motion city soundtrack

Any former emo kid remembers singing along to their favorite songs with eyeliner running in sheets down their cheeks. Honestly, were we really that sad, or did our iPods just suck us into a black hole of raw emotion? Regardless of what came first, the sad or the band, the lyrics of the 2000s hit […]

What were you doing 10 years ago? If trying to make it as a musician while working a side job filled your days, you can relate to a few bands on this list. Pop punk turned over a new leaf in 2010, with a handful of future greats introducing themselves to the music world. They […]

One standout feature of the early 2000s emo music scene was song titles that could barely fit on the back covers of CDs. You probably have fond memories of typing the lyrics of your new jam into the Google search bar and discovering that the actual name of the song was nowhere within them. Or […]

All Time Low‘s Alex Gaskarth is known for sharing his opinions on the internet. Now, the frontman is revealing which band he thinks “might be one of the best bands of all time” and no, it’s not blink-182. Read more: H.E.R. is making history with her new signature Fender Stratocaster All Time Low have worked […]

As legendary bands in the scene continued to mature musically and grow away from the genres that they became known for, newly established musicians were creating blends that sparked new categories for scene music. In 2008, Fall Out Boy released their last album before their hiatus, and I Set My Friends On Fire popularized crunkcore. […]

Making plans with your Netflix queue this weekend? Finishing your novel? Working on that jigsaw puzzle you had made of the orange sky on the West Coast? Whatever you’re doing, we’re damned confident it’s not as great as this year’s Riot Fest lineup. This year’s event looked like the ultimate rock ’n’ roll weekend. We […]

When movie adaptations and remakes are released, they usually generate the same initial response. “Was it better than the book?” “Is it as good as the comic?” We’re guilty of that, too. But really, we’re the ones asking if the soundtrack was any good. It’s that mindset  that inspired this countdown of soundtracks that might […]

Let us make a toast to modern emo. The drama! The poetry! The minimum daily requirement of whining! Let’s make it perfectly clear right now that we’re not throwing shade on the genre. We’ve come to celebrate it in all of its heart-wrenching enormity. That’s why we’ve taken eight of the most emo song lyrics […]

Side projects have the special ability to give artists the chance to express themselves in whatever manner they choose without snobby genre lords or the (sometimes self-imposed) shackles of their previous works confining their sonic decisions. Sometimes these new bands go in an intentionally more mainstream direction, while other times the word “commercial” is never […]

They say you have your entire life to create your debut album, but they’re usually pretty terrible. However, these scene acts went above and beyond the call of duty, making bona fide masterpieces from the very start. There’s hardly any filler on these records, and many of the albums mentioned here are fan favorites to […]

In 2007, the scene was rocking harder and louder than anyone could have imagined. Myspace favorites such as Fall Out Boy and Paramore were crafting their emo sounds into unforgettable albums that established them as legends. While staying true to their roots in emo and punk, scene music introduced synthesizers and screamo elements to create […]

MTV launched Aug. 1, 1981, and eventually took over the planet as a youth authority and a music video jukebox that had the power to catapult an artist’s career to the stratosphere. As YouTube and other streaming platforms took flight in 2005, MTV slowly started becoming more obsolete and less meaningful as a video network, […]

We’ve all fallen for it. You hear a breezy pop song or a killer pop-punk jam and before you know it, you’re taken in. Then you start to play it a couple more times while doing different things and then you begin to question the lyrics. Around maybe the fifth spin, you realize that you’re […]

So you passed our basic pop-punk quiz? Congratulations. You are, at least, a warm-weather fan. You probably wore a black tie with a beat-up T-shirt at least once. You went to Warped Tour a couple of times. We’re sure there’s a pair of Dickies buried somewhere in your closet.  Now, it’s time to take it […]

Super Whatevr dropped their latest album don’t you wanna be glad? at the start of 2020. Now, they are back with even more new music. This time, the band enlisted the help of blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus for their new single “Carhartts & Converse.” The single features guest vocals from Hoppus and was also co-written by […]

Leave it to us to create a video for a list that was bound to fuel some fire. This APTV installment salutes singers from the 2000s whose voices shaped the scene. It was a pivotal time in youth culture. The combined tidal waves of annoying pop stars and nu-metal dudes in funny pants were giving […]

What were you doing 15 years ago? Updating your Myspace page? Giving yourself tinnitus at top volume? (This writer is definitely projecting.) It’s just a hunch, but maybe you found a way to get over the nu-metal hangover that was seemingly inescapable earlier this century. If you forgot what tributary life took you down back […]

The first decade of this century began in the wake of boy bands and nü metal, so no one truly knew which sounds and bands would break out this time around. Well, “the scene” became a widely used (and misused) phrase, and bands decided to become more egalitarian.  Read below for more on both points, […]

In 2005, an unexpected but revolutionary wave of scene music hit the mainstream. It was the year Myspace rose in the online ranks social media and became the most popular of its kind. It gave bands new avenues to introduce their unique sounds to the masses and familiarize the world with the classic scenester selfie […]

Back in April, Fountains Of Wayne‘s Adam Schlesinger tragically passed away due to COVID-19 complications. Since then, tributes to Schlesinger have continued pouring out. Now, AJR are paying tribute to the late musician, songwriter and creator in a new Fountains Of Wayne cover. On June 17, AJR shared a cover of “Hackensack,” taken from Fountains […]