I keep on seeing stuff that say that emo was at its heyday in the early-mid 2000s, then fell in the late 2000s, yet other sources say that emo is a thing of the mid-late 2000s. Some even put emo as a 2002-2010 thing.

I'm very sure that emo was big around 2006-2007, but when did it die?

Posted here in the more than a decade section because maybe it overlapped with the 90s or 2010s.

Not sure about the rise, but here's the perspective of someone who was in middle school during the late 00s (and emo during that time lol) regarding the fall of emo:

Can't tell you much about early 00s emo since I was only watching cartoons lol at that time. I'd say emo was at its heyday in 2004-2007. From 2008-2010, emo was still a thing but was declining, partly because MySpace fell flat, partly because emo gained a negative stigma, and partly because a number of bands were already breaking up within those years (huhuhu RIP old Fall Out Boy :\'( ). So the subculture suffered. I'd say that by 2011, the subculture was pretty much dead.

However, as a music genre, 2008-2010 still had a lot of songs emos would listen to. In the first place, the albums released the year prior to that period were still widely played. 2007 was a year that saw lots of key emo releases, and you can't really confine their popularity to just that year alone. Examples of albums that were still widely popular are Fall Out Boy's "Infinity On High" and Paramore's "Riot," both from 2007.

In addition, music from the "family of genres" it belongs to (e.g. emo pop, emo pop punk, pop punk, alternative rock, alternative pop, pop rock, etc.) were still pretty popular in 2008-2012. Not as popular as electropop, but still well-recognized and not underground.

Here are some examples of 2008-2012 releases that are emo or at least are "cousins" of the genre:
1. "Gives You Hell" by All-American Rejects (2008)
2. "Kings and Queens" by 30 Seconds To Mars (2009)
3. "She Takes Me High" by We The Kings (2009)
4. "21 Guns" by Green Day (2009)
5. "Like We Used To" by A Rocket To The Moon (2009)
6. "America's Suitheearts" by Fall Out Boy (2008)
7. "Ignorance" by Paramore (2009)
8. "Somewhere In Neverland" by All Time Low (2012)
9. "Love Drunk" by Boys Like Girls (2009)
10. "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" by Panic! At the Disco (2011)

Of course, such music "evolved" a bit and you'll notice some of these took on a less heavy sound, some even experimented on a poppier sound. I'd say that in the mid 10s, this family of genres were swept under the rug and were semi-underground already. Even the giants like Fall Out Boy and P!ATD moved on to a completely new genre by the mid 10s.

2013 I'd say, going by stereotypes. The long layered hair stopped looking fashionable and "cool" on guys, and this got replaced with more gender conforming and shorter hair. Plus, the music became less emotional-sounding, even if the lyrics were emotional.

2013 I'd say, going by stereotypes. The long layered hair stopped looking fashionable and "cool" on guys, and this got replaced with more gender conforming and shorter hair. Plus, the music became less emotional-sounding, even if the lyrics were emotional.


I see. Though I’d argue that that might be due to scene (which was still going strong in the early 10s) rather than emo. I could be wrong, though.

Emo as a movement died in 2009. Scene, which is basically a happy and flashy emo, replaced the dark and rebellious emo that year.