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2023’s Emo Renaissance

Soph Johnson

Sophie Johnson

With the return of 2000s alt bands touring such as Paramore, Fall Out Boy, and The Used, some critics are citing 2023 as being the renaissance of 2000s emo music. 

What is emo music?

Emo music is seen as a subgenre of alternative rock and pop-punk music, focusing on its emotional expression. It can be characterised by heavy guitar riffs, hard-hitting lyrics and screaming vocals.

Over the past decade, there have been many attempts to revive this genre back into mainstream society. In the early 2010s, we saw bands such as Modern Baseball and American Football bring Midwest-emo back into focus, picking up where they left off in the late 90s. By the end of the 2010s, artists such as XXXTentacion and Lil Peep began to mix in contemporary rap beats with influence from the emo groups they loved growing up.

Despite this, there have also been claims that emo music never really disappeared in the first place.

It would seem that 2022’s My Chemical Romance reunion tour, and the success of the When We Were Young Festival, have kickstarted a comeback many fans have been hoping for. Specifically, the return of the 2000s emo-pop music, with its “more poppy sensibilities of alternative rock and pop-punk”.

“it has brought a whole new wave of Gen Z fans”

The people who listened to these artists in the 2000s are now in their 30s, so have the means to pay for these expensive reunion tours for the opportunity to relive a little of their adolescence.  This means that not just its original, long-term devotees can feel included, but it has brought a whole new wave of Gen Z fans.

Why is it relevant again?

Since the pandemic in 2020, there has been a new load of 00s nostalgia, and the alternative subculture has begun to make its way back into the mainstream, particularly through social media expression. For example, e-girls on Twitch have been incorporating emo fashion and hairstyles into their wider looks, and Machine Gun Kelly has been the centre of various types of online drama, bringing emo back into the limelight.

Trending sounds on TikTok have seen All Time Low and Pierce The Veil back in the charts. These younger fans have taken this genre and reinvented it into something relevant for their generation. One of the main appeals of this type of music is how it caters to the social underdogs – the “losers” – and these people have never disappeared.

“nostalgia is the driving force of media trends at the moment”

So why has emo music come back in recent years? What does it say about the state of the world right now? According to the head of publicity at Rough Trade Records, Talia Miller, nostalgia is the driving force of media trends at the moment. Things in the real world are so bad, people are looking backwards “for a time that they were happier, or things felt simpler”.

For a lot of fans, these artists fuelled the soundtrack to their teenage years, which (despite being a turbulent life stage for many) represents a lack of real responsibility, and growing up and becoming the people they are now. So, the comeback of this genre reminds its older fans of their youth and gives younger fans the chance to turn this music into something new.

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Featured image courtesy of C D-X on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

Soph is a self-proclaimed musicophile, hot chocolate connoisseur, and a sort-of polyglot. She is also an avid lover of film photography, movies, and books.

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