Partly the new wave is just the coronation for distinct musical subcultures that have been burbling online for years.
Rodrigo’s sing-along diaries don’t sound much like Lil Huddy’s goth blustering, and neither much resembles canonical emo bands such as The Get Up Kids. People have argued for decades over what emo really means, and 2021’s wave might seem to stretch the word to definitional incoherence. The year’s breakout newbie, the Australian singer/rapper The Kid Laroi, groaned and moaned his way to No. TikTok heartthrobs and onetime child stars collaborated on raging pop-punk with the Blink-182 legend Travis Barker. Olivia Rodrigo sent masses moshing with a Paramore update, “ Good 4 U.” Lil Nas X’s debut album spiced his technicolor raps with tender rock.
The meme now feels like an omen for what would unfold in pop music in 2021, when many a top-tier artist had a whiff of emo-a label that evolved from the 1980s punk scene but has come to envelop all manner of anguished music designed to smudge eyeliner. If you got eight to 10 songs right, you were certified “emo.” If you got more than that, then congrats-you were “broken.”
A nyone who spent their teenagedom in a black hooded sweatshirt was served a nice piece of attention bait last year in the form of a TikTok phenomenon known as the “emo test.” In it, users listened to snippets of songs by such artists as Panic! At the Disco and Paramore to see how many tunes they recognized.