Emo Scene Community

Emo has specific characteristics. Emo began in the mid 80's, and it was basically raw, unpolished hardcore punk / post-hardcore music with emotionally charged lyrics (See bands like the Rites Of Spring and Embrace for reference). That type of emo music is generally called emocore / emotive hardcore today. Emo in the 90's had the same formula, but incorporated indie rock elements (see bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Texas Is The Reason, The Promise Ring..) Emo in the 00's had multiple different forms, which led to the mainstream media being very confused about this genre. Acoustic emo bands like Dashboard Confessional and Bright Eyes became popular, whilst bands that incorporated a a more polished post hardcore emo sound became popular as well (see bands like Hawthorne Heights and From First To Last.) Emo-pop (short for emo pop punk) became popular during this time as well. Bands like My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday and Fall Out Boy are examples. I probably explained this really badly, but i tried.

Other emo bands include The Used, Thursday, Silverstein, Senses Fail..

^Pretty much all of this. I feel like the thing with bands like Twenty One Pilots is that they have something that I call a "scene appeal." They've got enough qualities about them to catch the interest of fans of emo without necessarily really fitting the bill when it comes to the sound that made the scene in the first place. I feel like things with a "scene appeal" either have shared imagery (fashion sense or angst ridden lyrics) or are more artistic/alternative than normal (see angst). This could be applied to Linkin Park, Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria, Three Days Grace, BOTDF, Marilyn Manson, etc. That's generally why there's a lot of confusion about what "Emo" actually is... Well that and people tend to like to either use it as a.) an insult, or b.) a marketing gimmick/Emo my association. Emo By Association is another term I came up with. The rule is generally that if something becomes popular in either Alternative Press and/or Hot Topic, the chances of it being associated with emo culture increases. This also goes back to Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Evanescence, etc. If you ever notice a huge confusion between the "Mall Goths," and "Emos," this rule could be why. None of these artists are inferior by any means, it's just that a lot of occasionally aggravating confusion has mixed them in with a scene and sound that they have no real ties to aside from a shared place of advertisement. For a long time companies wanted to sell to the "Emos" because it was a growing demographic and all they saw out of it was "angsty music." Most music has some form of angst in it. What made Emo special was the overdramatic aspects being applied to the normally easygoing world of indie-rock and the normally politically leaned punk rock. Metal already tends to show a lot of emotion. Plenty of Hip Hop tends to show a lot of artistic merit. There's even electropop out there that evokes a lot of feelings from people when done right. A lot of times, companies just want to make sure that their product reaches as many people as possible and if it means hijacking a scene, they'll do it for the money.

Okay, thank you so much, I feel way better about this. I feel like sometimes bands that are listened to a lot by Emos eventually becomes accepted as Emo music, but it isn't actually the case. That's why I'm trying to find actual bands that are Emo and not just imitations, or bands that have the ' scene appeal ' like you mentioned. As well as the xmydyingheartx, you explained it just fine, I understood it perfectly. I just really want to be knowledgeable about the Emo culture, because I don't want to say something that actually isn't true. Once again, thanks for the explanation, this was crazy helpful! ❤️

Meaningful lyrics not directly relating to overused and extremely mainstream themes like drugs, sex, money, and partying. They should make you question life and evoke emotion from the listener. Usually legit emo music has some sort of guitar in it, too.

Yeah, the guitar seems to be a common characteristic with Emo bands. And I get what you mean by those mainstream lyrics, like they stuff they put out today isn't telling kids the right thing. My brothers listen to modern rap ( I call it modern because classic rap- Rap from the 80s and 90s- was so much better ) and I'm just like " how do you like that? Do you even know what it's saying? ". But I'd also like to mention that TØP does have that confessional lyrical content, and that's probably the main reason why it's come to be considered Emo. But instead of guitar solos, they use the piano, the ukulele, drums, and a synthesizer ( I think that's what they call it, I'm not sure....). So I guess it has more to do with the instruments they use than anything else.