Picture this. It’s the time between 2014 and 2016. Tumblr’s at its peak and you can find the emo side-part hairstyle all over the website. My Digital Escape is an insanely popular channel on YouTube. The Vans Warped Tour is the dream festival. Twenty One Pilots, Bring Me the Horizon, Paramore, and many other bands are killing it in the music scene.
If you can imagine what I’m painting here, then you were probably an emo kid in the 2010s like me. But if you can’t, then let me give you a little context. Keep in mind that I’m using “emo” as an umbrella term for the pop-punk, alternative, and rock type of music style.
As a girl who was born in 2002, the mid-2010s is when I discovered emo culture. I first found the music, then got into the fashion, and then began watching YouTubers who were involved in the scene. To give you some comparisons, My Digital Escape — which was a YouTube collaboration channel — was the emo version of another YouTube collaboration channel, Our2ndLife (O2L). The Vans Warped Tour was the emo version of Coachella. Even if you weren’t in the scene, I’m sure you remember hearing Twenty One Pilots’ song “Stressed Out” everywhere.
The emo scene never disappeared, but lost the traction it used to have and began fading into the background by the end of the 2010s. It was not prominent in popular culture by then and became something to remember with nostalgia.
In the past few years, however, there’s been a steady reappearance of the emo scene in the public eye, with speculations of a rebirth a couple of years ago.
The emo scene’s spotlight in recent mainstream media set off with media personality and socialite Kourtney Kardashian marrying one of the original icons of the scene, rock band Blink-182’s drummer Travis Barker, in 2022 (which was something I never imagined).
Following the marriage of Kardashian and Barker, it seemed like many bands came back together to release new music: Paramore just recently won a Grammy Award for their latest album; Green Day will soon begin their massive world tour this year; My Chemical Romance completed their reunion tour in 2023 after having disbanded in 2013.
There was also a surprising boom in the rebirthed emo scene with the huge popularity of the When We Were Young festival. Its lineup was so impressive that it brought out the nostalgia of people who were in the golden age of the scene. In 2022, when the one-day festival sold out so quickly, two additional days were added to it.
Even with marriages and festivals, it’s the rise of YouTuber Tarayummy, and YouTubers and music artists Jake Webber and Johnnie Guilbert, that finally made me think that the trickle of the emo scene into mainstream culture may peak in 2024.
These past months, the three social media personalities have been taking over the internet, often collaborating with influencers like Trisha Paytas and Sam and Colby. They’re everywhere, from TikTok to YouTube to Tumblr.
While the emo scene has been returning slowly, it’s been apparent (mostly to the fans who were already involved in it). However, Tara, Jake, and Johnnie’s popularity has introduced emo culture to a new generation. Funnily enough, Johnnie was a part of My Digital Escape back in the day, so his resurgence feels like a full-circle moment.
The emo scene is probably not going to be coming back to how we knew it before. I don’t think many people will find the side-part hairstyle appealing anymore, or at least most of the newer generations won’t. But perhaps 2024 will bring us the renaissance with a new modern twist.
I’m excited to see emo culture resurge in this new era. It offers a celebration of the unconventional and provides a space of inclusivity. Don’t you think its values match our current generation’s desire to demolish old-fashioned societal expectations?
With trends shifting from the “clean girl” aesthetic to the “mob wife” aesthetic, and the toned slim look to the “muscle mommy” look, it’s a possibility that the emo aesthetic will finally claim its place back in 2024. All that’s left to do now is wait and see!
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