It’s Not a Phase: How Early 2000s Emo Shaped Me Into the Music Lover I Am Today

Discovering emo music through Fall Out Boy in middle school was probably the best thing I ever did for myself. I used to have a tiny MP3 player equipped with a radio, and when I ran out of songs that I had downloaded, I switched on the radio. It was permanently set to 97X, my hometown alternative station. There, I heard Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” for the first time in 2005.

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What came next was a complete emo takeover. Before that, I was into the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. I dabbled in Linkin Park and Evanescence through my older sister, shared Weird Al Yankovic with my dad, and my mom exclusively listened to Coldplay for a while. However, my musical awakening didn’t hit until I discovered emo in the early 2000s.

Fall Out Boy beget Decaydance Records, which beget Panic! at the Disco, which beget The Academy Is…, Cobra Starship, The Hush Sound, Hey Monday, and Cute Is What We Aim For, among others. I discovered Paramore, My Chemical Romance, The Maine, Forever the Sickest Kids, All Time Low, Taking Back Sunday, The Killers, The All-American Rejects, Boys Like Girls, The Cab, Hawthorne Heights, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

My tastes were adolescent; I didn’t discover Death Cab for Cutie or Dashboard Confessional until later, and I never got into Black Veil Brides, AFI, or New Found Glory. Music was mostly found through the alternative radio station I insisted on playing while my mom drove me to school. Later, I would get on MySpace, where emo was plentiful. Emo was a way of life in middle school, and although I grew out of the aesthetics in high school, I remain an emo kid at heart to this day. 19 years later, all the words to The Academy Is…’s “The Phrase That Pays” come flooding back in a second.

[RELATED: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Unveils Hopeless Records Exhibit, Highlighting Impact of Emo Music]

The Emo Music Community Feels Like a Constant Hangout With All Your Best Friends

Nostalgia is at an all-time high right now. When We Were Young Festival happened on October 26, when all our favorite emo bands played their best albums in full for an entire weekend. Warped Tour is back. We’re healing our inner teens one album at a time.

Fall Out Boy’s From Under the Cork Tree, Panic! at the Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, and My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge were my holy trinity for a long time. They still are. Paramore’s Riot, The Academy Is…’s Almost Here, and All Time Low’s Put Up or Shut Up are my secondary holy trinity, and Cobra Starship’s Viva La Cobra hangs around like a funky outlier.

The most important part of emo music is the camaraderie. It feels like everyone who was into these bands in the early-2000s and 2010s knows everyone, even though we don’t. The bands used to make YouTube videos from backstage, sharing their lives with fans. They connected and opened up to us, but it wasn’t like it is now, where perfectly packaged content is king. These videos were raw, real, a little cringe, and a whole lot of fun. These were mostly kids just like us, documenting their incredible opportunities and friendships.

Because that’s what it really was—the people in these bands were friends, all the emo kids were friends, and every show was just an extended hangout with all your best buddies. That’s why festivals like When We Were Young work so well. Say it’s exploitation of nostalgia all you want, but sometimes you have to look back on the teenager you were and hug them.

Featured Image by Nigel Crane/Redferns