Spend any time in the trenches where the battle for “real emo” is fought and you’ll be convinced that Rites of Spring and maybe Cap’n Jazz are the only bands that belong on this list. But unlike with grunge or goth or any other subgenre that evolved from a defined set of sonic characteristics to a fashion phenomenon, the definition of “emo music” is either too narrow or too vague to the point of being almost completely useless. On the one hand, the genre has long been denied serious critical assessment, often dismissed as music for teens but never subject to the generous leeway or empathy given to pop music specifically designed for adolescents. Anyone or anything can be emo, and yet almost nobody claims making it.Īll of which makes the creation of a “100 Greatest Emo Songs” list feel both necessary and nigh impossible to do correctly. What could better appeal to teenagers than a genre accused of being overly serious and painfully self-aware at the same time? Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye, who eventually became best known for his work in Fugazi, was viewed as an ethical barometer when he claimed emo was “the stupidest fucking thing I’ve heard in my life,” and since then, the line has been repeated by just about every emo band to warrant the distinction. It’s now a fixed concept within popular culture and a resilient mode of expression. Drake is emo, Game of Thrones is emo, the Beach Boys and Shakespeare are emo, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is emo.

In the past 35 years, the meaning of emo has become almost completely inverted - it’s more likely to mean “hard-core emotional” in the public discourse, extending beyond punk or even music itself as shorthand for anything defined by a kind of hyperbolic and demonstrative sadness. Among them were Rites of Spring and Embrace, which each released one self-titled album before breaking up, setting both the sonic and career template for emo bands going forward (and, judging by the above statements, also the prevailing attitude bands should have toward the term “emo” itself). What they had in common: a greater emphasis on melody, dynamics, and, yes, lyrics about feelings. punk during the so-called Revolution Summer. The first known usage of emo dates back to the mid-1980s, when “emo-core” served as shorthand for “emotional hardcore,” a label applied to a wave of bands that deviated from the macho aggression of D.C. Let’s just blame it all on Washington, D.C. “The stupidest fucking thing I’ve heard in my entire life.” Musician-activist Jenni Toomey, speaking on behalf of perhaps the first emo band in Andy Greenwald’s Nothing Feels Good “Rites of Spring existed well before the term did, and they hated it.” Photo-Illustration: Vulture and photos by Getty Images and Shutterstock

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