1. Emo is a musical genre characterized by themes of social alienation, sensitivity, misanthropy, introversion, and angst.
2. Emo is generally considered a relatively modern musical genre, but it actually first appeared in the 1980s and grew out of the punk-rock movement.
3. Many music historians trace emo back to a hardcore-punk band called Rites of Spring, though its members rejected being categorized as "emo."
4. In the 1980s, the emerging genre was known as "emo-core," but the suffix was soon dropped.
5. The first "emo-core" bands quickly came and went, but the genre took root.
6. In the 1990s, emo’s popularity spread, with Midwestern bands becoming less rough-sounding and more emotional, while heavier post-hardcore and screamo bands remained underground.
7. By the turn of the century, emo was firmly bound up with pop-punk, while heavier bands stayed underground.
8. The appearance of MySpace in the mid-2000s made emo a fully realized counterculture, spearheaded by bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, and Panic! At The Disco, whose popularity exploded seemingly overnight.
9. Beginning around 2010, the term emo developed two different definitions: “emo-revival” bands looked back to the 1990s for inspiration, while more modern emo bands abandoned the underground and became modern pop acts.
10. Today, artists are combining emo sensibility with hip-hop to create a new version of emo, which will likely continue to evolve.
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