Emo revival

Emo revival
Other names	Fourth wave emo
Stylistic origins	Midwest emo screamo indie rock math rock post-hardcore pop punk
Cultural origins	Late 2000s-early 2010s, United States
Typical instruments	Vocals guitar bass drums
Derivative forms	Emo rap soft grunge
Regional scenes
West Virginia
Local scenes
Philadelphia Chicago Willimantic, Connecticut
Other topics
Post-rock slowcore indie electronic

The emo revival, or fourth wave emo, was an underground emo movement which began in the late 2000s and flourished until the mid-to-late 2010s. The movement began towards the end of the 2000s third-wave emo, with Pennsylvania-based groups such as Tigers Jaw, Algernon Cadwallader and Snowing eschewing that era's mainstream sensibilities in favor of influence from 1990s Midwest emo (i.e., second wave emo). Acts like Touché Amoré, La Dispute and Defeater drew from 1990s emo and especially its heavier counterparts, such as screamo and post-hardcore.

The movement had become prominent in underground music by the mid-2010s, with influential releases from era-defining groups like Modern Baseball, the Hotelier and Joyce Manor. It also expanded in scope and sonic diversity during this period. Soft grunge was pioneered by such groups as Title Fight, Basement, Citizen and Turnover, while State Faults, Birds in Row and Portrayal of Guilt pushed the boundaries of screamo. Fourth-wave emo entered a decline toward the decade's end, as influential bands disbanded or entered periods of hiatus. A fifth-wave of bands began pushing the genre into more experimental territory, often embracing post-rock; examples include Pool Kids, Glass Beach and Awakebutstillinbed.

Characteristics

Bands of the emo revival are predominately influenced by acts from the Midwest emo scene of the 1990s and early 2000s; according to Ultimate Guitar staff writer Maria Pro, the terms second-wave emo and Midwest emo are used interchangeably to describe that time period's scene. Revival bands often display a "DIY sound" and lyrical themes ranging from nostalgia to adulthood. Pro, however, further writes that the revival only borrowed from the second wave in terms of aesthetics; sonically, it featured a distinct fusion of math rock, post-hardcore and pop punk.

History

Midwest emo revival

Philadelphia's Modern Baseball were one of the bigger players in the emo revival

While third wave emo was reaching its commercial peak in the mid-to late 2000s by embracing the sounds of mainstream radio music, fourth-wave emo's forerunners began taking influence from the second-wave Midwest emo scene. The fourth wave was spearheaded by the Pennsylvania-based groups Tigers Jaw, Glocca Morra, Snowing and Algernon Cadwallader and the English band TTNG. A 2018 Stereogum article cited Algernon Cadwallader's 2008 LP Some Kind Of Cadwallader as the emo revival's watershed release, while a 2020 article by Junkee called Tigers Jaw's 2008 self-titled second album "a true landmark release for the era". These bands embraced a DIY ethos and reintroduced basement shows to the emo scene. Under their influence, underground emo scenes formed across the United States in such localities as West Virginia, Willimantic, Connecticut and Chicago. Notable fourth-wave acts from the Chicago scene included Into It. Over It., CSTVT, Pet Symmetry, Joie de Vivre, Their / They're / There, Lifted Bells, and Dowsing. Fourth-wave emo had become a fully-realised movement by 2011. Philadelphia's scene remained prominent throughout the wave, contributing bands such as Everyone Everywhere, Modern Baseball, Hop Along, Jank, Balance and Composure, and mewithoutYou.

By 2013, the emo revival had become a dominant force in underground music. The year saw high profile by Balance and Composure, Brave Bird, Crash of Rhinos, Foxing, the Front Bottoms, Little Big League and the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. The same year, Huntsville-based Camping in Alaska released their debut album, please be nice, which became a cult classic with the success of "c u in da ballpit" online. Spin named the Hotelier's second album Home, Like Noplace Is There (2014) as the best album of fourth wave emo, opining that it "made it undeniably clear that the most thoughtful, the most progressive and the most exciting thing in indie right now was happening right here".

During the movement, various emo bands from the 1990s and early 2000s have reunited for reunion tours or permanent reunions American Football and the Get-Up Kids. Furthermore, through this era, contemporary emo bands maintained a close associated with the hardcore scene and pop punk's ongoing Defend Pop Punk Era, which bore the influence of both hardcore and Midwest emo. In particular, the Wonder Years, Jeff Rosenstock, Charly Bliss and PUP were prominent acts during the emo's fourth wave, who sonically were closer to pop punk.

The Wave and screamo revival

Touché Amoré were one of the most prominent acts in the Wave

Beginning to form in the late 2000s, "the Wave" was a movement of bands reviving 1990s emo, screamo and post-hardcore sounds. The name was originally coined to refer to only Touché Amoré, La Dispute, Defeater, Pianos Become the Teeth and Make Do and Mend, however by 2014 had expanded to also include groups Balance and Composure, Into It. Over It. and Title Fight. In 2011 Alternative Press noted that La Dispute is "at the forefront of a traditional-screamo revival" for their critically acclaimed release Wildlife, while a 2014 article by Treble called Touché Amoré "the one band carrying the sound forward in the most interesting ways". Outside of the Wave, bands furthering the sound of screamo in the early 2010s included Caravels, Comadre and State Faults. By 2015, many of the original acts in the movement had either gone on hiatus or entered periods of inactivity.

In August 2018, Noisey writer Dan Ozzi declared that it was the "Summer of Screamo" in a month-long series documenting screamo acts pushing the genre forward as well as the reunions of seminal bands such as Pg. 99, Majority Rule, City of Caterpillar, and Jeromes Dream. Groups highlighted in this coverage, including Respire, Ostraca, Portrayal of Guilt, Soul Glo, I Hate Sex, and Infant Island, had generally received positive press from large publications, but were not as widely successful as their predecessors. Noisey also documented that, despite its loss of mainstream popularity and continued hold in North American scenes, particularly Richmond, Virginia, screamo had become a more international movement; notably spreading to Japan, France, and Sweden with groups including Heaven in Her Arms, Birds in Row and Suis La Lune, respectively. Also in 2018, Vein released their debut album Errorzone to critical acclaim and commercial success, bringing together elements of screamo, hardcore and nu metal.

Soft grunge

Title Fight were one of the forefront acts in soft grunge

Main article: soft grunge music

One notable segment within fourth wave emo was the sound of soft grunge. Merging elements of emo, shoegaze, pop punk, alternative rock and post-hardcore, the genre originated with bands from the hardcore punk scene who began making music inspired by 1990s emo and post-hardcore as well as early 1990s alternative rock groups like the Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. The first wave of bands emerged in the early 2010s, including Adventures, Balance and Composure, Basement, Citizen, Pity Sex, Superheaven and Turnover. The majority of these bands were signed to Run for Cover Records, made use of fuzz pedals and filmed their music videos using 8 mm film. Title Fight stood at the forefront of the genre with the success of their 2012 album Floral Green.

Decline

By the middle of the decade many bands had begun experimenting considerably with their sound, creating music less indebted to the 1990s emo bands that defined the fourth wave's early years and instead morphing the style towards what many critics began to call post-emo. As early as 2015, Vice writer Ian Cohen referenced the end of the emo revival and the beginning of the post-emo era with the release of the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die's second album Harmlessness, while BrooklynVegan writer Andrew Sacher recalled the same sentiment retrospectively in 2021 about Foxing's 2018 third album Nearer My God.

By the end of the decade many of the most influential bands in fourth wave emo had disbanded: Modern Baseball in 2017, Title Fight in 2018 and Balance and Composure in 2019. mewithoutYou originally announced their break in 2019, after a final 2020 tour, however this tour was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic and the band eventually broke up in 2022. Meanwhile other bands who had previously been prolific, such as Defeater and La Dispute, entered periods of inactivity.

Influence and fifth-wave emo

Fourth wave emo band Foxing's album Nearer My God (2014) helped pioneer the sound of fifth wave emo

The underground success of fourth wave emo influenced the rise of the emo rap genre, which received significant mainstream success in the late 2010s with artists like Lil Peep, Lil Uzi Vert and Juice Wrld. One of the earliest pioneers of this sound was former Tigers Jaw guitarist and vocalist Adam McIlwee, who began the solo project Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and formed the influential emo rap collective GothBoiClique.

Following the revival era in the early 2010s, a number of new bands emerged in the emo genre which have often been grouped into a distinct wave starting from the late 2010s to the early 2020s. The Ringer writer Ian Cohen as beginning as early as 2017 when emo bands of the fourth wave like Crying and the Brave Little Abacus began moving into post-emo. This fifth wave of emo maintained many of the stylistic elements of the revival era, but also began to incorporate sounds from other genres such as jazz and electronic music. The fifth wave of emo has also been noted for its focus on inclusivity of bands with transgender, queer, female and black artists as well as other artists of color. Notable fifth-wave artists include Home Is Where, Dogleg, Glass Beach, Origami Angel, Pool Kids and Awakebutstillinbed.

By 2023, remaining fourth waves emo bands like Citizen, the Hotelier, Foxing and the Wonder Year began touring for the tenth anniversaries of their most influential records and receiving renewed critical acclaim.

Criticism

The term "emo revival" has been the cause of controversy. Numerous artists and journalists have stated that it is not a revival at all and that, as a result of increasing usage of the Internet to discover music, people have stopped paying attention to locale-based underground emo. In 2013, Evan Weiss stated, "It's funny that people are only noticing it now because I feel like that revival has been happening for the last six years [...] It doesn't seem new to me, but if it's new to them, let them enjoy it."

During the emo revival, music scholars began to consider emo music's relationship to misogyny and sexism. The emo revival was also notable for revelations of sexual harassment and assault committed by members of emo bands, such as Brand New, leading to a wider conversation about sexism within emo scenes.