Top 5 Emo Bands that I liked growing up

I'm an adult now with a completely different music taste than what I used to have, but I wouldn't have gotten here without my "ancient" (lol really only a decade old) tastes. Here are the Top 5 bands I was listening to as a former emo music enjoyer (I still enjoy the music, just not to the same level as I used to! I've shifted towards metal and noise now. Punk was definitely like my gateway drug though).

1. My Chemical Romance

This is the no-brainer of the bunch. The Black Parade is one of the most subculture-defining albums there is. However, Three Cheers for the Sweet Revenge, Danger Days, and May Death Never Stop You are some other MCR albums worth giving a listen if you can! MCR was the first emo band I ever went HARD into getting into. I discovered the music when I was really depressed and it just stuck with me at the time.

The first MCR song I was exposed to was: Teenagers (I used to be on a forum for gamers and this one girl I was friend's with showed me this song and then the second one I think I heard was Mama).

My favorite songs from MCR were: Helena, Famous Last Words, The Light Behind Your Eyes, I'm Not Okay, and Mama. (Welcome to the Black Parade is iconic, but I heard it so many times and got burnt out on it so hard that I'm not sure if I can include it in my personal top 5).

2. Pierce The Veil

Shortly after discovering MCR, I was exposed to PTV too! I played the Collide with the Sky album to death and then pre-ordered Misadventures (which sadly ended up being a little bit dissapointing to me in comparison to the masterpiece that was Collide with the Sky) on Google Play music (back when that platform existed lol). Although I'm not sure if I ever sat back and listened to the Selfish Machines album in its' entirety, I used to vibe to Caraphernelia regularly. Vic Fuentes' voice range goes insanely high but it fits the genre so well.

The first PTV song I was exposed to was: King for a Day

My favorite songs from PTV were: Caraphernelia, King for a Day, May these noises startle you in your sleep tonight + Hell above (I consider these 2 songs part of the same experience because the first one leads into the second one), Hold on Til May, 100 Sleepless Nights. (I enjoy Bulls in the Bronx too and would probably get hate for this back in 2015, but it's not in my personal top 5!)

3. SayWeCanFly (Braden Barrie)

This is probably a bit of an obscure take because saywecanfly isn't exactly a full band, just a single artist under a stage name. However, SWCF drenched every playlist I had as a teenager. I can't recall how I discovered his work. May have been someone's unofficial reupload of an album rip onto Soundcloud. Regardless, I am probably honestly in the top fraction of a percentage of listens on SWCF and Braden's other works that strayed from the standard emo 'dude with a guitar' genre later in the 2010's. The albums I directly ended up owning on Google Play music (again... RIP that platform) were Between The Roses (The 2015 release. He redid a sequel for it in 2023 though!), Heaven and Hell, Darling, Dandelion Necklace (it wasn't a full album, more of an EP made up of a few of his older works from early in his career). Although I listened to and also enjoyed Beautiful Mess and the Nosebleed demos albums, I am omitting the songs I enjoyed from those from the next section of this blog because I was already out of my severe emo phase by the time those dropped.

The first SWCF song I remember hearing: Scars

My favorite songs from SWCF: The Art of Anesthesia, Between the roses, By the River, Darling, Bruise my bones

4. Green Day

Although genre-wise, Green Day is more punk than emo (especially in their earlier releases), I used to listen to this band regularly during my emo phase, so I figured it was very appropriate to include here. Around the time I began playing guitar and bass for the first time, Green Day's simple, yet edgy powerchord -heavy songs were there to hold my hand. The first full Green Day album I listened to was Dookie, which I still believe is my favorite album of theirs. After hearing Dookie, I went and got Revolution Radio from a secondhand store in 2016(?) It definitely wasn't as heavy or full of as much "punk" energy as Dookie, but that album imprinted on me as a person back when I was listening to it. After that I checked out Nimrod and 1000 hours from the library. I don't remember ever returning those CD's but I don't know where they are now, so hopefully they ended up back at the library for emo people of the future to listen to because I'm not actually a thief, just forgetful.

The first Green Day song I remember hearing: Basket Case + American Idiot (Definitely one of those 2 first, but can't remember which).

My favorite songs from Green Day: Basket Case, Holiday, Back in the USA (I learned that one on guitar), Welcome to Paradise, 21 guns (Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake me up when september ends are definitely recommendations I'd give if you are getting into Green Day because those are probably in most people's Green Day top 5's but I lean towards their faster heavier tracks personally, so I'm just leaving those here as a side note for notable tracks).

5. Neck Deep

This one is probably not the best option for my 5th place slot, but I would be lying if I said this wasn't what I was listening to. I discovered Neck Deep in the one summer between my 8th grade / 9th grade years of school. This was arguably near the end of my emo phase if I had to place it on a timeline, but anyways... I only listened to one album, but I listened to it repeatedly. This album was the definition of that summer for me and the definition of everything that 14 year old emo version of me would describe as pop punk. The album: Life's Not Out to Get You. Is one album enough to get Neck Deep on this list for me? Yes. It has that 'eating pizza with my friends in their basement because I just got rejected by the school baddie' type of energy and that was what I wanted to hear around the time I originally was listening.

The first Neck Deep song I remember hearing: December

My top 5 Neck Deep songs: Can't kick up the roots, Gold steps, kali ma, December, serpents

Conclusion

While some of these are probably a bit jank compared to what you probably expected (Of course, I was also listening to Panic at the Disco, Black Veil Brides, and Sleeping with sirens like the rest of y'all, but I don't think I ever played full albums straight through from them or if I did I have no memories from then that would give me an excuse to slide them in here. To be fair, when I was a teenager, Twenty one pilots was considered an emo band too at least when paired with the subculture's fandom mentality and Hot Topic pumping out their merch at record speed when blurryface hit the streets and the one song found its way into the first Su*cide Squad movie. (Jokes aside, I believe you can listen to whatever you want and be emo regardless). The late 2010's was an odd time to be emo because it was after (what I would consider as) the first generation of late millenial elder emo's from the early 2000's but before Tiktok existed to split off into the E-Girl/E-boy alt- y2k renaissance era (If we want to get like really meta about this, I would consider my personal emo phase as MDE era because it lined up with around exactly the time frame that My Digital Escape was together and guiding that entire generation of emo/scene webculture). It's only been a decade but I actually feel ancient sometimes when I think about how music and culture has evolved into the modern day. Anyways, that was the top 5 bands/artists I was listening to during the peak of my emo days.