a brief history of emo

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the beginning

the first public mention of emo was in the january 1986 issue of thrasher magazine. 

emotional hardcore, more commonly shortened to 'emo', emerged out of the punk and hardcore scenes in washington, d.c. in the mid-80s. the name emo was originally used as an insult. now, as the scene continues to evolve and different bands and fans alike define what emo is to them, emo is now often defined in waves. 

1st wave

it's impossible to talk about the history of emo without mentioning emo's deep roots in punk. punk is a deeply political genre and subculture - there is no punk without politics. punk was founded as a way of finding independence and separating from the mainstream. the song structure was often very simple due to the diy nature of the genre and the lyrics were harsh and political, often considered rude. from punk came hardcore punk, which is credited as the direct ancestor of emo. 

many people in the scene didn't agree with some of the ideologies of punk. they believed that extreme rebellious behaviour would mean that people wouldn't take the scene seriously. this sparked the beginning of the straight edge movement [sometimes abbreviated to sXe or XXX], which is still very popular within the scene today. being straight edge meant abstaining from drugs, alcohol, and sometimes even caffeine, and some people even go vegan. this was seen as a rebellion against the rebellion. crosses are drawn on the back of the hands, which has since become a widely recognised sign of being straight edge and often signifies to venue staff at shows that they are not to serve them alcohol.

1st wave emo was all about choppy distorted guitar, screamed melodic vocals, and deeply emotional lyrics. jimmy eat world, rites of spring, dag nasty, fugazi, at the drive in, and embrace were just some of the pioneers of emo in the 80s. the fashion was much different to what most people would associate with emo nowadays. in the 80s and early 90s, emo fashion was most often characterised by plain tees, chuck taylors, and jeans. the plain, perhaps even boring fashion was a reflection of the anti capitalist beliefs adopted by the scene's roots in punk. 

2nd wave

the second wave of emo emerged in the late 90s, with bands like american football, cap'n jazz, sunny day real estate, jawbreaker, and the get up kids pushing the boundaries of what emo was at the time. more commonly known as 'midwest emo', the second wave was undoubtedly a major change for the scene. midwest emo offered a softer, often more acoustic approach to the genre while still keeping the cynical, heartfelt lyrics and rough [usually untrained] vocals that emo had very quickly became known for. using elements of math rock and indie to create complex arpeggiated melodies, it soon became clear that midwest emo was paving a new road for the genre. 

3rd wave

in the early 2000s, emo saw a massive uptick in popularity. the sudden rise in popularity is sometimes credited to the birth of social media platforms myspace and facebook. it became much easier for other emos to connect and share music, causing the scene to grow and change in a major way.

emo seemed to return to its hardcore punk roots in this era, with bands like my chemical romance, fall out boy, alesana, alexisonfire, the used, thursday, pierce the veil, paramore, silverstein, hawthorne heights, senses fail, and panic! at the disco crashing into the scene with explosive melodies, distorted guitars, and fast, harsh drums. despite some of these bands not being considered emo, the scene took to them extremely quickly, so a large group of bands that fell under other genres had the label thrust upon them whether they liked it or not. many bands even shunned the label, while others embraced it and welcomed the scene with open arms. despite being against the label, gerard way of my chemical romance was seen on tour in 2007 wearing a badge that read 'sheriff' and would refer to himself as the "sheriff of emo town'. 

with its growing popularity online, emo quickly became associated with a much 'edgier' type of person. this brought about many rumours about the scene and its members, especially with parents who believed emo was a dangerous cult that encouraged teens and young adults to engage with dangerous behaviours like self harm and suicide, due to the newer, darker, lyrical content featured in this new wave of the scene. 

despite this, emo continued to get more and more popular, with many bands selling out stadiums of thousands upon thousands of screaming fans from all over the world. the rapid growth of the scene caused a major shift in the fashion. ultra low-rise skinny jeans, flat ironed hair, band tees, black eyeliner, and more bracelets than ever thought possible became staples of what is now commonly referred to as 'myspace emo'. 

in another pocket of the scene towards the mid 2000s, pop punk was gaining more and more popularity, with all the fun of pop and all of the cynicism of punk, the genre offered a lighter twist to the otherwise gloomier side of the scene. blink-182, green day, yellowcard, metro station, cute is what we aim for, the cab, simple plan, the offspring and avril lavigne among many others jumped headfirst into pop punk and are still considered some of the biggest icons in the scene to this day. meanwhile, some bands like jimmy eat world, brand new, paramore, and saves the day put away their grittier writing and leaned into the pop punk explosion. even though pop punk isn't technically considered emo, the scene was becoming so broad that most people today consider it a staple of the scene, especially considering it greatly influenced and shaped some of the bands that we've all grown to love, as well as newer bands in the fourth and fifth wave of the scene.

4th wave

midwest emo saw a huge revival in the 2010s, with bands like modern baseball, the front bottoms, marietta, mom jeans., the hotelier, tigers jaw, joyce manor, and title fight bringing a fresh breath of life to the genre. many of these bands are still important figures in the scene, while others like modern baseball announced that they were going on an indefinite hiatus in 2017 and haven't returned since [other than the release of two previously unseen demos to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their sophomore album you're gonna miss it all], leaving fans clamouring for their return. 

5th wave

5th wave emo is the most disputed era by far, most likely because we are living through the 5th wave right now so it's hard to categorize anything just yet. there seems to be a lack of general consensus on what defines the genre now, but maybe it's for the better. pockets of the scene appear much more often now, fusing different styles and taking elements from other waves of emo to offer newer, fresher parts of the scene we've never seen before. 

some bands like static dress have dipped back into emo's hardcore roots, opting to completely brand themselves as "old" emo. their first album, prologue... (comic book soundtrack) was largely conceptual, following the storyline of the comic released alongside the album. they even developed a video game based on their album rouge carpet disaster, only available on gameboy color, which offers a simplified look into the ongoing lore and world building used to fuel their music.