I remember when I first fell in love with the emo genre. It was May of 2005, and I was at the young age of 9 years old. I was watching the brand new episode of the TV show One Tree Hill, and a band called Jimmy Eat World was the musical guest. Jimmy Eat World started to play their song “Work”, and I was immediately captivated. I could not understand the meaning of the lyrics that were being sung, but I felt a connection to the emotional melody and guitar riffs that were sprinkled throughout the song. I remember going to school the next day and asking my friends if they had heard of Jimmy Eat World. One of my friends had. They came back to school the following day with a Jimmy Eat World CD, which happened to be Futures, the album that the band released the year prior. They told me that I could borrow it as long as I gave it back to them before summer break. When I got home from school that day, I immediately put the CD in my silver Sony Discman, put on my headphones, hit play,  and the rest was history. Jimmy Eat World was my personal starting point in exploring the emo genre. I have been so thankful for One Tree Hill and my dear friend from my 4th grade class who let me borrow their Futures CD ever since. 

After I returned the CD to my friend, I started to watch MTV in the mornings before school. That is when I discovered Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Avril Lavigne, Green Day, and Taking Back Sunday. Shortly after, my two older sisters introduced me to Relient K. I remember feeling euphoric, excited, and so connected to the music in a multitude of ways, even at 9 years old. Soon after, I learned that the genre of music that I fell in love with was called “emo”. As I was diving more and more into the emo genre, I continued borrowing my friends’ CDs, eventually learned what Limewire was, and then obtained my very first iPod Nano. As I grew up in the 2000’s, the scene just continued to get bigger and bigger overtime.

Emo is the genre of music that took the world by storm in the 2000’s, causing waves and rifts in the mainstream. If you ask any person that was paying attention to the musical landscape in the 2000’s, they would agree that emo exploded during this specific decade. From the raw vocals, the emotional lyrics, the fashion, the haircuts, and the eyeliner, it makes sense why it became such a huge sensation in the 2000’s. It was new and captivating compared to the other genres of music that were popular at the time. Hip hop and R&B took over the charts in the late 90’s and early years of the 2000’s, and most subgenres of rock were not in the forefront of the mainstream until the emo genre swept in and took over radio stations, MTV, TRL, and our Myspace accounts. 

So, what does the word “emo” actually mean? By definition, the word emo stands for emotional hardcore, or “emocore”. Past the point of what the word “emo” means at face value, emo is considered a subgenre of punk rock, alternative rock, and indie rock. When a lot of people think of the emo genre, they tend to think of the following bands immediately: My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, & Panic! At The Disco. These bands were arguably four of the biggest emo bands that took over the scene in the 2000’s. When you reflect on their respective discographies and careers, it’s impossible to deny the fact that they have had so much influence on so many musicians and the music industry as a whole. Although the influence of these four bands are undeniable, it is important to reflect and look back on the emo genre prior to the 2000’s. The emo genre was born in the summer of 1985 in Washington, DC, and slowly started to spread geographically throughout the United States in the late 80’s and the entirety of the 90’s. The bands that were a part of the emo genre in the 80’s and 90’s helped pave the way and heavily impacted so many bands that landed mainstream success in the 2000’s. The history of emo is very interesting because it has lived so many different lives within the past 40 years. Learning about the roots of the emo genre when I had consistent access to high speed internet (thank you, 2010’s) made me feel a lot more appreciative of the emo genre than I had previously. I invested a lot of time into listening to emo music from the 80’s and 90’s, and I have a huge love for it. 

The more I have continued to make friends that grew up in the emo scene, the more I have realized that a lot of the people I have been friends with, or just people that I have met in the scene in general, have not known what the roots of the emo genre were. As amazing and iconic as the 2000’s were for the emo genre, the 80’s and 90’s are two decades that should not go under the rug. In this series, I am going to cover the history of the emo genre from the 80’s to now. I will be highlighting the backstories, most impactful bands, as well as the top 10 albums from each decade. I hope that you will join in for the ride! Rawr XD