The Emo Phase

One of the most important milestones during our deeply regrettable adolescent years is the emo phase. While not everyone goes through it in in the same fashion, most people experience that dark time in our lives from the ages of 13-15 filled with angst, hormones, and change. These formative years, that usually take place during middle school and early high school are caused by the inner turmoil we face with growing up, finding our friends, and finding ourselves, and our attempt to outwardly express those feelings. The changes that we go through with ourselves both physically and emotionally cause a lot of discomfort and distress in our lives and many pop punk, rock, and screamo bands know exactly how to cater to those emotions. Another reason many people go through the emo phase is due to trauma which is a very common occurrence during adolescence, parents divorcing, moving to a new place, getting bullied, or struggling with anxiety/depression are all other reasons people use hard rock and emo music to get their emotions out.  

I’m not going to try to front and say my emo phase was spurred out of some dramatic life altering event or hardship, it was caused by wanting to impress a girl I knew mixed with a sprinkle of upper middle class suburban restlessness. In the beginning of seventh I thought this girl in my english class was so cool and pretty and I very much wanted to befriend her, she was writing a paper on Patrick Stump, the lead singer of Fall Out Boy so I did a little research and realized I knew and enjoyed a few of their old songs on the radio. Then their first post hiatus album came out and my emo phase had begun, we both bonded over the new album and to this day she remains one of my best friends even though Fall Out Boy may not be my favorite band anymore. Once I fell for Fall Out Boy it was a quick descent into full blown emo, I listened to other bands such as My Chemical Romance, Blink-182, Panic! At The Disco, A Day to Remember, Paramore, and All Time Low, I stayed as more of a pop punk emo than a screamo band emo.

All of these bands for me would be considered the YA books of music, they captivate young teens’ more aggressive and rebellious side they let them release all the emotions that they couldn’t describe. These bands have perfectly crafted their sound to be angry and loud, a rush of adrenaline that make you feel powerful, while their content was emotional and relatable which helped people feel heard and less alone. The bands I listened too are just a small portion of all the types of “emo” music out there, and that’s only from this generation, counter culture music has existed forever. In the 90s it was grunge such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Hole, while the 70s had punk like The Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash, kids have always been drawn to this “outcast” music during their times of turmoil. As for modern emo though some other very important bands that I have not mentioned include Pierce The Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, Black Veil Brides, and Mayday Parade. All of these bands take that sense of alienation that many have in middle school and make you feel less alone. Attached below I have a link to one of the best things floating around Tumblr in 2014, and the perfect example of “emo music”, it is a mashup of 42 of the most iconic pop punk songs of the 2000s that were an integral part of many people’s, emo phase.

Along with the music came the culture of the emo phase, people wanted to be able to outwardly express the music that was such a big part of their life and personality. All black, band tee shirts, straightened hair, lots of those thick rubber bracelets from hot topic, combat boots, messy eyeliner, and slouchy beanies were the uniform for many emo kids. There was a sense of pride with that sort of outcastness, it made you feel different, special from other “normal” people. The internet was also a huge part of the early 2010’s emo phase, instead of myspace and facebook, tumblr was the number one place for emo kids to congregate. The ultimate emo kid goal however was to go to Warped Tour, a whole day full of teenagers dressed in all black running around in the sun seeing their favorite bands perform. Looking back I know now why my parents were never going to let me a 12/13 year old loose in a place full of regrettably dressed strangers but at the time it seemed like a necessity in my life.

Everything I’ve talked about here would be the standard definition of the emo phase but everyone went through it a little differently. In some places where that style of music is considered “white shit” gangster rap or artists like Tyler The Creator is considered it and helped people through hard times in a different way. For people who don’t enjoy rock music music, artists like Lana Del Rey, and Lady Gaga were also used as an emotional outlet. It doesn’t necessarily matter the exact way one goes through their emo phase, it’s more about the feelings of isolation and figuring one’s self out that come along with it.

-Giuliana Galati