The Rise of Mainstream Emo

Picture this: it is 2015. Donning your favourite band t-shirt, you are listening to Panic! At The Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out on repeat, volume full blast, mouthing the words to the songs like your life depends on it. Fast forward 10 years, and we are still there, digging into what was once the most pivotal part of our life, Emo.

Well, at least I am anyway.

At 14, mainstream Emo music came crashing into my life when I was least expecting it. Not to be dramatic, but if I had not discovered Emo music, I would not be where I am today studying Music Journalism.

Now I am 21, and some of those Emo memories remain- with photo evidence of what I liked to call my ‘emo corner’. CD stacks, records, posters, and a jukebox CD player that lingered in the corner of my room for 2 years.

I would like to delve deeper into Emo- where it came from, what it became over time, and whether there is a future for the subculture.

So, before we dive dyed hair head-first into Emo, let’s get this out of the way:

With its jet black, straightened hair- so fried from bleach and straighteners that no amount of hair oil could ever bring it back to life- emotional hardcore (also named ‘Emocore’ during this period) began to take shape during the ‘90s.

In San Diego, the iconic look even earned the nickname ‘Spock Rock,’ due to the distinct side fringe and styled hair that defined the early wave of what we know now as Emo.

Deriving from Washington, Sunny Day Real Estate fused grunge and pop-punk melodies, with powerful evocative lyrics. After just two shows, the band were signed to the Seattle label Sub Pop, who focused on unsigned artists who leaned towards the emotional sound of early Emo.

Other American mid-west bands like Jimmy Eat World, Weezer and Rites of Spring brought heart and soul to Punk Rock.

At this point, Emo remained an underground scene- something you were exclusively part of. But with the turn of the millennium, the Emoscene was suddenly pushed into the spotlight.

“FUCK THE DAILY MAIL!” Is what Gerard Way of MCR shouted on stage at Reading Festival in 2006, after receiving vast amounts of criticism from the said publication. It did not end there though, the band were labelled as a ‘suicide cult’ following the death of 13-year-old Hannah Bond in 2008.

The newspaper went on to publish a series of articles warning parents that “no child is safe from” Emo; leading to the belief that the genre of music caused poor mental health problems such as depression, self-harm and even suicide. This stereotype derives from the honest and emotional lyrics of the music, as well as the hard rock melodies.

“There was all that tabloid nonsense in the UK, saying that we were in a death cult,” explained Gerard Way to Alternative Press, “we’d arrive in countries, and we’d be psyched that we were impacting culture.” 

Dr Rosemary Lucy Hill, the author of the academic research paper ‘Emo Saved My Life’ in 2011 says that “rather than Emo being a fashion that pushes them towards feelings of desperation, into self harming, to commit suicide, it can help fans to survive mental ill health.”

“We’ll carry on,” screams the singer on Welcome To The Black Parade, a song I had on blasting through my earphones whilst going through major changes in my life at 14 years old. It is true- you do “carry on,” life moves forward. Well, that is the way I interpreted the song anyway.

When speaking to the NME, the frontman explained how Welcome To The Black Parade was inspired by “the triumph of the human spirit over darkness.”

However you interpret it, in no way do the band encourage destructive behaviours or promote mental illness. If anything, it helped me get through those tough periods.

To delve deeper into the ongoing stereotype, I spoke to author Andrew Calcutt who argues that the formation of subcultures causes infantilisation. He explained that “it’s a part of the world which you enter into and has the effect of screening out the rest of the world, like going into a children’s play area,” he told me, “the effect of it is to form a protective barrier, which keeps out the rest of the world and its realities, and we do this for children.” 

So, individuals who may struggle with mental health problems may rely on being part of a subculture for a “magical resolution” to block out mainstream society’s norms and values, with an “unwillingness to grow up.”

Calcutt’s idea suggests that Emo, as a subculture, may serve as a coping mechanism against an individual’s realities, whatever they may be. However, I do not believe this is entirely true. In some cases, Emo is a community for individuals to share interests, nothing deeper than that.

Find my interview with Andrew below:

Chapters:

00:00 – What is your book about?

9:43 – Was there a gap in the market at all?

12:06 – Would you be able to explain The Birth of Cool in the Alienation chapter of your book?

20:35 – Why do you think subcultures evolve?

26:33 – If and when subcultures become mainstream, has it evolved and moved on?

33:53 – What is Infantilisation?

47:55 – When do you think infantilisation first occurred?

55:41 – Do you have any alternatives to subcultures forming?

As a teenager, I made a handful of friends on Instagram through our love of alternative music and particular bands, as I had no one to nerd out over guitar pedals and bass guitar riffs with. Five years later, they are still some of my closest friends, the only downside to it is that they live 300 miles across the country.

No matter the distance, I can be my utmost self with my trio of long-distance friends, and that is what online band communities are all about.

 

All of a sudden, Covid-19 swept across the UK. No school, no offices open, no gigs- all was quiet. 

Until Emo exploded back onto the scene on TikTok during lockdown. As users dug out their old band tees and blew the dust off their black and white Old Skool Vans, a wave of nostalgia swept across the platform.

The Emo aesthetic, as well as the music, resurfaced alongside other once-dormant subcultures, turning TikTok into a collective memory lane where new generations could discover relics from the 2000s, and the older generations can re-embrace their raccoon tails (streaks of hair that are dyed in thick horizontal lines).

And now here we are in 2025. TikTok has over 7.6 million posts under the Emo hashtag. From users sharing their outfits and makeup to fan videos dedicated to Emo icons, the online scene appears to be as strong as ever.

That is until the gatekeepers crawl out from the shadows. Online users complain that modern Emo isn’t Emo at all. These users then create a gatekeeping space that can drive away new people.

I decided to have a look myself. For just 15 minutes, I browsed the Emo hashtag on TikTok, and wow, these gatekeepers are not hard to find. Not only this, but many users criticize others on whether they were ‘actually Emo,’ or if the subculture was seen as a trend.

Emo in 2025 - Meet Bee and Betty

I met with Bee, a 20-year-old online content creator. With 692K followers on TikTok, Bee has been part of the Emo community, both online and offline, for most of their teenage years. Travelling 80 miles to Brighton, I met them along the seafront for a street photoshoot. Donning the iconic knee-high black Converse and a chunky studded belt, Bee brought the maximalist aesthetic to life, along with their friend 18-year-old maths student Betty, who was up for stepping in front of the lens.

“I first encountered people who were Emo, ironically not through music, but in the online fandom for YouTubers Dan and Phil in 2015,” says Bee.

“I was 12 and noticed lots of Dan and Phil’s fans had side swept hair and wore eyeliner, and then quickly worked out that they shared a similar music taste to me.”

Betty, on the other hand, had a rather different first encounter with Emo, explaining how she was “on a coach for a school trip and the girl I liked at the time sat next to me and offered me her headphones. She showed me I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love by My Chemical Romance,” she reminisces, “I never knew such angry music could be so melodic and heartbreaking. I fell in love with it.”

For 8 years, Bee’s involvement with Emo has evolved throughout the years, from listening to the mainstream music like Fall Out Boy to hardcore music such as Rites of Spring in recent years.

“As a queer and otherwise slightly unusual child,” they explain, “spotting other kids on the street wearing a choker or band merch that I recognised felt like being a part of some secret club.”

“Since the age of 12, I have been to over 150 shows. Last summer, I went to Lollapalooza Chicago (an alternative music festival). Doing so has meant I have met so many Emo people, and gained a lot of Kandi (a type of bead bracelet traded in scene culture).”

Even amid the gigs and the vibrancy of the community, Emo is not without its flaws. Most notably, it is the disagreement of what Emo actually is. In some people’s opinion, this journalism piece would not be considered Emo at all.

“Some people think only real Emo comes from the hardcore scene of the 90s,” Bee says, “Emo isn’t necessarily a unitary community of people talking about the same thing.”

When asking the duo whether they have ever felt stereotyped, Bee humorously mentioned how people would yell, ‘Emo!’ at them on the street.

“It is because I wear eyeliner and have green hair, which does not upset me when they yell, at least they are getting my subculture right in comparison to the occasions when I get ‘goth!’”

They both expressed their frustrations with the poor mental health stereotype that Emo is associated with. Which, according to them, is “absolutely not true.”

“Emos do not romanticise their own suffering. I, for one, have been more into Emo in the periods of my life when I am most happiest,” Bee explains.

Despite the subculture being pivotal in their lives, the duo both have their concerns about the future of Emo.

For Bee, it is vital that the community is diverse.

“I would love to see more BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic), women or non-binary fronted Emo bands,” they explain, “when people think of an Emo singer, it is generally some white guy. There are some fem-fronted Emo bands like Paramore, but I still always feel a lack of representation.”

For Betty, it is whether the roots of Emo will be forgotten.

“Will commercialism take over our wardrobes and headphones? I worry that fast fashion brands will continue to make and sell ‘Emo’ clothing, rewriting the DIY history of the look.”

What does Emo mean to you?

“Emo is both nostalgic and exciting,” Bee says, “it reminds me of my first gateway into alternative culture and fashion, which is now my lifestyle, my music taste, and my job, and yet it is still somehow something that I am exploring.”

With Betty chipping in, “out of every subculture I have come across, I have found the one I wholeheartedly love all aspects of.”