Is This Emo?

Subgenres galore!

Welcome!

Welcome to Is This Emo?

The blog by emo fans for emo fans.

Have you ever posted about your new favorite emo band only to be slammed with hundreds of comments saying “That is NOT emo!!”? Are you tired of having to comment “Panic! At the Disco is NOT emo!!”?

This is the blog for you.

What is Emo?

The term ‘emo’ is nebulous at best, yet finds itself the brunt of years worth of ridicule. So where did it come from? Birthed from the `80s hardcore scene, emo bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace began separating themselves from the traditional values of hardcore punk and post-hardcore and began a more emotion-packed approach to punk. Rites of Spring influenced countless emo bands, despite a stated distaste for the genre. (On a side note, their song “By Design” is forever the first emo song I fell in love with!)

 Further, along emo’s evolution, bands like cult classic Cap’n Jazz and Promise Ring began rising in popularity, finding diehard fans whose commitment lives on to this day. Although the term emo debatably found its highest popularity in the early 2000s with pop-punk bands such as My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. 

Of course, emo culture stretches further than just music. There is an obvious image that comes to mind: skinny jeans, thick eyeliner, flannels, angst, self-harm, fringe, and countless wristbands.

But is this accurate?

I asked Reddit’s r/emo “What Does it Mean to be Emo?” Here's what they had to say:

• To be emo is to like and listen to emo music. Even further are people who participate in the emo music scene, whether that’s playing in emo bands, going to emo shows, or interacting in the emo scene online. The music genre of emo is defined by the scene it comes from more than its musical characteristics. A lot of emo bands tour with each other, play at the same venues, and are signed to the same labels even though they are sonically very different from each other. Other characteristics of emo music are vulnerable lyrics and leftist politics.

• Emotional music with some sort of influence from hardcore/punk

• It's a colloquialism for the hot topic fashion of the mid-2000s

• It doesn't mean anything. Or conversely, it's whatever people want it to mean for them. People aren't defined solely by the music they like.

• You like the music. Emo is basically suburban hardcore, so actively being involved in a scene is also a part.

• To be a punk who listens and likes emotional hardcore.

• You listen to emo music

• Depends on what you define as emo. I don't consider mallcore bands like My Chemical Romance to be as "emo" as bands as Cursive or Braid. The former being very consumerist, the latter being more artistically focused and not dissimilar to the post-hardcore scene from San Diego in the 90s.

• Emo = emotional. The basis of emo is emotional music for emotional people

• When I was younger I believed you had to dress the part, but being older now I think just being a fan of the genre makes you part of the emo subculture

• Listen to emo music

• Nowadays emo doesn't have much of a subculture so it doesn't mean much nowadays

• To enjoy “emo” music.

• To me "emo" is a genre of music. It's not a descriptor for a person. When it's used to describe a person I think it's a mischaracterization of goth or mallcore.

• Emo has come to mean a lot of things including just "emotional", but to me it mostly refers to the genre and the lineage of bands that spawned from Washington DC emotional hardcore. Everything descended from the likes of Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Beefeater is what emo is to me. Those guys spawned The Hated, Heroin, Jawbox, Indian Summer, Moss Icon, and Cap'n Jazz. In turn, the kids of DC emocore spawned The Promise Ring, Braid, Sunny Day Real Estate, Saetia, Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids, and a lot of the stuff that came to define emo. Even the next wave of emo, like Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Thursday, and early My Chemical Romance, were all taking heavily from that lineage of bands while doing their own thing. I think even now, modern emo draws heavily from that lineage despite being different from the original bands. I find the whole history of emo and the sounds that are part of it to be cool and super interesting.

• Emo means emotional. That is one aspect. you have had an emotional struggle. you identify outside what is considered culturally normal in some way. you listened to whatever you call emo music

• Music is emo, if it has raw heartfelt emotion, that’s it

• In the 80s and 90s, it meant bands with roots in punk and hardcore who wanted to do something different.

• Listen to emo music and dress alternativeish

• Emotional? Which everyone can be from time to time. It feels good to listen to stuff that I can relate to

• I think the meme is that it means you're sad, but from what I can tell, it's a lot more just a community of people with similar tastes. Each person will have their own problems and successes.

• Personally, I find being emo just means I don't get the aux cord and mosh to Taylor Swift.

Coming Soon:

In this bi-weekly series, we’ll take a deep (and we mean deep) dive into the history of the emo genre, its many subgenres, and its influence on culture. We’ll also be putting different topics/bands on trial to determine “Is this emo?”. 

But, don’t worry. This will not be one of those “old is always better” blogs. Each week, we’ll spotlight an upcoming emo band because creatives support creatives!

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Thanks for reading!

If you have a mass of random knowledge about an emo topic or band, we want to include your voice! Shoot us an email with your topic of interest and we’ll be in touch about a collaboration.

P.S. Want to contribute to an all-encompassing emo playlist? Shoot us an email to be added to our playlist!

Email: isthisemo7@gmail.com