50 Fun Facts About Emo

Emo emerged in the mid-1980s from the hardcore punk scene of which US city?

The style was first called 'emotional hardcore' or 'emocore', and its pioneers were Rites of Spring and Embrace.

Which Minor Threat frontman formed Embrace and ran Dischord Records?

The DC scene's 1985 'Revolution Summer' was a deliberate break from hardcore's macho conventions.

Rites of Spring's Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty co-founded which post-hardcore band?

Rites of Spring played only about 19 shows and hated the 'emo' tag; Picciotto asked why emotion should be a separate category at all.

Which 1994 Sub Pop album by Sunny Day Real Estate is often called the founding record of second-wave emo?

Rolling Stone put it at number one on its 2016 list of the greatest emo albums; the band's rhythm section later joined Foo Fighters.

Which two members of Sunny Day Real Estate joined Foo Fighters after the band split in 1995?

Singer Jeremy Enigk's Christian conversion is often cited among the tensions that broke up the Seattle band.

Which 1996 Weezer album was retroactively embraced as a cornerstone of 1990s emo?

The regional Midwest sound of the mid-1990s came from bands like Cap'n Jazz, Braid, Mineral and The Promise Ring.

American Football's 1999 self-titled album has an Urbana, Illinois house on its cover that became what?

Mike Kinsella, formerly of Cap'n Jazz, led the band, which reunited in 2014 after being active only from 1997 to 2000.

Which label released The Emo Diaries compilation series from 1997 to 2007?

Jade Tree, meanwhile, released Lifetime's 1995 hardcore-emo hybrid Hello Bastards.

Jimmy Eat World formed in 1993 in which Arizona city?

The name came from a crayon drawing by guitarist Tom Linton's little brother of his brother Jim eating the world.

Why was Jimmy Eat World's 2001 album Bleed American briefly reissued under a different name?

Its single 'The Middle' reached number 5 on the Hot 100 and topped the Modern Rock chart.

Which 1999 Jimmy Eat World album, a commercial flop at the time, became a touchstone for later emo bands?

The band was the breakthrough act for a young Fueled by Ramen label with a 1998 EP.

Which singer, called 'the face of emo' by critic Jim DeRogatis, fronts Dashboard Confessional?

The Boca Raton project began as an acoustic side venture from his band Further Seems Forever.

Dashboard Confessional's 'Vindicated' played over the closing credits of which 2004 blockbuster?

The band's name comes from a lyric title on its debut, 'The Sharp Hint of New Tears'.

Which record label's 2001 national tour, sponsored by Microsoft and Coca-Cola, signalled emo going corporate?

Drive-Thru Records, meanwhile, partnered with MCA to get emo-pop into mainstream chains like Hot Topic.

Which New Jersey band signed a multimillion-dollar Island Def Jam deal after 2001's Full Collapse?

The New Jersey and Long Island scenes also produced Brand New, My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday.

Taking Back Sunday's 2002 debut, which eventually sold 790,000 copies, was called what?

Emo broke into mainstream media coverage during the summer of that year.

Hawthorne Heights, whose second album debuted at number 3 in 2006, formed in which Ohio city?

Guitarist Casey Calvert died on the tour bus in 2007, and the band sued Victory Records over its contract.

My Chemical Romance formed in New Jersey in autumn 2001 after Gerard Way witnessed what?

Bassist Mikey Way found the band's name in an Irvine Welsh book while working at Barnes & Noble.

My Chemical Romance's name comes from a book by which author?

Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance; Gerard Way has publicly rejected the 'emo' label for the band.

The Black Parade is a concept album about a character known as what?

The dying cancer patient's story was recorded at the reputedly haunted Paramour Mansion in Los Angeles.

Which Hollywood legend sings guest vocals on the track 'Mama' on The Black Parade?

The album, produced by Rob Cavallo, went four times platinum in the US and its title track was the band's first UK number one.

How many copies did The Black Parade sell in its first week in the US?

It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and is often called the most important album in emo.

On what date did My Chemical Romance announce their reunion?

The band had split on 22 March 2013; the reunion tour finally ran in 2022-23 after pandemic delays.

Fall Out Boy took their name from a character in which TV show?

The Wilmette, Illinois band's From Under the Cork Tree sold 2.7 million copies and earned a Best New Artist Grammy nomination.

Which Fall Out Boy album debuted at number one in 2007, selling 260,000 copies in its first week?

The band went on hiatus from 2009 to 2013 and returned with the chart-topping Save Rock and Roll.

Which Fall Out Boy member founded the Decaydance label that signed Panic! at the Disco?

He signed the Las Vegas band before they had played a single live show.

Which Panic! at the Disco video won Video of the Year at the 2006 MTV VMAs?

The single from A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was later certified diamond.

Which city did Panic! at the Disco come from?

By 2015 the band was effectively Brendon Urie's solo project; he retired the name in 2023.

Which Panic! at the Disco single reached number 4 on the Hot 100 in 2018, their highest ever?

It came from the album Pray for the Wicked.

Paramore formed in 2004 in which Tennessee town?

Hayley Williams and drummer Zac Farro are the founding members; the Farro brothers quit in 2010 and Zac returned in 2017.

Paramore's 2023 album This Is Why made them the first what to win their genre's best-album Grammy?

'Ain't It Fun' had already won them Best Rock Song in 2015.

Which 2007 Paramore album, featuring 'Misery Business', broke the band into the mainstream?

The band signed to Fueled by Ramen, an Atlantic subsidiary.

Fueled by Ramen, home to Fall Out Boy, Paramore and Panic!, was founded in 1996 in which city?

Founders John Janick and Less Than Jake's Vinnie Fiorello named it after the noodles they lived on while funding records.

Which of these best describes classic mid-2000s emo fashion, according to Wikipedia?

Tight band T-shirts completed the look, and 'emo' itself became a derisive word many bands refused.

'Screamo' is defined as what?

By 2010 emo's mainstream popularity had faded, with many bands changing sound or breaking up.

Which two bands are named on Wikipedia as leaders of the 2010s emo revival?

The revival was largely underground and drew on the Midwest emo sound of the 1990s.

Emo rap emerged in the 2010s largely through which platform?

Its producers often sampled 2000s emo bands such as Mineral and Underoath.

Which emo rapper died of a fentanyl overdose in November 2017 at the age of 21?

XXXTentacion was murdered in 2018 and Juice WRLD died in 2019; XXXTentacion's 'SAD!' topped the Hot 100.

Which two bands headlined the first Las Vegas edition of the When We Were Young festival in October 2022?

Tickets sold out so fast that two extra dates were added; Blink-182 and Green Day topped the 2023 bill.

Which 1995 album by Lifetime, on Jade Tree Records, fused hardcore punk with emo?

The Get Up Kids' Something to Write Home About (1999) reached number 31 on the Heatseekers chart in the same era.

Pioneers Rites of Spring played how many shows in their entire career?

Sixteen of them were in the D.C. area. The band rejected the emo label even as critics hung it on their personal lyrics.

Jawbreaker's three members met as students where?

They then moved to Los Angeles for their debut Unfun and on to San Francisco, the city most associated with them.

Which brothers formed Cap'n Jazz in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, under the name Toe Jam?

Their one full-length album from 1995 has a title that runs to more than twenty words. Alumni went on to American Football, the Promise Ring and Owen.

Dashboard Confessional's 2002 MTV Unplugged was a first for which kind of act?

The resulting live album went platinum itself within a year, proving the bet right. Chris Carrabba had started the project as a side gig from Further Seems Forever.

Which single topped Alternative Songs and pushed Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American to platinum?

Its mainstream success in 2002 is credited with opening the door for the emo pop wave that dominated the rest of the decade.

Fall Out Boy formed in 2001 in which suburb of Chicago?

Pete Wentz and Joe Trohman started it as a pop-punk side project from the Chicago hardcore scene; Patrick Stump joined soon after.

Which 2005 Fall Out Boy album produced 'Sugar, We're Goin Down' and 'Dance, Dance'?

It went double platinum and earned the band a Best New Artist Grammy nomination, turning Wentz into a tabloid fixture.

The Used, fronted by Bert McCracken, formed in 2000 in which Utah city?

Their self-titled 2002 debut made them one of the bands that carried screamo-influenced sounds toward the mainstream.

In 2025 a fossil was named Emo vorticaudum after the genre. What kind of creature was it?

The name nodded to its elongated, folded posture and 'unconventional ways of moving', which the describers likened to emo individuality.

In 2008 anti-emo groups attacked teenagers in Querétaro, Tijuana and which capital?

Russia's Duma separately weighed a ban on emo attire in schools, treating the subculture as a 'dangerous teen trend'.