Opinion: During the last year, a wave of emo music and fashion rushed back into the public eye after years of lying mostly dormant.
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Though emo culture and style are often treated with derision in pop culture — often boiled down to teenagers yelling “it’s not a phase mom,” wearing eyeliner and all black, or having brightly dyed hair — it’s actually a cultural movement that has spanned more than three decades.
The dawn of emo culture is often regarded to have been in the mid 80s as punk raged, glam rock waned and grunge began to rise from its depths in Seattle basements to the top of the charts. Emotional hardcore, or emo for short, was a subgenre that allowed people to express their emotions more freely, instead of just the masculine anger and aggression expected of rock music. In his book “Nothing Feels Good,” author Andy Greenwald traces the first uses of the words “emo” and “emocore” to the underground rock scene in Washington D.C and the band Rites of Spring.
Going into the 2000s, the first social media giants rose. Chief among them was Myspace. Here, emo music and lifestyle was spread across the world like never before, through a host of new clothing styles and bands rising to prominence. It experienced its pinnacle sometime around 2007, with bands like My Chemical Romance selling out tours worldwide with their unique concepts and style. When Myspace fell out of fashion and pop culture as a whole changed, emo once again became a niche subculture. Then, the bands that defined it changed their sound or went on hiatus.
These days, emo culture is seen as retro and nostalgic— a symbol of a prior youth generation. However, there continues to be a significant subset of young people drawn to it as a way to express themselves. Being honest about deeper emotional struggles can actually help people, rather than hurt. In her article “Exploring Emo Culture,” Heather Hayes says, “Stigma stops people from speaking out and being heard, and the further derision of emo music’s expression of this isolation is an extension of the already detrimental public stigma.”
Lauren Bryant, a current sophomore who became interested in emo music during her middle school years, believes the comeback of emo is because “people want to listen to depressing music.”
The world has become a chaotic and unforgiving place for more people in recent years and having an outlet, especially one that someone is already familiar with, provides catharsis. In some circles, this decade has been termed the “RAWRing 20s,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to old emo slang. One sign of the emo revival is major bands associated with the genre coming back with new tours and music, including My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Jimmy Eat World. They are playing into the current cultural zeitgeist and nostalgia, which is widely spread on social media platforms like Tiktok.
“There’s always going to be an angsty alternative group of people, but it will change and evolve over time,” Bryant said.
People, more than ever, want to find a space where their voices and feelings matter. For those old or new to the emo community, it is a place where they feel seen and heard in an era filled with uncertainty.
