Are we associated with emo?

I mean, we often talk about emo as a Millennial thing, but I remember emo being a really strong force for my batch (class of 2015) especially since we were in middle school when Paramore and Green Day were still topping the charts in 2009. I'd say it was still a central thing to many of us, and to say otherwise kinda some of our peers' middle school experiences. Idk, what do you think?

There's no official Zillennial range, but a commonly-used one is 1995-1998, and I'm class of 2015 too, so I'll go with that for this analysis.

In my circle of society, yes my batch had emos in middle school, but we only went as far as listening to the music, having emo lyrics as statuses on Yahoo Messenger, sporting side-swept bangs, and wearing black. We were fans of the music, and Fall Out Boy was everyone's go-to band, emo or not. We didn't go as far as getting tattoos nor dyeing our hair, though. We viewed emo as one of the usual archetypal social groups (e.g. the nerds, the gangsters, the jocks, the preps, etc.), rather than a cultural trend of the time.

But I suppose you want more than just an anecdote, so let's see...

Firstly, plenty of music that are labelled emo, aren't actually emo in terms of genre (Like MCR isn't actually emo, though they were the poster band of the subculture). However, there is no denying that the emo subculture is heavily grounded on the music it listens to (few actual emo, mostly pop punk and alternative mislabelled as emo), so I will still take that into consideration when analyzing this.

Emo subculture grew at around 2002-2004, think "Hands Down" (I'll term this the "Growing" era)
Emo peaked at around 2005-2007, think "Welcome To The Black Parade" (I'll term this the "Peak" era)
Emo was still popular but started waning in 2008-2010, think "Gives You Hell" (I'll term this the "Waning" era)
Emo wasn't underground yet in 2011-2012, but that was its last breath in the public eye, and most of it was just residual popularity from releases from a few years past. (I'll term this the "Dying" era)
By 2013, it was pretty much underground.
Consider also the fact that songs are still popular years after their release (e.g. "Grand Theft Autumn" was released in 2003, but was still hot on the radio in 2007.)

Emo generally has a young demographic; its musical and cultural themes cater mostly to adolescent angst.

High school students (14-18), who are at the peak of their edgy adolescence and fully immersed in pop culture, old enough to go to concerts on their own, would've been the primary audience.
College students (18-22) who are still into pop culture, but weaning off their edginess and leaving adolescence, are a secondary audience.
Middle schoolers (11-14), who are new to hormones, and at the dawn of their angsty adolescence and finding their niche in pop culture, are also a secondary audience. (There's a pretty good reason why "7th grade emo phase" is a term)
Some elementary schoolers and full-fledged adults listened too, but they're probably not in the target market.

Now, with all of that being said, to answer your question: Are Zillennials associated with emo? Let's see... we were in middle school during the late 2000s, which means we were a secondary audience, and only in its waning era, and for a short period. Plus, while 2008-2010 had its fair share of new emo hits, most of the music we were likely listening to were songs from a few years past that still had residual popularity on the radio. If you want a nitpicky precise answer: Yes, we have some association to emo, but it's a rather weak one. If anything, it's our entry into the world of pop culture, but not the bulk of our experience. I'd say that our defining culture is really more the first half of the 2010s, spanning the middle of the electropop era to the EDM period. Think of everything from "DJ Got Us Falling In Love" to "Thinking Out Loud" That's what being a cusper is about - having a slight degree of association with typical Millennial and/or Gen Z culture, but ultimately having a quintessential cultural period in between.

Also, remember here in InThe00s, we recognize that people have different experiences. Socio-cultural discussions here are not meant to dictate how you should identify, but are just used as a lens to describe how society changes over time. We acknowledge that while most people are mostly influenced by their high school or college years, many others are also more attuned to their middle school years and there's nothing unusual about that.

I'm a millennial (b. 1993) but I felt like people my age were too young to be the main audience emo. It seemed to peak sometime around 2004-2007. By my third year of high school it was already seen as very passé. I remember my brother in late 2008 tried to go for an emo style because he was too lazy to cut his hair, and everyone's general reaction was "Emo? Aren't you a bit late?"

Other posters say emo hung on until 2010-2013 so it might be very regional, so I wouldn't rule out people  oen in the mid-late 90s getting into emo. Where I'm at it was already on its death bed in 2008, people were more into rap, R&B, electropop, generally stuff you could dance to. Rock was only popular if you could dance to it, stuff like Dance Floor Anthem, Gives You Hell, Check Yes Juliet etc. Rock was very noticeably less popular in 2008/2009 than in 2005, although not completely dead yet like today. Putting sad poems as your status text was in the dust bins of history.

I think another thing to consider is that the concept of "emo" as people use it today wasn't limited to a cultural trend of the past. The "emo phase" has since become an adolescent rite of passage (like how middle aged adults have midlife crisis). Kids today don't go full-blown 00s emo fashion, but at some point within their adolescence, they do go through a dark-themed period (whether it be an excessively angsty attitude, outlook in life, or their music/aesthetic) that people loosely refer to as the emo phase ever since. I would know, because I teach 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th graders and lots of my students have at some point experienced that HAHAHA.

I think another thing to consider is that the concept of "emo" as people use it today wasn't limited to a cultural trend of the past. The "emo phase" has since become an adolescent rite of passage (like how middle aged adults have midlife crisis). Kids today don't go full-blown 00s emo fashion, but at some point within their adolescence, they do go through a dark-themed period (whether it be an excessively angsty attitude, outlook in life, or their music/aesthetic) that people loosely refer to as the emo phase ever since. I would know, because I teach 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th graders and lots of my students have at some point experienced that HAHAHA.


This I would agree with.

Not everyone,  but plenty of teens do. In the eighties they were called goths, but essentially the same.

Well for me as someone born in 1999, emo was the music I grew up with as a kid during the mid-late 2000s and a lot of people my age got into the music for that reason. We were 7 when My Chemical Romance released The Black Parade, 8 years old in 2007 when emo was at its peak and Fall Out Boy released Infinity on High. For a lot of us, it was our introduction to rock music. Emo is the genre I personally associate with my childhood the most and it makes me feel pretty nostalgic.

We're probably the last to have gotten into it. One of my best friends in primary school (he is gay) had a crush on the lead singer of Short Stack and chatted to him in private messages over Facebook when he was 12. Another one of my friends, who I didn't know at the time as he went to a different primary school, used to even wear the eyeliner and dye his hair black when he was 11-13. During my summer art camp in Year 12 back in 2017, my friends played Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore through a portable Bluetooth speaker while we were in our room for the night.


Other posters say emo hung on until 2010-2013 so it might be very regional, so I wouldn't rule out people  oen in the mid-late 90s getting into emo.


You should see my 7th grade class photos from early 2012. Half of the boys in my grade sported emo swoops or skater hair. :-[

Sad to have missed out on it. It stopped being a thing by around 2013, 2014 or 2015 at the absolute latest. Started around 2004 or 2005 at the absolute earliest maybe, but came to be as I preferred it about 2006 or 2007.
I loved the gender non-conforming and generally non-conforming and cute aesthetic of it. I loved the music too. I just hate that I was born too late to enjoy it when it was most appropriate for me, not to mention I lived with parents who weren't really OK with this too.

You should see my 7th grade class photos from early 2012. Half of the boys in my grade sported emo swoops or skater hair. :-[

I wanted to be one of those kids.