I have always been a proud Myspace Kid, Mall Goth, Emo, Elder Emo, whatever the term is at the time for the kids listening to screaming music and wearing too much eyeliner. Before I even knew what heartbreak was, I was listening to emo heartbreak anthems. As I’ve grown up, I related to emo, pop punk, metalcore, and all the genres in between for the emotion, pain, and existential crises that were sung about.
But as it turns out, country has been writing songs that are just as emo, with just as much hometown trauma, before skinny jeans, straightened bangs, and guyliner even existed. Is the emo to country pipeline real?
As of today, I have moved from elder emo to retired emo. Emo is out, country is in.
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. They both have heartbreak, bad decisions, and lyrics questioning life in the middle of the night. The only difference is the setting. We had basement shows, they had cow tipping.
Turns out we were never that different. It was a phase.