Emo, a subculture that was born in the Washington D.C., post-hardcore scene in the early 80s, has been rapidly evolving in recent years among the newest generation of angsty high schoolers.
The emo genre started to boom in the 80s and 90s as a subgenre of both hardcore and indie rock, with bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Rites of Spring and American Football. The genre created a community surrounding melancholic lyrics for people who believed they did not quite fit in with society. However, after bands with a catchier sound and edgier aesthetic such as Panic! At The Disco and My Chemical Romance started to become mainstream in the 2000s, the genre became less about the music community and more about the aesthetic.
“I also like the emo aesthetic, but to be an emo you have to listen to emo music and not follow all the trendy aesthetics. It’s much deeper than the look, it’s more about the music, the style and the bonding,” said junior Maleka Mojadidi.
Social media has played a considerably significant role in this shift. With the rise of “aesthetics” in recent years on applications like TikTok and Pinterest, students feel pressured to buy certain clothing items from fast fashion companies, such as Shein, to fit in with the emo aesthetic. This heavily contrasts to how the subculture originated, as there was not a particular style surrounding the emo characteristic.
“Social media misconstrued the meaning of a lot of subcultures,” said junior Cleo Castillo. “Tying into that, subcultures are the “clothing that they wear,” when that is not the case at all. A lot of older emo bands just wore jeans and T-shirts.”
Although modern society associates emo with the physical aspects, many popular artists have been trying to bring emo back to the music industry. Despite these artists’ attempts to appeal to a newer emo audience, many people in the emo subculture are not too fond of it.
“I feel like most bands aren’t doing a great job at bringing emo music back,” said Mojadidi.
Rapper Machine Gun Kelly in particular has been trying to revive the emo scene with his new pop-punk sound. His song, “emo girl,” that was released in 2022, was not very well received by his target audience.
“‘emo girl’ by Machine Gun Kelly has been very popular and I feel like that song has kind of ruined the image of emo. The emo community is much deeper than that,” said Mojadidi.
While there have been some new artists who steer away from what emo originally was, there also have been some newer bands in the scene that have been inspired by the second wave, Midwest emo movement such as Mom Jeans, Hot Mulligan and Modern Baseball.
Despite all the changes the genre has gone through, the forever evolving genre can still be enjoyed by all kinds of students, whether they are in it for the “edgy” aesthetic or the relatable woeful music.
