What Made the Mid 2000s Emo Scene So Special to Scene Kids and Me
The 2000s were a particular time of musical discovery for me. In 2004, I had just turned 14 and gotten into heavy metal via the route most people my age took. I was graduating from Nu Metal. The first album I bought with my own money was Hybrid Theory, and after this, my love for bands such as Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Slipknot took hold of my angsty teenage heart. Then came Trivium, Metallica and all the other usual subjects like Iron Maiden and other bands of that ilk.
How The Romance with the Genre Started
During the mid-2000s, specifically 2004/2005, emo became more mainstream. I initially resisted the urge to go along with the trend, but the music was just too irresistible to ignore. This is probably because I’m so naturally in touch with my emotions and romantic. Traits I still carry to this day (Literally, no one has ever described me this way. I’m lying)
Some prominent bands associated with this era include My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Dashboard Confessional, and a personal favourite of mine, Taking Back Sunday. These bands had a significant impact on shaping the sound and style of the mid-2000s emo. The number of times “I’m Not Okay” by My Chemical Romance was played on Kerrang T.V. was bonkers. It felt like every time I was scanning the music channels and landed on Kerrang, it was on.
I’m a fan of My Chemical Romance now, but I wasn’t so keen back then. I still don’t particularly like that song to this day due to how much it was played. I know, but I’m still sick of it. Unless I’m out drinking at a throwback emo night, my opinion changes quickly, and I’m belting out the lyrics on the dancefloor with everyone else. What can I say? I’m fickle when I’ve had a few.
The Fashion
It wasn’t just the music that made the Emo scene what it was back then; the fashion also hit me hard, like a golfer getting struck by lightning while having a round in a storm. Shamelessly, it is one of the most significant factors associated with the mid-2000s emo scene that drew me in. I still have fond memories of the fashion style now. The tight jeans, band T-shirts, studded belts, and dyed or straightened hair, I had it all.
Back then, I even managed to squeeze into a pair of my younger sister’s jeans just so I could achieve maximum tightness, which, of course, means maximum Emoness. The style often had elements of punk and goth aesthetics, which I loved. Combining this with a pair of battered Converse, and you couldn’t go wrong. As a 34-year-old male, I don’t think I could pull it off well now, but Halloween comes once a year, so let’s see.
The Myspace Factor
During this time of adolescence and stupid behaviour driven by hormones and insecurity, social media was in its infancy and just getting started; the powerhouse then was a little website called Myspace. Founded in 2003 by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, it quickly became a dominant platform for connecting people online, especially among teenagers and young adults.
At this particular time, MySpace allowed users to create personalised profiles to add information about themselves, share photos, and customise the layout and design. One distinctive feature was adding background music to the profile, often showcasing the user’s favourite songs or bands. These customisable options (especially the ability to add music and share photos) matched the Emo scene. What better way for a bunch of individuals, with their own feelings, emotions and sense of style, to show off that they all listened to the same bands and dressed the same?
Teenagers with too much eyeliner were changing their profiles daily, including their top 8 friends list, profile songs and, of course, begging for picture comments (PC4PC, anyone?). It was the perfect cocktail of self-indulgence and visibility that the genre needed. Myspace effectively became a competition between some Emo kids. Back then, people took it very seriously. I’m just happy that now the human race has evolved to a place where social media is more considered and less hostile … We’re all doomed, aren’t we?
Screamo
Emo music, like all other styles, also developed its own sub-genres. My personal favourite was Screamo. Most of my favourite bands from this era were Screamo bands. Early on, I was fascinated with Hawthorne Heights, as, like everyone else, I had heard “Ohio Is For Lovers”; back then, that was a jam. It still is now but with some added cringe factor.
One band, in particular, solidified my love for the sub-genre. As soon as I heard Smashed into Pieces by Silverstein, that was it; I’d been taken. Following this came bands like Underoath, The Used and Saosin. At the time, I was still in a Meal band; after having my ears blown off by these loud, emotional musicians, I had to get myself into a Screamo band, and that’s what shortly followed. I was captivated.
There are still some bands that I listen to now, A Day To Remember being one of them (I will be covering a show they are playing with Simple Plan in Rio de Janeiro next month, so keep an eye out for that one) so the music still has an impact on me until this very day.
For me, this was such a fun period in my life, a period of supposed self-discovery and becoming what I considered an adult. I now, of course, know how far away I was from becoming anything of the sort. Sometimes I wonder if I’m a full adult now, but hindsight is a beautiful thing, right?
I hope you humans enjoyed reading about this fun period of my life, and to those of you who went through it with me, it brought back some fond memories. To you, younger readers, I implore you to look back at some of the music from back then. A lot of it is silly, but so much of it is awesome. Just give it a go!
