Emo

Emo /ˈiːmoʊ/ is a style of rock music characterized by expressive, often confessional, lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace. As the style was echoed by contemporary American punk rock bands, its sound and meaning shifted and changed, blending with pop punk and indie rock and encapsulated in the early 1990s by groups such as Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate. By the mid-1990s numerous emo acts emerged from the Midwestern and Central United States, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the style.

Emo broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s with the platinum-selling success of Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional and the emergence of the subgenre "screamo". In the wake of this success, many emo bands were signed to major record labels and the style became a marketable product. By the late 2000s, emo's popularity began to decrease. Some bands moved away from their emo roots and some bands also disbanded. An underground "emo revival" emerged in the 2010s, with bands drawing on the sounds and aesthetics of emo of the 1990s and early 2000s. Offshoot genres emerged such as emo pop and emoviolence (a style of screamo and powerviolence).