taking back sunday

Picturing our favorite bands in their fledgling stages is no easy task. But imagining them devoid of any original music and instead performing cover songs? That’s straight-up impossible. Remarkably, it’s not all that rare for now-iconic artists to reveal that they’d formerly performed as a tribute act. After all, what better way to get a […]

Emo (noun): a hotly contested music genre where bands and fans alike refuse to agree on who qualifies for a place in the rankings for all eternity, where no band admits to falling into the criteria of emo, and no fans admit to listening to it either. Of course, the one precursor to belonging to […]

We’re often guilty of being overly reminiscent of the 2000s, a time when we were able to be our peak scene kid selves. The 2000s were marked by several monumental moments, particularly involving the internet and social media. Read more: Instagram really doesn’t want you to need any other social media platform While we’re Myspace […]

It’s easy to mistake the foundations of pop punk as being laid in the 2000s. After all, that’s when the mainstream radio takeover of the genre occurred. As it turns out, though, we really have the ’90s to thank for our favorite artists and albums.  With the meteoric rise of bands such as Nirvana and […]

If you grew up in the 2000s, rocked band T-shirts almost daily and decorated your locker top to bottom with clippings of Kellin Quinn and Oli Sykes, you’re definitely a child of the post-hardcore era.  Now, post-hardcore, while being a specific genre, is a very gray area where bands such as Bring Me The Horizon […]

All die-hard music fans can remember the first time they discovered a new band or heard a song that made them smash the replay button. Sometimes tracks have this unique capability to take your breath away, creating a fresh relationship that can launch you into a new world of music discovery. This connection to new […]

Back in 2011, emo music and Nickelodeon got together for a collab we will never truly forget. My Chemical Romance appeared on Yo Gabba Gabba! for a special Christmas episode where they performed “Every Snowflake Is Different (Just Like You).” Now, DJ Lance Rock, the show’s host, has revealed why MCR were one of the […]

As the saying goes, “You are what you eat.” So, after years of digesting emo music, is it any surprise that we resemble our favorite bands in personality? We can assume that anyone opening this page has had an emo phase in some capacity. But with an abundance of different bands and eras to shape […]

Flashback to 2006. Boys Like Girls just dropped their debut album (feel old?). You’re copying and pasting lyrics from a shady website into every song in your iTunes catalog. Most of them are wrong. We’ve come a long way since the widespread use of smartphones took hold. Now, if we’re lucky, Spotify will do the dirty work for […]

There are certain opinions that all former emo kids hold. Like how listening to sad, confessional songs is the best way to feel alive or… OK, maybe that’s it. Truth be told, there’s no one commonality between every emo phase. Don’t believe us? Just look at the small fraction of dislikes on Matt Cutshall‘s YouTube videos. Seriously, if […]

Many of us can recount a few now-surprising performers who graced the Warped Tour stage, including Katy Perry, the Black Eyed Peas and Eminem, but do you remember when Disney turned pop star Demi Lovato worked her way onto the summer festival lineup? Imagine the good old days of 2010. Warped Tour still exists, and you […]

Anybody who claims to be well-versed in emo culture knows how crucial Chamberlain are to the genre. The Indianapolis, Indiana, outfit started as Split Lip, a hardcore band with bigger musical visions than their contemporaries. Their desire to add everything from melodic singing to acoustic guitars helped build the foundation of the post-hardcore genre. After […]

MOD SUN can’t help but smile when he recalls an early Fall Out Boy show in 2003 at the Quest’s Ascot Room in Minneapolis. The artist still vividly remembers the moment a Take This To Your Grave-era Patrick Stump started belting an a cappella version of “Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy.” How […]

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 […]

Billie Eilish, Jeff Tweedy, Taking Back Sunday, Trey Anastasio of Phish and over 600 other artists will take part in the largest single-night digital concert ever this Election Day, the #iVoted Festival 2020. The event, which runs from noon to 2 a.m. ET Tuesday, will be held on the streaming platform Mandolin. Participating acts will […]

Wendy’s may be best known for their beef and tweets, but a recent Twitter exchange stemming from a Machine Gun Kelly reference just proved once again that pop-punk commentary is well within their realm of expertise. The series of tweets started Monday in response to a Dunkin’ ad for their new Spicy Ghost Pepper Donut. […]

There was a time when the “supergroup” was super obvious. When the world saw legendary axman Ted Nugent making his guitar squeal with the guy from Night Ranger to his right and a guy from Styx to his left, we all knew there was something special afoot. (Classic-rock lovers will recognize this ’80s band to […]

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 […]

For years, music listeners have debated one question – what does emo actually mean? Now, blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus is finally putting an end to the debate once and for all. This week, the frontman shared his thoughts on what emo actually means and the internet has a lot of thoughts. Read more: There’s a reason […]