When I say emo, what do you picture? Long, poorly-cut, dark black hair? Angsty Facebook profile pictures? The year 2007 personified? These are what people generally associate the genre of emo with, and that's a shame. Emo is a genre with a rich history and some absolutely fantastic music. Forming out of the hardcore punk scene of the '80s, emo started out as "emotional hardcore", or "emocore", a genre that mixed the aggression of hardcore punk with more sincere, emotional lyrics. The hardcore influence soon became less notable, and the genre was henceforth christened as "emo". There are many different subgenres of emo—midwest emo, emo-pop, emo rap, screamo—and they all have rich histories that aren't done justice by the stereotypical view of the genre.
1. Gray Matter - "Burn No Bridges"
This is arguably where the genre of emo began. Gray Matter was formed from the ruins of several different D.C. punk bands, and they took their former genre, slowed it down, added more of a focus on melody, cleaned up the vocals and made them whinier, and emo was born. This may seem like a pretty standard hardcore song, but the influence it's had is immeasurable.
2. Rites of Spring - "For Want Of"
Gray Matter might have had one of the first and most influential emo songs, but Rites of Spring had the genre's first legitimate album, and what an album it is. "For Want Of" is it's centerpiece, and it's a masterclass in punk songwriting. The melody is genius, the guitar work is immense, the driving rhythm is incredibly fun, and punk legend Guy Picciotto's vocals are palpably hurt and emotional.
3. Sunny Day Real Estate - "Seven"
Midwest emo is a genre that combines the punky energy of emo with the subdued songwriting of indie rock, and Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate were one of the genre's first proponents. "Seven" is the opening track off the group's debut record Diary, and it's one of the most emotionally effective openers of all time. The strained guitar riff and the propulsive drums practically explode out of the speakers, and the catharsis given by the chorus is so fantastic I couldn't even begin to describe it.
4. Weezer - "Falling for You"
A longstanding debate surrounds Weezer's sophomore effort Pinkerton. Is it emo? Some say no, it's a power pop album with huge, catchy hooks; some say yes, it's raw, painfully emotional, and honest. I fall firmly on the latter camp, Pinkerton is absolutely an emo record, and "Falling for You" is its most emo song. The lyrics are seemingly off-the-cuff and painfully personal (like, weirdly personal), and the song itself is a perfect mixture of raw and entirely catchy. The "holy sweet godd**n" bridge is blissful.
5. Cap'n Jazz - "Oh Messy Life"
To me, Cap'n Jazz are the band that best explain what emo is all about—unbridled teen angst. Emo shouldn't touch on real, pressing topics that adults might worry about, it's all about the little insecurities amplified to the umpteenth degree by puberty-ridden teenage brains. Considering Cap'n Jazz was a band full of teenagers, they absolutely nail that. The lyrics and vocals are beautifully and painfully sincere, and the instrumental work is wistful, twinkly, and gloriously nostalgic.
6. American Football - "Never Meant"
Mike Kinsella, formerly the drummer for Cap'n Jazz, took the reins as vocalist and guitarist for American Football, probably my favorite emo band of all time. Their self-titled debut album is a flash in the plan masterpiece. The instrumental work is unparalleled, the songwriting is brilliant, and the whole vibe of the album is one of pure melancholy and nostalgia, I adore it. "Never Meant" is the album's opener, and it encapsulates everything the album is about. Kinsella sings about dying love, the band plays twinkly emo in weird time signatures, it's perfect.
7. Mineral - "&Serenading"
Midwest emo is often described with the adjective "twinkly". It makes a lot of sense, a common facet of the genre is clean guitars produced in such a way that they sound, well, "twinkly". There's really no better way to describe it, but it gives almost every release in the genre a dreamy feel that I adore. "&Serenading" is the logical conclusion to twinkly emo music, without a doubt. The guitars are as twinkly as humanly possible, and the rhythm section and the delicate, slow-motion vocals emphasize a really dreamy atmosphere that makes the big emotional release at the end of the track that much more effective.
8. The Promise Ring - "Red & Blue Jeans"
The Promise Ring are another emo band that imbue their music with a dreamy quality, albeit in a much more active, pop punk-esque setting. The guitars play beautifully subdued melodies, and the lyrics are almost entirely just various forms of "do", but the band somehow manages to make the whole thing come together into a beautifully dreamy track perfect for melancholy summer nights.
9. Everyone Asked About You - "Me vs. You"
Everyone Asked About You had the brilliant idea to mix the songwriting and longing lyrics of emo with the lo-fi production and general ethos of twee pop, and the result was one of the best EPs of the '90s. The lo-fi sound adds a certain level of intimacy to the song that would be impossible with a more well-done recording, the cathartic ending is beautiful, and it's really nice to hear a voice in the genre that isn't a straight white dude.
10. The Get Up Kids - "Action and Action"
The Get Up Kids were a watershed band in emo music. They took the genre away from the long, wistful soundscapes of midwest emo into the emo-pop sound that would bring the genre its greatest commercial success and mainstream exposure. That's not to dig on The Get Up Kids, they're a great band and "Action and Action" is a great song. The vocals and lyrics from emo are still here in spades, but they combined them with a really hooky pop punk sound indebted to early Weezer more than anything else.
11. Indian Summer - "Angry Son"
Move over Nirvana, Indian Summer are the masters of the quiet and loud dynamic. A lot of emo bands that utilize long, drawn-out buildups forget one major thing—the cathartic ending can't be the meat of the entire song. Indian Summer take five glorious minutes to build up "Angry Son", adding layer upon layer of guitar, percussion, and spoken word, and the build-up is truly rewarding and cathartic.
12. On the Might of Princes - "For Meg"
Everything I said about "Angry Son" could apply here, so there's a pretty obvious reason tas to why they're my two favorite emo songs of all time.
13. Orchid - "I Am Nietzche"
30 seconds or so is usually all Orchid needs to craft a perfect screamo song, but they usually flourish when they allow their radical bursts of sound and energy to extend beyond a minute. "I Am Niezche" is arguably their opus, it showed every last thing they were capable of. Behind the walls of noise is an immaculately crafted punk song with insightful lyrics, and with the walls of noise the song becomes even more brutally emotional and raw.
14. City of Caterpillar - "A Little Change Could Go a Long Ways"
The early 2000s saw the rise of an interesting and beautiful genre mashup—the unexpectedly beautiful duo of screamo and post-rock. City of Caterpillar took on this sound better than anyone else, and "A Little Change Could Go a Long Ways" shows the potential of the genre combination to create some of the most beautiful, emotional, and raw music ever recorded. The first half is beautiful, dreamy, foreboding post-rock, the second half is hard-hitting, heavy screamo, and the ending brings the whole package together.
15. Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle"
Jimmy Eat World may have started off as a pretty standard twinkly midwest emo band, but they sold out better than pretty much every other emo band out there. "The Middle" is the perfect emo-pop song, it takes the general vibe of emo and pairs it with pretty much the catchiest songwriting of all time. The chorus is an absolutely beautiful piece of pre-9/11 songwriting, the last dying gasp of the late-'90s before the paranoia and fear of the early 2000s took over.
16. My Chemical Romance - "Helena"
My Chemical Romance are probably the band most responsible for the public perception of emo, and that makes a lot of sense, they were immensely successful. They brought a sense of theatricality to the genre that, while commonly ripped-off, hasn't been successfully emulated. It's purely the invention of Gerard Way and co., and their concise songwriting and Way's passionate vocal performance turn this seemingly cheesy and over-the-top song into a bonafide masterpiece of emo-pop.
17. Panic! at the Disco - "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"
I'm assuming most people reading this are college students who identify as either late Millenials or early Gen Xers, so I doubt I really need to explain this song. Panic! at the Disco are the ultimate emo-pop band, and while they have since fully moved away from that sound, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" still serves as a fascinating and begrudginly catchy time capsule right into the mid-2000s. A song like this would probably never chart at #7 nowadays, the mid-2000s were a strange era.
18. Paramore - "Misery Business"
While Paramore has since moved into a new wave-esque direction that I like way more, it's hard to listen to "Misery Business" and not admit that, even back then, Paramore was leagues above their peers in terms of pure songwriting prowess. While Hayley Williams has since denounced the song, this song is a pure angsty fantasy with soaring vocals and an anthemic chorus, what else could you want from emo-pop?
19. Snowing - "Pump Fake"
Snowing sought to move away from the glossy emo-pop of the 2000s and harken back to the midwest sounds of the '90s, ushering in an emo revival that's still going strong to this day. The guitars are properly twinkly, the time signatures are weird, the vocalist is painfully earnest and whiny, "Pump Fake" manages to transport the listener back to the days of Sunny Day Real Estate and Jawbreaker without compromising their own artistic integrity.
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - "Getting Sodas"
TWIABP (I'm not typing out their full name every time, sue me) attempted to revive a different kind of emo than Snowing, that kind being the long, drawn-out, post-rock influenced emo popularized by On the Might of Princes and The Appleseed Cast. "Getting Sodas" effectively recreates that sound while adding in an extra dose of angsty pop punk and a heavy amount of beautiful, pure nostalgia.
Brave Little Abacus - "The Blah Blah Blahs"
As much as I generally enjoy the emo revival scene, most bands in it pick one sound and stick to it religiously, there's not exactly a lot of variation to be found. Brave Little Abacus are the only emo revival band to really try something new, and they pull it off beautifully. "The Blah Blah Blahs" features chiptunes, horns, an ambient section, and just about everything in between. While a lesser band would allow these little add-ons to completely take over their track, Brave Little Abacus let it enhance theirs.
The Hotelier - "An Introduction to the Album"
In a lot of ways "An Introduction to the Album" can be seen as a spiritual successor to My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade". Both songs start off as piano-centric ballads, eventually exploding into passionate, punky emo songs. Well I like MCR's song just fine, "An Introduction to the Album" does it with a whole lot more subtlety and raw emotion, serving perfectly as an introduction to Home, Like Noplace Is There while still remaining beautiful and powerful on its own.
Touché Amoré - "New Halloween"
A great album is sometimes accompanied by a great, emotionally resonant story. Nothing by Touché Amoré ever clicked with me until Stage Four, a stark and grief-stricken album about Jeremy Bolm losing his mother to cancer. "New Halloween" is my favorite track from the album, a driving and passionate emo track detailing Bolm coming to terms with the one year anniversary of his mom's passing. If anybody has ever lost a loved on, this song will hurt. Hard.
Lil Peep - "Star Shopping"
As many of you may know, the most recent wave of emo has been spearheaded by "emo rap", a genre of hip hop that takes vocal, lyrical, and instrumental influence from emo. The late Lil Peep was the genre's star figure, and "Star Shopping" is his magnum opus. Peep waxes poetic about lost love over a haunting guitar sample and a driving beat, effectively updating emo for a more modern generation. The final chorus is almost unbearable to listen to following Peep's death last year at the age of 21.
Lil Uzi Vert - "XO Tour Llif3"
While "Star Shopping" is arguably the pinnacle of emo rap, Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3" brought it to the mainstream. The track is almost a perfect 50/50 mix of trap rap and emo, combing a haunting trap beat with a pained, emotional chorus from Lil Uzi Vert. The lyrics detail Uzi's strained relationship with fame, drugs, and alcohol, and the eerie, moody beat perfectly complement them. Ten years from now, this will be seen as a perfect capsule of music from the late '10s.
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