Emo is a music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid-1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, among others, pioneered the genre. In the early-to-mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and pop-punk bands, including Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from Midwest emo, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, the Used, and Underoath.
Screamo is a subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics". San Diego–based bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow pioneered the genre in the early 1990s, and it was developed in the late 1990s mainly by bands from the East Coast of the United States such as Pg. 99, Orchid, Saetia, and I Hate Myself. Screamo is strongly influenced by hardcore punk and characterized by the use of screamed vocals. Lyrical themes usually include emotional pain, death, romance, and human rights. The term "screamo" has frequently been mistaken as referring to any music with screaming.
Alexisonfire is a Canadian post-hardcore band formed in St. Catharines, Ontario in 2001. The band's members are George Pettit (vocals), Dallas Green, Wade MacNeil, Chris Steele (bass) and Jordan Hastings. The band has won numerous awards, and in Canada their albums have all been certified either gold or platinum.
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period.
Watch Out! is the second studio album from Canadian post-hardcore band Alexisonfire, released on June 8, 2004. The album debuted at number 6 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 6,580 copies in its first week of release, and was certified Platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) in 2007.
Silverstein is a Canadian rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 2000. Their band name is a reference to the famous children's author Shel Silverstein, who the band had admired and whose work they had read as children. They have released a total of eleven studio albums, seven EPs, a compilation album and a live DVD/CD.
Hawthorne Heights is an American rock band formed in Dayton, Ohio in 2001. Originally called A Day in the Life, their lineup currently consists of JT Woodruff, Matt Ridenour, Mark McMillon, and Chris Popadak.
The Silence in Black and White is the debut studio album by the American rock band Hawthorne Heights, and their first release after changing their name from A Day in the Life.
"Ohio Is for Lovers", also known as simply "Ohio", is a song by American rock band Hawthorne Heights, released as the debut single from their debut studio album, The Silence in Black and White, which was released in 2004. According to lead singer JT Woodruff, the song is about going on tour whilst leaving their girlfriends in Ohio.
The Poison is the debut studio album by Welsh heavy metal band Bullet for My Valentine. The album was released on 3 October 2005 through Visible Noise Records in the UK, and on 14 February 2006 in the United States, through Trustkill Records. The album included 11 new songs and two previously heard songs, "Cries in Vain", which was previously heard from the band's self-titled UK EP and from their US EP, Hand of Blood, as well as from "4 Words " was previously included on the same US release. Different editions of the album contain the song "Hand of Blood", previously heard from these EPs, replacing "Spit You Out".
Emo pop is a fusion genre combining emo with pop-punk, pop music, or both. Emo pop features a musical style with more concise composition and hook-filled choruses. Emo pop has its origins in the 1990s with bands like Jimmy Eat World, the Get Up Kids, Weezer and the Promise Ring. The genre entered the mainstream in the early 2000s with Jimmy Eat World's breakthrough album Bleed American, which included its song "The Middle". Other emo pop bands that achieved mainstream success throughout the decade included Fall Out Boy, the All-American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore. The popularity of emo pop declined in the 2010s, with some prominent artists in the genre either disbanding or abandoning the emo pop style.
The scene subculture is a youth subculture that emerged during the early 2000s in the United States from the pre-existing emo subculture. The subculture became popular with adolescents from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Members of the scene subculture are referred to as scene kids, trendies, or scenesters. Scene fashion consists of skinny jeans, bright-colored clothing, a signature hairstyle consisting of straight, flat hair with long fringes covering the forehead, and bright-colored hair dye. Music genres associated with the scene subculture include metalcore, crunkcore, deathcore, electronic music, and pop punk.
Touché Amoré is an American post-hardcore band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2007. Since 2010, the band has consisted of vocalist Jeremy Bolm, guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt, bassist Tyler Kirby, and drummer Elliot Babin. To date, the band have released six studio albums: ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse in 2009, Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me in 2011, Is Survived By in 2013, Stage Four in 2016, Lament in 2020, and Spiral in a Straight Line in 2024.
Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair is the second studio album by American post-hardcore band La Dispute. Supported by three release shows, it was released on November 11, 2008, alongside Here, Hear II. through No Sleep Records on both CD and vinyl. The album's title is derived from an Asian folktale, which the album's lyrics loosely follow. The album received positive reviews by notable critics, and it remains as a legacy in the post-hardcore scene.
Loma Prieta is an American hardcore punk band that formed in 2005. The group is based in San Francisco, California and derived their name from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Most of the group's early material was released on their own record label named Discos Huelga. Loma Prieta has toured the US, Mexico, Canada, Europe and Japan. They share members with Punch. Their often dark and emotionally charged music blends a range of styles, most prominently screamo and powerviolence.
The emo revival, or fourth wave emo, was an underground emo movement which began in the late 2000s and flourished until the mid-to-late 2010s. The movement began towards the end of the 2000s third-wave emo, with Pennsylvania-based groups such as Tigers Jaw, Algernon Cadwallader and Snowing eschewing that era's mainstream sensibilities in favor of influence from 1990s Midwest emo. Acts like Touché Amoré, La Dispute and Defeater drew from 1990s emo and especially its heavier counterparts, such as screamo and post-hardcore.
Jeromes Dream is a screamo band formed in Connecticut and currently based in San Francisco, California, originally active from 1997 to 2001, and again from 2018 onwards.
Suis La Lune were a Swedish screamo band from Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden.
State Faults are an American post-hardcore band formed in Santa Rosa, California in 2010. Noisey included their album "Resonate/Desperate" as one of the records that best captures the last decade of hardcore punk. In 2019, they were listed at number 16 on Kerrang's 50 Best American Hardcore Bands Right Now list.
