i should clarify that a little.
i've never quite understood how anybody could sit there and claim that emo (and, throughout, i'm using emo in the appropriated corporate rock sense, rather than the initial dc punk sense) or pop-punk vocals are somehow an emotional response to the lack of emotion in alternative rock. i don't want to yell orwellian, but if the topic matter was more serious then i probably would. it's completely backwards - the primary reason that corporate emo sucks is that the vocalists sound like soulless robots. i can handle the music alright, and sometimes the subject matter isn't boring, but the vocals are a really massive blocking point.
the reality is that these distinctions are all quite silly. it's all punk rock in some incarnation or another. the best way i know how to demonstrate how silly it is is to point out that dave grohl was right in the middle of the dc punk scene, before he joined nirvana. the primary influence on the first foofighters disc was, in fact, dc emo. yet, who is going to sit there and argue dave grohl was a more passionate vocalist than kurt cobain, even before the colour and shape?
if you want passionate, emotional, melodic vocalists, i'll take corgan, cobain and cornell over anything corporate emo (which apparently traces back to weezer and sdre - both of whom jumped immediately to massive success) ever produced, and i simply don't understand how anybody could make the alternate argument. i'm not working in a different definition, or falling into something subjective. it's just flat out wrong.
this particular our lady peace disc is really weird in terms of classification. i've read as many reviews praising it for not being grunge as i have for accusing it of being a grunge knockoff. personally, i don't hear the grunge influence. the dissonance seems to actually come from a big cure influence; the punk aesthetic seems to come from detroit and minneapolis and even athens, rather than seattle. corgan's accusations notwithstanding (and, trust me: don't ever listen to corgan), the weak surface similarity to gish seems to come from a shared cure fetish; this seems to be contemporary with the movement from the 80s into the 90s, not a response to it or an aping of it. and, it ultimately took it's own, rather unique spin on that evolution.
but, the vocals. what are these vocals? are they punk rock vocals? they have the snarl and the snide and the attack. are they rock opera vocals? a bit. beatnik scat poetry? almost, at points. but, really, the question is this: are they corporate emo vocals? how much of an influence did raine maida have on the development of this style of singing?
i don't know. i've seen it suggested in a few interviews with the band itself. i've seen the band and fans reject the label. however, i've never seen any corporate emo acts address the question.
regardless, it sure sounds like there was an influence, and a rather large one. if olp were "post-grunge", that ultimately places them in the same genre that weezer and sdre and
...but there's a big difference: these vocals actually really *are* passionate, intense, emotional. they really actually do have the ability to work a group of kids into a frenzy...
hence, the promotion to benchmark. in a convoluted sense, this is one of the very few examples i know of of corporate emo done right.
