The subculture of mid-2000s pop punk is much more misogynistic than we remember. We’ve all heard about the emo band members getting accused of predatory behaviour in the past few years, but what was it about this genre of music that made performers so inclined to ask minors for nudes over Snapchat? Moreover, despite its devout misogyny, why were so many young women (me included!) still drawn to the genre? When looking back on this time, Paramore singer Hayley Williams becomes a beacon of female light in the crowd of guyliner adorned, “girl jeans” wearing metrosexual emo band members. So, let’s delve into the Misery Business that was 2000s emo music.

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References ~

Benjamin S, (2017) “How Mid-2000s Emo Groomed Underage Girls and Poisoned Teen Boys” Meanjin

de Boise S, (2014) “Cheer up emo kid: rethinking the ‘crisis of masculinity’ in emo” Popular Music

Hopper J, (2003) “Where the Girls Aren’t” Rookie

Payne C, (2023) “Where Are Your Boys Tonight? The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008” Dey Street Books

Pelly R, (2017) “Unraveling the Sexism of Emo’s Third Wave” Pitchfork

Powers A, (2015) “The Cruel Truth About Rock and Roll” NPR

Sherman M, (2020) “The Miserable Business of Emo Masculinity” Jezebal

Honourable mention: Abdurraqib H, (2017) “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us” Two Dollar Radio

Chapters ~

00:00 Intro

6:02 Being Female in the Emo Scene

10:04 The misogyny and the allegations

26:28 Emo Gender

38:46 Hayley Williams