Emo is tough to define. As Andy Greenwald wrote in Nothing Feels Good: "Emo means different things to different people. Actually that's a massive understatement. Emo seems solely to mean different things to different people." For the most part it’s more of an insult than a genre, and because of this, no band willingly considers themselves Emo.

However at its essence, it's an offshoot of punk that is in touch with its more introspective feelings. Maybe the guitars twinkle, maybe the guitars smash you over the head. The key element is there needs to be emotion, sung from the very bottom of their heart. But how did it get from its original emotional hardcore guise to the music featured on The OC? What were the essential steps along the way? And why is My Chemical Romance referred to as Emo? This is How Emo Became Emo.

#emo #emomusic #musicdocumentary

Additional Writing & Fact-checking by Chad Van Wagner.

00:00 Introduction
00:53 Hardcore & The Revolution Summer
04:53 The Smiths & The Replacements
07:31 Jawbreaker & The Cult of Blake
11:06 Sunny Day Real Estate & Emo's First Break
13:42 The Post-Nirvana Major Label Gold Rush
17:07 Lifetime & The New Jersey Scene
19:11 Texas Is The Reason & The JFK Conspiracies
21:00 Weezer, Blue & Their 'Hideous' Follow-Up
24:15 The Beginning of Midwest Emo
31:10 Deep Elm & The Emo Diaries
34:06 Jimmy Eat World & Being Signed to Capitol
37:10 American Football & Being Rediscovered
39:34 Vagrant Records & Capitalising on Emo
44:06 Emo From Across The States
48:14 At The Drive-In & Breaking Post-Hardcore
50:48 The Mainstream Breakthrough of Emo
56:15 The New Jersey & Long Island Scenes
1:02:45 My Chemical Romance & The Emo-Pop Takeover

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