Mainstream Emo Popularity 2000s

Emo broke into the mainstream media in the summer of 2002 with a number of notable events:[73] Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American album went platinum on the strength of "The Middle", which reached #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.[73][74][75] Dashboard Confessional reached #22 on the same chart with "Screaming Infidelities"[76] from their Vagrant Records debut The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, which was #5 on Top Independent Albums,[72] and became the first non-platinum-selling artist to record an episode of MTV Unplugged[73] (the resultant live album itself was a #1 Independent Album in 2003 and quickly went platinum).[72][77] New Found Glory's album Sticks and Stones debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200.[73][78] Saves the Day toured with Green Day, Blink-182, and Weezer, playing large arenas such as Madison Square Garden,[79] and by the end of the year had 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 heavy rotation on MTV2.[68][70] Articles on Vagrant Records were published in Time and Newsweek,[80] while the word "emo" began appearing on numerous magazine covers and became a catchall term for any music outside of mainstream pop.Andy Greenwald attributes emo's sudden explosion into the mainstream to media outlets looking for the "next big thing" in the wake of the September 11 attacks:

The media business, so desperate for its self-obsessed, post-9/11 predictions of a return to austerity and the death of irony to come true, had found its next big thing. But it was barely a "thing," because no one had heard of it, and those who had couldn't define it. Despite the fact that the hedonistic, materialistic hip-hop of Nelly was still dominating the charts, magazine readers in the summer of '02 were informed that the nation was deep in an introverted healing process, and the way it was healing was by wearing thick black glasses and vintage striped shirts. Emo, we were told, would heal us all through fashion.[82]

In a world where cars are advertised as punk, Green Day members are platinum rock stars, and getting pierced and tatted up is as natural as a sweet-sixteen party, everyone is free to come up with their own definition of punk—and everyone is ready to embrace it. Emo had always connected with young people—it had just never aggressively marketed itself to them.[83]

While Jimmy Eat World had played emocore-style music early in their career, by the time of the release of their 2001 album Bleed American, the band had downplayed its emo influences, releasing more pop-oriented singles such as "The Middle" and "Sweetness". Newer bands that sounded like Jimmy Eat World (and, in some cases, like the more melodic emo bands of the late 90s) were soon included in the genre.[84]

2003 saw the success of Chris Carrabba, the former singer of emo band Further Seems Forever, and his project Dashboard Confessional. Carraba found himself part of the emerging "popular" emo scene. Carrabba's music featured lyrics founded in deep diary-like outpourings of emotion. While certainly emotional, the new "emo" had a far greater appeal amongst adolescents than its earlier incarnations.[85]

At the same time, use of the term "emo" expanded beyond the musical genre, which added to the confusion surrounding the term. The word "emo" became associated with open displays of strong emotion. Common fashion styles and attitudes that were becoming idiomatic of fans of similar "emo" bands also began to be referred to as "emo." As a result, bands that were loosely associated with "emo" trends or simply demonstrated emotion began to be referred to as emo.[86]

In a strange twist, screamo, a more aggressive sub-genre of emo that began in the early 90s, also had a reformulation of sound and has found greater popularity in recent years through bands such as Glassjaw.[87]

Fashion and stereotype

Today emo is commonly tied to both music and fashion as well as an inspiration toward the emo subculture,[88] and the term "emo" is sometimes stereotyped with tight jeans on males and females alike, long fringe (bangs) brushed to one side of the face or over one or both eyes, dyed black, straight hair, tight t-shirts (usually short-sleeved) which often bear the names of emo bands (or other designer shirts), studded belts, belt buckles, canvas sneakers or skate shoes or other black shoes and thick, black horn-rimmed glasses.[89][90][91] This fashion has at times been characterized as a fad.[92] Early on, emo fashion was associated with a clean cut look[93] but as the style spread to younger teenagers, the style has become darker, with long bangs and emphasis on the colour black replacing sweater vest. In recent years the popular media have associated emo with a stereotype that includes being emotional, sensitive, shy, introverted, or angst-ridden.[94][95][96] It is also associated with depression, self-injury, and suicide.[97][98]

Backlash

Warped Tour founder, Kevin Lyman stated that he believes there is an emo backlash saying that he sees "I hate emo" t-shirts and that there was hostility among bands on the tour towards emo groups.[99]

In 2008, Time Magazine reported that "anti-emo" groups attacked teenagers in Mexico City, Querétaro, and Tijuana.[100][101] One of Mexico's foremost critics of emo was Kristoff, a music presenter on the popular TV channel Telehit.

Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance stated in an interview "emo is a pile of shit", and that his "band was never emo".[102][103] Panic at the Disco also stated in an interview with NME: "emo is bullshit."[104] These two bands, however, tend to be classified as emo.

Fans of emo are criticized[who?] for purported displays of emotion common in the scene. Complaints claimed that emotions were expressed in an histrionic manner.[105]

Justin Jacobs has criticised emo music of the early 2000s, arguing it became boring and generic.[106]

Emo music has been blamed for the suicide by hanging of Hannah Bond by both the coroner at the inquest into her death and her mother, Heather Bond, after it was claimed that emo music glamorized suicide and her apparent obsession with My Chemical Romance was said to be linked to her suicide. The inquest heard that she was part of an Internet "emo" cult [107] and her Bebo page contained an image of an 'emo girl' with bloody wrists.[108] It also heard that she had discussed the "glamour" of hanging online[107] and had explained to her parents that her self harming was an "emo initiation ceremony".[108] Heather Bond criticised emo fashion, saying: "There are 'emo' websites that show pink teddies hanging themselves." After the verdict was reported in NME, fans of emo music contacted the magazine to defend against accusations that it promotes self harm and suicide.[109]

In Russia, a law has been presented at the Duma to regulate emo websites and forbid emo style at schools and government buildings, for fears of emo being a "dangerous teen trend" promoting anti-social behaviour, depression, social withdrawal and even suicide.