Predecessors According to music writer Luke Britton, "it's generally accepted that the genre's pioneers" came in the late 1980s. During the decade, many
hardcore punk and
post-hardcore bands formed in
Washington, D.C. Post-hardcore, an experimental offshoot of hardcore punk, was inspired by . Hardcore punk bands and post-hardcore bands who influenced early emo bands include
Minor Threat,
Black Flag and
Hüsker Dü.
1984–1991: Origins Emo, which began as a post-hardcore subgenre,
Rites of Spring formed in 1983, using the musical style of hardcore punk and combining the musical style with melodic guitars, varied rhythms, and personal, emotional lyrics. Many of the band's themes, including nostalgia, romantic bitterness and poetic desperation, became familiar
tropes of later emo music. Its performances were public, emotional purges where audience members sometimes wept. Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat became a Rites of Spring fan (recording their only album and being their
roadie) and formed the emo band
Embrace, which explored similar themes of self-searching and emotional release. Similar bands followed in connection with the "
Revolution Summer” of 1985, an attempt by members of the Washington scene to break from the usual characteristics of hardcore punk to a hardcore punk style with different characteristics. Bands such as
Gray Matter,
Beefeater,
Fire Party,
Dag Nasty, and
Soulside were associated with the movement. The Washington, D.C., emo scene lasted only a few years, and by 1986, most of emo's major bands (including Rites of Spring, Embrace, Gray Matter and Beefeater) had broken up. However, its ideas and aesthetics spread quickly across the country through a network of homemade
zines, vinyl records and hearsay. According to Greenwald, the Washington, D.C., scene laid the groundwork for emo's subsequent incarnations: Maryland bands
Moss Icon and
the Hated formed at the tail end of Revolution Summer. Unlike previous emo bands, Moss Icon's music often disregarded the conventional rhythms and drive of punk. This is the point at which some music historians draw the distinction between "emo-core" and simply "emo", with Journalist D.I. Kravchek calling Moss Icon and the Hated the pioneers of emo, as opposed to emocore. Subsequently, the sound of emo spread through a number of separate scenes that although being disparate, were also intertwined.
1991–1994: Reinvention As the Washington, D.C., emo movement spread across the United States, local bands began to emulate its style. Emo combined the fatalism, theatricality and isolation of
the Smiths with hardcore punk's uncompromising, dramatic worldview. Despite the number of bands and the variety of locales, emocore's late-1980s aesthetics remained more-or-less the same: "over-the-top lyrics about feelings wedded to dramatic but decidedly punk music." During the early–mid 1990s, several new bands reinvented emo, making emo expand by becoming a subgenre of genres like indie rock and pop punk. Singer-guitarist
Blake Schwarzenbach focused his lyrics on personal, immediate topics often taken from his journal. Often obscure and cloaked in
metaphors, their relationship to Schwarzenbach's concerns gave his words a bitterness and frustration which made them universal and attractive to audiences. Schwarzenbach became emo's first idol, as listeners related to the singer even more than to his songs. Jawbreaker's 1994 album,
24 Hour Revenge Therapy, was popular with fans and is a
touchstone of mid-1990s emo. Although Jawbreaker signed with
Geffen Records and toured with mainstream bands Nirvana and
Green Day, Jawbreaker's 1995 album
Dear You did not achieve mainstream success. Jawbreaker broke up soon afterwards, with Schwarzenbach forming emo band
Jets to Brazil. Sunny Day Real Estate formed in
Seattle at the height of the early 1990s
grunge boom, which was also primarily associated with that city. The
music video for "Seven", lead track of the band's debut album
Diary (1994), was played on
MTV, giving the band more attention.
1994–1997: Underground popularity The American
punk and
indie rock movements, which had been largely underground since the early 1980s, became part of mainstream culture during the mid-1990s. With
Nirvana's success, major record labels capitalized on the popularity of
alternative rock and other underground music by signing and promoting independent bands. In 1994, the same year that Jawbreaker's
24 Hour Revenge Therapy and Sunny Day Real Estate's
Diary were released, punk rock bands
Green Day and
the Offspring broke into the mainstream with diamond album
Dookie and multi-platinum album
Smash, respectively. After underground music went mainstream, emo retreated and reformed as a national subculture over the next few years. A number of emo bands emerged in the underground around this time, the most famous of which was the
Arizona band
Jimmy Eat World, which issued its debut album in 1994 and was influenced by bands such as
the Mr. T Experience and
Horace Pinker. Jimmy Eat World released its
self-titled debut album in 1994. As they rose to fame, Jimmy Eat World toured with a number of peer bands, including
Mineral, another key group during this era with a more melodic sound. California's
Weezer is another band sometimes considered to be emo which rose to fame during this period, though Weezer's membership in the emo genre is debated. Inspired by Jawbreaker,
Drive Like Jehu and
Fugazi, 1990s emo abandoned the elements of
hardcore punk and used elements of indie rock, with
punk rock's
do-it-yourself work ethic but smoother songs and emotional vocals. According to Theo Cateforis of
Grove Music Dictionary: "These groups portrayed a sense of emotional
volatility in their music by using extended
song forms that oscillated between straight and
double time and clean guitar
timbres and bursts of
distortion. Vocalists deliberately avoided punk’s shouted style and sang melodic lines in a breathy
head voice, often straining at the top of their
range, which contributed to the music's sense of emotional urgency." Many 1990s emo bands, such as
Cap'n Jazz,
Braid,
Christie Front Drive,
Mineral, Jimmy Eat World,
the Get Up Kids and
the Promise Ring, originated in the central U.S. Many of the bands had a distinct vocal style and guitar melodies, which was later called
Midwest emo. According to Andy Greenwald, "this was the period when emo earned many, if not all, of the stereotypes that have lasted to this day: boy-driven, glasses-wearing, overly sensitive, overly brainy, chiming-guitar-driven college music." Emo band
Texas Is the Reason bridged the gap between
indie rock and emo in their three-year lifespan on the East Coast, melding Sunny Day Real Estate's melodies and punk musicianship and singing directly to the listener. In
New Jersey, the band
Lifetime played shows in fans' basements. Lifetime's 1995 album,
Hello Bastards on
Jade Tree Records, fused hardcore punk with emo and eschewed cynicism and irony in favor of love songs. The album sold tens of thousands of copies, and Lifetime paved the way for New Jersey and
Long Island emo bands
Brand New,
Midtown,
the Movielife,
My Chemical Romance, After the mainstream success of Weezer's
self-titled debut album,
Pinkerton showed a more dark and abrasive style. Frontman
Rivers Cuomo's songs focused on messy, manipulative sex and his insecurity about dealing with celebrity. A critical and commercial failure,
Rolling Stone called it the third-worst album of the year. Cuomo retreated from the public eye, later referring to the album as "hideous" and "a hugely painful mistake". However,
Pinkerton found enduring appeal with young people who were discovering
alternative rock and identified with its confessional lyrics and theme of rejection. Sales grew steadily due to word of mouth, online message boards and
Napster. "Although no one was paying attention", writes Greenwald, "perhaps
because no one was paying attention—
Pinkerton became the most important emo album of the decade." In 2004, James Montgomery of
MTV described Weezer as "the most important band of the last 10 years".
Pinkerton success grew very gradually, being certified gold by the RIAA in July 2001 and eventually being certified platinum by the RIAA in September 2016. Mid-1990s emo was embodied by Mineral, whose
The Power of Failing (1997) and
EndSerenading (1998) encapsulated emo tropes: somber music, accompanied by a shy narrator singing seriously about mundane problems. Greenwald calls "If I Could" "the ultimate expression" of 1990s emo, writing that "the song's short synopsis—she is beautiful, I am weak, dumb, and shy; I am alone but am surprisingly poetic when left alone — sums up everything that emo's adherents admired and its detractors detested." Another significant band was Braid, whose 1998 album
Frame and Canvas and
B-side song "Forever Got Shorter" blurred the line between band and listener; the group mirrored their audience in passion and sentiment, and sang in their fans' voice. Although mid-1990s emo had thousands of young fans, it did not enter the national consciousness. A few bands were offered contracts with major record labels, but most broke up before they could capitalize on the opportunity. Jimmy Eat World signed to
Capitol Records in 1995 and developed a following with their album,
Static Prevails, but did not break into the mainstream yet. The Promise Ring were the most commercially successful emo band of the time, with sales of their 1997 album
Nothing Feels Good reaching the mid-five figures. Greenwald calls the album "the pinnacle of its generation of emo: a convergence of pop and punk, of resignation and celebration, of the lure of girlfriends and the pull of friends, bandmates, and the road"; mid-1990s emo was "the last subculture made of vinyl and paper instead of plastic and megabytes".
1997–2002: Independent success Emo's popularity grew during the late 1990s, laying the foundation for mainstream success.
Deep Elm Records released a series of eleven
compilation albums,
The Emo Diaries, from 1997 to 2007. Emphasizing unreleased music from many bands, the series included Jimmy Eat World,
Further Seems Forever,
Samiam and
the Movielife. Nevertheless, the album had steady word-of-mouth popularity and eventually sold over 70,000 copies. Jimmy Eat World self-financed their next album,
Bleed American (2001), before signing with
DreamWorks Records. The album sold 30,000 copies in its first week, went gold shortly afterwards and went platinum in 2002, making emo become mainstream.
Drive-Thru Records developed a roster of primarily
pop punk bands with emo characteristics, including
Midtown,
the Starting Line, the Movielife and
Something Corporate. Drive-Thru's partnership with
MCA Records enabled its brand of emo-inflected pop to reach a wider audience. Drive-Thru's unabashedly populist, capitalist approach to music allowed its bands' albums and merchandise to sell in stores such as
Hot Topic. Independent label
Vagrant Records signed several successful late-1990s and early-2000s emo bands.
The Get Up Kids had sold over 15,000 copies of their debut album,
Four Minute Mile (1997), before signing with Vagrant. The label promoted them aggressively, sending them on tours opening for
Green Day and
Weezer. Their 1999 album,
Something to Write Home About, reaching number 31 on
Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. Vagrant signed and recorded a number of other emo-related bands over the next two years, including
the Anniversary,
Reggie and the Full Effect,
the New Amsterdams,
Alkaline Trio,
Saves the Day,
Dashboard Confessional,
Hey Mercedes and
Hot Rod Circuit. Saves the Day had developed a substantial East Coast following and sold almost 50,000 copies of their second album,
Through Being Cool (1999), before signing with Vagrant and releasing
Stay What You Are (2001).
Stay What You Are sold 15,000 copies in its first week, reached number 100 on the
Billboard 200 and sold at least 120,000 copies in the United States. Vagrant organized a national tour with every band on its label, sponsored by corporations including
Microsoft and
Coca-Cola, during the summer of 2001. Its populist approach and use of the internet as a marketing tool made it one of the country's most-successful independent labels and helped popularize the word "emo". According to Greenwald, "More than any other event, it was Vagrant America that defined emo to masses—mainly because it had the gumption to hit the road and bring it to
them."
2002–2010: Mainstream success Emo broke into the mainstream media during the summer of 2002. During this time, many fans of emo music had an appearance of short, dyed black hair with bangs cut high on the forehead, glasses with thick and black frames, and thrift store clothes. This fashion then became a huge part of emo's identity. Jimmy Eat World's
Bleed American album went platinum on the strength of "
The Middle", which topped
Billboard Alternative Songs chart. The mainstream success achieved by Jimmy Eat World paved the way for emo pop music that would appear during the rest of the 2000s, Dashboard Confessional was the first artist to record an episode of
MTV Unplugged. The 2002
resulting live album and video long-form was certified platinum by the RIAA on May 22, 2003, topped the Independent Albums chart, and, as of October 19, 2007, sold 316,000 copies. With Dashboard Confessional's mainstream success, Carrabba appeared on a cover of the magazine
Spin and according to
Jim DeRogatis, "has become the 'face of emo' the way that
Moby was deemed the prime exponent of
techno or
Kurt Cobain became the unwilling crown prince of grunge." Three of Dashboard Confessional's studio albums,
The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2001),
A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar (2003), and
Dusk and Summer (2006), all were certified gold by the RIAA during the mid-2000s. On August 10, 2003,
The New York Times reported how, "from the three-chord laments of Alkaline Trio to the
folky rants of
Bright Eyes, from the erudite pop-punk of
Brand New" to the entropic anthems of Thursday, much of the most exciting rock music" was appearing from the emo genre. Brand New also became an influential band in the emo scene in 2003 upon release of their second album
Deja Entendu, garnering commercial success as well as critical acclaim for their musical innovation within the genre, bringing in
indie rock influences. Its two singles "
The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" and "
Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades" both entered the top 40 on the
UK Singles Chart and
Deja Entendu was eventually certified gold in the US on May 3rd, 2007. Shortly after the release of the album, Brand New toured with
Blink-182 and
Incubus, playing in large arenas in Australia and the UK, respectively. Saves the Day toured with Green Day, Blink-182 and Weezer, playing in large arenas such as
Madison Square Garden. Saves the Day performed on ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien, appeared on the cover of Alternative Press and had music videos for "At Your Funeral" and "Freakish" in rotation on MTV2. Taking Back Sunday released their debut album, Tell All Your Friends'', on
Victory Records in 2002. The album gave the band a taste of success in the emo scene with singles such as "Cute Without the 'E' (Cut from the Team)" and "You're So Last Summer".
Tell All Your Friends was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA in 2023 and is considered one of emo's most-influential albums. As of May 8, 2009,
Tell All Your Friends sold 790,000 copies. Articles on Vagrant Records appeared in
Time and
Newsweek, and the word "emo" became a catchall term for non-mainstream pop music. In the wake of this success, many emo bands were signed to major record labels and the genre became marketable. According to DreamWorks Records senior
A&R representative Luke Wood, "The industry really does look at emo as the new
rap rock, or the new grunge. I don't think that anyone is listening to the music that's being made—they're thinking of how they're going to take advantage of the sound's popularity at retail." Emo's apolitical nature, catchy music and accessible themes had broad appeal for a young, mainstream audience. Emo bands that emerged or broke into the mainstream during this time were rejected by many fans of older emo music. As emo continued to be mainstream, it became quite common for emo bands to have black hair and wear eyeliner. The band's 2006 album,
Louder Now, reached number two on the
Billboard 200, was certified gold by the RIAA a little less than two months after its release date, and, as of May 8, 2009, sold 674,000 copies. Many critics have also referred to
The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me as one of the best albums of the
2000s decade, positively comparing Brand New's lyricism and musicianship to
Radiohead. A darker, more aggressive style of emo was also becoming popular. New Jersey–based
Thursday signed a multimillion-dollar, multi-album contract with
Island Def Jam after their 2001 album,
Full Collapse, reached number 178 on the
Billboard 200. Their music was more political and lacked pop hooks and anthems, influenced instead by
the Smiths,
Joy Division, and
the Cure. However, the band's accessibility, basement-show roots and touring with Saves the Day made them part of the emo movement. Thursday's 2003 album,
War All the Time, reached number seven on the
Billboard 200. Hawthorne Heights,
Story of the Year,
Underoath, and
Alexisonfire, four bands frequently featured on MTV, have popularized
screamo.
Senses Fail and
Vendetta Red. The Used's album
In Love and Death (2004) was certified gold by the RIAA on March 21, 2005 and platinum by the RIAA on February 28, 2019.
In Love and Death, as of January 2, 2007, sold 689,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Four Alexisonfire albums were certified gold or platinum in Canada.
Emo pop, a pop punk-oriented subgenre of emo with
pop-influenced
hooks, became the main emo style during the mid-to late 2000s, with many of these bands being signed by
Fueled by Ramen Records and some adopting a
goth-inspired look.
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge was certified platinum by the RIAA in 2005 less than a year after its release, eventually being certified triple platinum by the RIAA in 2017. The band's success continued with its third album,
The Black Parade, which sold 240,000 copies in its first week of release and like its predecessor was certified platinum by the RIAA in less than a year, eventually being certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA in 2023. Fall Out Boy's album,
From Under the Cork Tree, sold 2,700,000 copies in the United States by February 2013 and was eventually certified five-times platinum. The band's album,
Infinity on High, topped the
Billboard 200, sold 260,000 copies in its first week of release and sold 1,400,000 copies in the United States. Panic! at the Disco's album, ''
A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA and its single, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", reached number seven on the Billboard
Hot 100. Panic! at the Disco are known for combining emo with electronics and their album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'' is an emo album with elements of and
baroque pop. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus' "
Face Down" peaked at number 24 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and its album, ''
Don't You Fake It'', sold 852,000 copies in the United States.
AFI's albums
Sing the Sorrow and
Decemberunderground both were certified platinum by the RIAA, with
Decemberunderground peaking at number 1 on the
Billboard 200. Paramore's 2007 album
Riot! was certified triple platinum by the RIAA and several Paramore songs appeared on the
Billboard Hot 100 in the late 2000s, including "
Misery Business", "
Decode", "
Crushcrushcrush", "
That's What You Get", and "
Ignorance".
2010–present: Mainstream decline, underground revivals By 2010, emo's popularity began to decline. Many emo bands lost popularity or had changed genres;
My Chemical Romance's album,
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, featured a traditional
pop punk style.
Paramore and
Fall Out Boy both abandoned the emo genre with their 2013 albums,
Paramore and
Save Rock and Roll, respectively. Paramore moved to a
new wave-influenced style.
Panic! at the Disco also abandoned the
emo pop genre to a
synth-pop style on
Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!. Many emo bands, including My Chemical Romance, Alexisonfire, and Thursday, disbanded, raising concerns about the genre's viability. Andrew Sacher of Brooklyn Vegan explains, "The popularity led to backlash, and a rapidly-changing music industry eventually turned its attention away from punk-adjacent bands in the mainstream, leaving the genre stigmatized by the end of the 2000s, and eventually — as far as the mainstream was concerned — dead." The
emo revival or fourth-wave emo began in the late 2000s, taking influence from the sound of second wave
Midwest emo, as a reaction against the perceived commerciality of the third-wave emo sound.
Snowing and
Algernon Cadwallader and the English band
TTNG. A 2018
Stereogum article cited Algernon Cadwallader's 2008 LP
Some Kind Of Cadwallader as the emo revival's watershed release, Philadelphia's scene remained prominent throughout the wave, contributing bands such as
Everyone Everywhere,
Modern Baseball,
Balance and Composure, and
mewithoutYou. The name was originally coined to refer to only
Touché Amoré,
La Dispute,
Defeater,
Pianos Become the Teeth and
Make Do and Mend, however by 2014 had expanded to also include groups Balance and Composure, Into It. Over It. and
Title Fight. The Wave style was influential upon many groups in Australia and the United Kingdom, especially Wales. At this time, the YouTube channel Dreambound was one of the most prominent sources for finding bands, uploading music videos for many prominent bands. The most prominent act in this scene was
Casey from South Wales, In the later years of this scene, bands began decreasing the influence they took from hardcore, when
Crooks,
Holding Absence and Endless Heights were instead leaning further into post-rock and
shoegaze. the genre originated with bands from the
hardcore punk scene who began making music inspired by 1990s emo and post-hardcore as well as early 1990s alternative rock groups like the
Smashing Pumpkins,
Soundgarden and
Alice in Chains. The first wave of bands emerged in the early 2010s, including
Adventures, Balance and Composure,
Basement,
Citizen,
Pity Sex,
Superheaven and
Turnover. The majority of these bands were signed to
Run for Cover Records, made use of fuzz pedals and filmed their music videos using
8 mm film. Title Fight stood at the forefront of the genre with the success of their 2012 album
Floral Green. By the end of the 2010s, many of the most influential bands in fourth wave emo had disbanded: Modern Baseball in 2017, Title Fight in 2018 and Balance and Composure in 2019. Meanwhile, other bands who had previously been prolific, such as Defeater and La Dispute, entered periods of inactivity.
The Ringer writer Ian Cohen states fifth-wave emo began as early as 2017. That year,
Spin discussed a wave of "newer darlings" who were reviving the emo revival sound, calling this the "emo revival revival". Notable early fifth-wave artists included
Dogleg,
Glass Beach,
Origami Angel,
Pool Kids and
Awakebutstillinbed. During the late 2010s, much of the fifth-wave of emo was in disparate, disconnected scenes. However, amidst the
COVID-19 lockdowns, these scenes began to converge online, coalescing into a unified fifth-wave of emo by 2021. A major part of this converge was Home Is Where's heavy use of the term on social media, and the popularity of their EP
I Became Birds (2021). During the later years of the fourth-wave, bands such as
Crying and
the Brave Little Abacus experimented with emo, developing the "post-emo" genre. At this time, Origami Angel incorporating elements of
nu metal,
trap music and
bosa nova,
Parannoul with
digicore and
shoegaze,
Really From with
jazz, Hey ILY! with
chiptune Cohen noted the online emo community as mostly based around the websites Album Of The Year and
Rate Your Music, and particularly focusing on the projects Weatherday, Parannoul and What is Your Name?
Boolin Tunes called Your Arms Are My Cocoon "a cornerstone of [emo's] fifth wave". The project also incorporated elements of chiptune. Often times, subsequent bedroom skramz projects incorporated Midwest emo's riffing style and screamed vocals with major key synthesiser melodies and calm drum samples. By February 2022, the style had been adopted by Rookie Card, That Same Street, the Civil War In France, Calendar Year and Garden Angel. Amongst these articles, experimentation with other genres continued, with Garden Angel taking from
Nintendocore,
house music and
country music and That Same Street making use of
vocaloid vocals. On their 2025 album
Apiary, Gingerbee took bedroom skramz in a more progressive direction. Cohen credited Home is Where, Your Arms Are My Cocoon, Hey, Ily!, Lobster Fight, Rookie Card and Summer 2000 as "rerout[ing]" the fifth-wave away from the emo revival and the sound of Midwest emo.
Hyperpop artists
Jane Remover and
Brakence incorporated elements of Midwest emo. Sources including Cohen cited Brakence's second album
Hypochondriac (2022) as the "most important emo album since [the World is a Beautiful Place's]
Harmlessness".
Revolver editor Eli Enis said Jane Remover "mastered fifth-wave emo in one shot". Meanwhile, a separate group of bands defined another path for the genre that was still based in the hardcore scene and lacked the mainline fifth-wave scene's internet-centricity, including
One Step Closer,
Koyo and
Anxious. Cohen hailed Anxious' song "In April" as "The Most Important Emo Song" of 2022. In January 2025, Cohen observed that the fifth-wave of emo was declining and a sixth-wave was beginning. His conclusion was based on an increased number of bands distancing themselves from the fifth-wave's experimentation, instead reviving the sounds of the fourth-wave, citing the increased success of late 2010s bands
Ogbert the Nerd and Oolong, as well as new bands such as Pomfret. That year, many prominent fifth-wave emo bands disbanded or pivoted their styles away from emo.
BrooklynVegan editor Andrew Sacher credited the "emo revival revival" tag to See Through Person and
Ben Quad on their album ''I'm Scared That's All There Is'' (2022). The term was also used as a self-identifer by Kerosene Heights, to reference their embrace of the early emo revival sound of Algernon Cadwallader and Glocca Morra. ==Subgenres and fusion genres==