By Ella Reicks
If you are in deep into the lore of this genre like I am then you may know where I am going with this, but for the unaware, emo may be more closely aligned with the everyday sad boy than the all black wearing teens of yesterday.
There is a copy pasta that some of you may know about, it states the following: “”Real Emo” only consists of the dc Emotional Hardcore scene and the late 90’s Screamo scene” etc. It goes on, but I think you get the point. This copypasta used to irritate me, especially being a woman in the scene, it can be frustrating having so many barriers to entry within the alternative music scene. However, there is some truth to the statement. And while people who regurgitate this sentiment are still very annoying, there is something interesting to be looked at in this perspective on the emo genre.
If we want to look at where emo is today then we need to understand the history of the genre. In order to do so, we will start with the hardcore genre, where emo breaks off from. The hardcore scene of the early 80s was an offshoot of the punk scene from the 70s and emphasized the harder aspects of punk with a primal feeling. There was less of an emphasis on the lyrics, being quite simple, but had speed, aggression, and were nihilistic behind them. By the mid 80s, certain people in the scene wanted to use more complex and poetic lyricism in their music. This is where one of the most important figures within the first wave emo scene comes from. Guy Picciotto would create the band Rites of Spring in Washington DC where he would want to write more meaningful music covering many topics. Rites of Spring would become a pioneer, creating more poetic and meaningful songs with a hardcore sound. More bands would follow in their stead, notablebly Embrace, and would see their sound get recognized in the well known and beloved skate magazine, Thrasher. In the Thrasher article, these bands would be described as “emotional hardcore” or “emocore”. The bands hated this descriptor and would say as much, calling it “the stupidest thing I have ever heard”. However, from this article, it would birth the genre of emo and start gaining traction in the underground scene. We would see more bands pop up like The Hated and would later be categorized as the first wave of the emo scene.
In the 90s, we would see the genre develop into what is now considered the second wave of emo music and would evolve and develop. This era is fondly remembered for the use of twinkling guitars and math rock influence. The genre would become more widespread and melodic. More well known bands would come from this era like Sunny Day Real Estate, American Football, and Mineral. We would also start to see other offshoots from the genre like Midwest Emo which leans more towards an indie or folk sound that would be characteristic of bands coming from the Midwest. Another side of this came from the West Coast and would take the opposite approach, becoming more aggressive and loud. This would become screamo, also known as skramz. They would take influence from the original form of emo and be recognized for their screamed lyrics, which is where the name comes from.
As we transition into the 2000s, things become murky in the emo landscape. There was a shift taking place within the scene as alternative music became mainstream and profitable. Pop Punk was becoming increasingly popular and music execs were taking action. Because of this, we would see more bands get signed and turn into the third wave of emo music which is what most people know it as today. This would become highly commercialized and streamlined. With the increasing popularity of the breakthrough band, Jimmy Eat World, record execs would start to bring on “emo bands” and mold them into a more pop and mainstream friendly sound. It would create a whole new type of emo music that was completely different from where it started. While these bands are great in their own right, there is something to be said about the commercialization of the alternative music scene like emo into something that was highly marketable.
By the early 2010s, the public would start to grow tired of these acts and the scene would shift once again. By the mid 2010s we would start to see an increase of interest in what the scene was originally after. We would see bands like American Football, who were not very popular originally, gain popularity. As well as new emerging bands like Modern Baseball, Pine Grove, (and my favorite) Title Fight. They would be heavily inspired by the midwest emo scene and continue on with that sound taking influences from more indie, folk, and math rock. We would see the fourth wave of emo and a midwest emo revival. However, this shift was not very big and would not change the idea of emo that had been manufactured in the 2000s.
By the end of the 2010s, it would seem like emo was starting to fade out once more. However, as we would move into the 2020s, there would be a shift once again, and this time, it would be from TikTok of all places. Hate it or love, TikTok is responsible for a lot of growth and discovery within music in the new digital age. More and more people are able to discover music that was once unknown to the general public or faded out. We have seen this in many bands recently, like the rise of Nu metal and bands like Deftones to an audience that may not have even been alive during their peak. And thanks to TIkTok, there is once again a resurgence in the emo scene. Bands are being rediscovered and given new praise, along with the influence they give to new bands popping up. A couple of my favorite bands, Verses self, Mitsubishi Suicide, and Aspertame take inspiration from the 90s and 2010s era of emo, reclaiming what the genre was originally all about.
We are currently in a very unknown and concerning time period, many things are uncertain and the digital age has brought with it many negatives and positives. This resurgence of “real emo” has been a real treat to witness and gives hope and new life into the scene. This time around becoming more inclusive and diverse in its community and subject matter, breathing new life into a once dying genre.
As a woman who has been a lover of alternative music for as long as I can remember, for the first time, it has felt like a space I can comfortably be a part of. And that sounds almost counterintuitive when you think back to the copypasta that we started here with, but as the scene continues to develop, there is more and more to be excited about. As more people listen and discover, the community grows and changes (hopefully for the better), but we will just have to see.
In the meantime, enjoy what the genre and these new and old bands have to offer. Don’t be afraid to explore and be a newbie. Everyone starts somewhere and I think a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised by what they find. And in the future, I’m sure it will be one of those things we look back on and think just how cool it was that we could be a part of it.
