on--just a few (Collide, for example, and sometimes Switchblade Symphony)and it is no hinderance to that epic, touching feeling that is so very often expressed in Darkwave music. I think that catergorizing Evanescence as Darkwave is quite safe. Because that,in my opinion, is what Evanescence is--a rock n' roll/darkwave/pop kind of band. Evanescence is unique by radio standards, and bland by countercultural standards. It is a bit of middle ground between the left wing and the right wing, a little compromise that will either fly or flop. Will Evanescence become a great pop legend? Or will it fall flat on its face, like poor "punk" Avril Lavigne with her soft guitar pop music? We'll have to see.

--© 2004 Michelle

Lyrics for Evansecence's debut CD "Fallen" are written down this page. I know that the "i's" are not capitalized--don't blame that on me. All the lyrics for Evanescence seemed to be written that way on the internet. Is there a reason?? I don't know. Maybe Amy was just lazy or something. I'm also too lazy to fix it, so there you go. Here are the lyrics.

my immortal

my immortal
i'm so tired of being here
suppressed by all of my childish fears
and if you have to leave
i wish that you would just leave
because your presence still lingers here
and it won't leave me alone
these wounds won't seem to heal
this pain is just too real
there's just too much that time cannot erase
when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
and i've held your hand through all of these years
but you still have all of me
you used to captivate me
by your resonating light
but now i'm bound by the life you left behind
your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams
your voice it chased away all the sanity in me
these wounds won't seem to heal
this pain is just too real
there's just too much that time cannot erase
when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
and i've held your hand through all of these years
but you still have all of me
i've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
and though you're still with me
i've been alone all along

© 2003 Wind-Up Records

going under

now i will tell you what i've done for you
50 thousand tears i've cried
screaming deceiving and bleeding for you
and you still won't hear me
don't want your hand this time i'll save myself
maybe i'll wake up for once
not tormented daily defeated by you
just when i thought i'd reached the bottom
i'm dying again
i'm going under
drowning in you
i'm falling forever
i've got to break through
i'm going under
blurring and stirring the truth and the lies
so i don't know what's real and what's not
always confusing the thoughts in my head
so i can't trust myself anymore
i'm dying again
i'm going under
drowning in you
i'm falling forever
i've got to break through
so go on and scream
scream at me i'm so far away
i won't be broken again
i've got to breathe i can't keep going under

© 2003 Wind-Up Records

bring me to life

how can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where i've become so numb without a soul my spirit
sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home wake me up inside
wake me up inside
call my name and save me from the dark
bid my blood to run
before i come undone
save me from the nothing i've become
now that i know what i'm without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life
wake me up inside
wake me up inside
call my name and save me from the dark
bid my blood to run
before i come undone
save me from the nothing i've become
bring me to life
frozen inside without your touch without your love
darling only you are the life among the dead
all this time i can't believe i couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
i've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

© 2003 Wind-Up Records

everybody's fool

perfect by nature
icons of self indulgence
just what we all need
more lies about a world that
never was and never will be
have you no shame don't you see me
you know you've got everybody fooled
look here she comes now
bow down and stare in wonder
oh how we love you
no flaws when you're pretending
but now i know she
never was and never will be
you don't know how you've betrayed me
and somehow you've got everybody fooled
without the mask where will you hide
can't find yourself lost in your lie
i know the truth now
i know who you are
and i don't love you anymore
it never was and never will be
you're not real and you can't save me
somehow now you're everybody's fool
© 2003 Wind-Up Records

haunted

long lost words whisper slowly to me
still can't find what keeps me here
when all this time i've been so hollow inside
i know you're still there
watching me wanting me
i can feel you pull me down
fearing you loving you
i won't let you pull me down
hunting you i can smell you - alive
your heart pounding in my head
watching me wanting me
i can feel you pull me down
saving me raping me
watching me
© 2003 Wind-Up Records

tourniquet

i tried to kill the pain
but only brought more
i lay dying
and i'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming
am i too lost to be saved
am i too lost?
my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation
my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation
do you remember me
lost for so long
will you be on the other side
or will you forget me
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming
am i too lost to be saved
am i too lost?
my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation
my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation
my wounds cry for the grave
my soul cries for deliverance
will i be denied Christ
tourniquet
my suicide
© 2003 Wind-Up Records

imaginary

i linger in the doorway
of alarm clock screaming monsters calling my name
let me stay
where the wind will whisper to me
where the raindrops as they're falling tell a story
in my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
i lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me
don't say i'm out of touch
with this rampant chaos - your reality
i know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
the nightmare i built my own world to escape
in my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
i lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me
swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
oh how i long for the deep sleep dreaming
the goddess of imaginary light
© 2003 Wind-Up Records

taking over me

you don't remember me but i remember you
i lie awake and try so hard not to think of you
but who can decide what they dream?
and dream i do...
i believe in you
i'll give up everything just to find you
i have to be with you to live to breathe
you're taking over me
have you forgotten all i know
and all we had?
you saw me mourning my love for you
and touched my hand
i knew you loved me then
i believe in you
i'll give up everything just to find you
i have to be with you to live to breathe
you're taking over me
i look in the mirror and see your face
if i look deep enough
so many things inside that are just like you are
taking over

© 2003 Wind-Up Records

hello

playground school bell rings again
rain clouds come to play again
has no one told you she's not breathing?
hello i'm your mind giving you someone to talk to
hello
if i smile and don't believe
soon i know i'll wake from this dream
don't try to fix me i'm not broken
hello i'm the lie living for you so you can hide
don't cry
suddenly i know i'm not sleeping
hello i'm still here
all that's left of yesterday
© 2003 Wind-Up Records

my last breath

hold on to me love
you know i can't stay long
all i wanted to say was i love you and i'm not afraid
can you hear me?
can you feel me in your arms?
holding my last breath
safe inside myself
are all my thoughts of you
sweet raptured light it ends here tonight
i'll miss the winter
a world of fragile things
look for me in the white forest
hiding in a hollow tree (come find me)
i know you hear me
i can taste it in your tears
holding my last breath
safe inside myself
are all my thoughts of you
sweet raptured light it ends here tonight
closing your eyes to disappear
you pray your dreams will leave you here
but still you wake and know the truth
no one's there
say goodnight
don't be afraid
calling me calling me as you fade to black

© 2003 Wind-Up Records

whisper

catch me as i fall
say you're here and it's all over now
speaking to the atmosphere
no one's here and i fall into myself
this truth drives me into madness
i know i can stop the pain if i will it all away
don't turn away
don't give in to the pain
don't try to hide
though they're screaming your name
don't close your eyes
God knows what lies behind them
don't turn out the light
never sleep never die
i'm frightened by what i see
but somehow i know that there's much more to come
immobilized by my fear
and soon to be blinded by tears
i can stop the pain if i will it all away
don't turn away
don't give in to the pain
don't try to hide
though they're screaming your name
don't close your eyes
God knows what lies behind them
don't turn out the light
never sleep never die
fallen angels at my feet
whispered voices at my ear
death before my eyes
lying next to me i fear
she beckons me shall i give in
upon my end shall i begin
forsaking all i've fallen for i rise to meet the end
© 2003 Wind-Up Records