Is Emo Making A Comeback?
If your room was covered wall to wall in pull out posters from the latest issue of Kerrang! This one’s for you.
Back in 2012, I was one thing: a wannabe emo. Sleeping With Sirens, Paramore and Pierce the Veil were my icons. After a long hard day at school, all I wanted to do was put in my earphones and pretend I was at one of their gigs.
Being a teenager isn’t easy, and emo music was the saviour for all of us kids who wanted to escape our everyday lives. It’s no surprise that the anticipated return of the genre has sparked some excitement in 2022, especially in the wake of Avril Lavigne’s comeback with her new album Love Sux.
TikTok has unsurprisingly played a huge role in the resurgence of emo music, with many songs from the early to late 2000s becoming increasingly popular on the social media platform. Last year, Buzzfeed News found that the 2007 pop-punk hit Dear Maria, Count Me In by All Time Low became so popular that it went double platinum in March, all thanks to its circulation on the app.
TikTok users have been making challenge videos with music from the genre too, with the hashtag #emosongchallenge trending on the platform since early 2021. The idea behind the challenge is that users play songs from various bands such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, to test their emo-ness on a scale of one to it’s not a phase, mom.
It seems that lately, many artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, Willow Smith and Machine-Gun Kelly are tapping into the sounds of emo and pop-punk. According to Bustle, some of Olivia Rodrigo’s songs on her debut album Sour, took heavy inspiration from the likes of Paramore. In Rodrigo’s iconic song Good 4 U, the teen sensation follows in the footsteps of the lead singer of Paramore, Hayley Williams. By talking over electric guitars and staccato basslines similar to that in the group’s hit song Misery Business, there is no denying that the genre is influencing a new generation of musicians.
Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) and Willow recently paired up with the pop-punk legend and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker in their song Emo Girl. MGK has always been hot on the emo scene ever since his feature on Sleeping With Sirens’ 2013 song Alone, but his recent shift from hip hop to pop-punk has played a significant part in making the genre more mainstream.
As a musician, MGK is aware of the genre’s comeback and fully supports its resurgence. In an interview with Variety, the artist said that his nomination for the approaching Grammys this April would “prove to people that rock music isn’t dead – especially in a day and age where people can’t help but to say that it is”.
It’s surprising to see such a niche music genre trending on social media and becoming so mainstream in the industry. In 2013, if you said that your favourite musician was Bring Me The Horizon, you wouldn’t get the look of approval from the popular kids. Instead, you would just get a few dirty looks and mocking laughs because you were weird, and seemed a bit ‘different’ to everyone else.
Emo is all about embracing what makes you quote-unquote different, and taking ownership of being an outcast. Wearing band t-shirts, eyeliner, and backcombing your hair so that it resembled a bird’s nest wasn’t a cry for attention. It was an illustration of individuality and self-expression.
In 2022, embracing individuality and indulging in self-expression is heavily encouraged. Social media sites like TikTok have played a huge part in the new trend of embracing who you are as an individual, and proudly sharing it with others. According to Forbes, the platform is synonymous with self-expression, giving users space to experiment with subcultures and alter egos. There’s not as much pressure to stick to the status quo anymore - something we all felt forced to do ten years ago.
Being emo is more than just the music that you listen to, but also the way you dress and present yourself to the people around you. Similar to e-girl and e-boy culture, emo gives room for people to experiment with their appearance. There are no distinguished boundaries when it comes to gender either. For example, Emo embraces the men that choose to paint their nails and adopt traditionally feminine looks, something that straight men have constantly been taught to shy away from. MGK recently brought out a nail varnish collection called UN/DN LAQR, encouraging anyone and everyone to embrace their inner Pete Wentz.
It can be argued that in recent years, emo culture has become more prominent within mainstream pop culture. Travis Barker’s relationship with Kourtney Kardashian and MGK’s relationship with Megan Fox highlights the coexistence of two cultures that in the past have never really seen eye to eye. Kourtney Kardashian and Megan Fox are two women who embody pop culture, so their relationships with pop-punk and emo musicians perhaps signify how mainstream emo is now becoming.
The resurgence of the genre is certainly a surprise, but a pleasant one. With more artists embracing emo and pop-punk, as well as the acceptance of the culture within mainstream media, it can be predicted that it will only grow in its popularity. Its comeback will not only inspire future musicians - but will also provide a sense of nostalgia for all of us that grew up wishing they were part of the black parade.
Written by Emma Richardson
Hi! My name is Emma and I’m from Northumberland – currently living in Nottingham. I’m studying a Masters in Magazine Journalism at Nottingham Trent University, and one day I would love to work for a glossy mag. I’m a huge fan of Cosmopolitan, Frank Ocean, and mojitos, as well as daydreaming about one day going to visit Colorado.
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