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Rolling Stone ranks the top 40 emo albums of all-time

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The definition of emo to me has always been Taking Back Sunday.

"And you could slit my throat, and with my one last gasping breath i would apologize for bleeding on your shirt."

Ah.

Emo will always be SDRE, Jimmy Eat World, Jawbreaker, Promise Ring and the first two Weezer albums to me.
 
IaRB not making the top 5 immediately invalidates this list.

Also, FOB only fell under the emo banner because MTV wasn't sure what else to classify a pop-punk act as.
 

WEGGLES

Member
Yeah they do use a pretty broad definition of "emo" for this list, pulling from post-hardcore, and some experimental rock. Almost all of these bands were on my playlist in the 90's and early 00's and they've hit a lot of my favorites. Diary was literally my gateway into the entire emo genre and still a fantastic album.

If anything on this list is a little suspect it's inclusion of bands like Panic at the Disco and Fallout Boy. I wouldn't necessarily consider them emo as much as pop punk, but they were after my time.

Good list for the most part. I'd put a couple of these higher (Pinkerton and 4 Minute Mile were seminal for me personally), but that's probably mostly just because I haven't heard all of these.

Yeah. They seem to use several definitions of Emo. Fall out Boy, and paramore are more pop punk than emo, but that's just getting into genre semantics.
 

Jobbs

Banned
List plays it fast and loose with what "emo" is, IMO, but, fortunately, it gets the important stuff right. Sunny Day at #1? Yes. Promise Ring, Mineral, Jawbreaker, Rainer Marie, yes yes yes.
 
Showed up for Dashboard Confessional, wasn't disappointed.

And Thursday... there's a band I haven't heard in a long, long time.
 

Quonny

Member
So then whatever they are, that's what I want more of. Because they're excellent (well maybe not Panic...) and I love their sound and their aesthetic!

Pop Punk.

Spotify has this great playlist called "Pop Punk's Not Dead", I love 90% of the music on that list. Check it out, lots of great relatively unknown bands like State Champs, These Kids Wear Crowns, Hit the Lights, The Story So Far, and Tonight Alive. All current music, too.

Pop punk is definitely not dead.
 

Skux

Member
I love the music but I've never seen a more grossly misused genre label. Half of these are pop punk lol
 
Came in to be angry at Rolling Stone and shit lists but...this is actually pretty solid.

Think too many people are rolling with what they think emo means thanks to the genre tag being misused and not what emo actually started as.
 

Suite Pee

Willing to learn
Did not expect to see The Promise Ring at number 3, but that album fucking rules, so I'm down.

Keep trying to get GAF into them. Representing MKE.
 
they're nu-metal. same with linkin park


there really needs to be a guide for this kind of thing...



well they're more of a pop-pop-punk and got even poppier. I definitely wouldn't mind some more either. I'd expect it to come up in a few years once nostalgia sets in
There needs to be a map like the Map of Metal!

Pop Punk.

Spotify has this great playlist called "Pop Punk's Not Dead", I love 90% of the music on that list. Check it out, lots of great relatively unknown bands like State Champs, These Kids Wear Crowns, Hit the Lights, The Story So Far, and Tonight Alive. All current music, too.

Pop punk is definitely not dead.
I'm definitely gonna check this out!! Thanks for the recommendation :D
 

OnPoint

Member
Not a bad list though I'd personally change some of the albums picked and order. Though I bet everyone probably feels that way haha

Still, some stuff on there I should check out.
 
"Emo" and "pop-punk" were synonymous for awhile in the early aughts it seems.

edit: just realized they chose Through Being Cool over Stay What You Are for Saves the Day and I really disagree with that!
 

Dishwalla

Banned
Under The Cork Tree is such an incredible album, but I do think Infinity On High is better. But UTCT scored pretty damn awesome! Suck it Panic! fans :p
Also the MCR representation was Three Cheers? Darn, I think Black Parade and Danger Days are so much cooler.

None of those albums are even emo. Hell if Black Parade had made the list I would've asked where American Idiot was, since they are essentially the same album.
 
Hmm.. no Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me? I don't like emo at all anymore but I still listen to that album once and awhile.
 
Is The Cure no longer considered "emo" anymore? I'm kind of flabbergasted they aren't on that list.
I don't think The Cure were ever considered emo
"Emo" and "pop-punk" were synonymous for awhile in the early aughts it seems.

edit: just realized they chose Through Being Cool over Stay What You Are for Saves the Day and I really disagree with that!

Through Being Cool > Stay What You Are
 
I never really thought of Pinkerton as "emo", but it definitely makes sense when you think about it. The lo-fi garage-band sound, combined with the fact that half that album's about girls and dating, it makes perfect sense.

I feel like Disintegration or Wish by The Cure should've made it on the list somewhere.

I don't think The Cure were ever considered emo

They've never really been categorized as emo, but at least to me, they've always seemed like it.
 

jonno394

Member
I'll be checking out some stuff on this list. Only ever listened to Louder Now from TBS, but Tell All Your Friends seems pretty great so far, thank heaven for Amazon Prime Music.
 

karobit

Member
Man, aside from ranking Bleed American higher than Clarity by any metric other than sales, something feels off about calling them both emo. Like, Clarity certainly is, but I'd say Bleed American is firm statement of pop-punk, rather than emo.
Also, wow. History has not been kind to Places You Have Come To Fear The Most.
 

LiQuid!

I proudly and openly admit to wishing death upon the mothers of people I don't like
Did not expect to see The Promise Ring at number 3, but that album fucking rules, so I'm down.

Keep trying to get GAF into them. Representing MKE.

It's kind of criminal that I'm from Milwaukee and absorbed so much of this genre in my youth and have never listened to TPR. I just listened to Is This Thing On? on youtube, and yeah I'm pretty sure this would have been one of my favorite bands had I started listening to them back in the day.
 

gutshot

Member
"Emo" and "pop-punk" were synonymous for awhile in the early aughts it seems.

edit: just realized they chose Through Being Cool over Stay What You Are for Saves the Day and I really disagree with that!

Totally agree. Stay What You Are is the best Saves the Day album by far.
 

Dali

Member
My chemical romance's representation wasn't the black parade? A better albun and on top of that it's about a dead/dying person. Doesn't get much more emo.
 
The Used album being 40 is a travesty. It's top 20 at least.

Also, Taking Back Sunday's better album was "Where You Want To Be." Easily.
 

kiguel182

Member
Really loose definition of the word emo but it's an okay list.

No The Hotelier or World Is A Beautiful place don't make it very credible, just to mention a few.

Rolling Store really isn't a place to go for emo music anyway.

EDIT: Also, no Devil and God but Favorite Weapon? Makes no sense.

EDIT2: The more I think about this list the more I hate it. Everything post 00's they have here isn't even emo. They forgot the most important emo bands right now instead put stuff like Paramore, Panic, FOB or My Chemical Romance. Ugh.
 

PillarEN

Member
Woo. SDRE taking their rightful place at number one. So many choices there though aren't even emo music beyond the "Hot Topic, wear eyeliner and tight pants" look that was used in the 2000s to visually describe bands and not the actual musical genre.
 
Definitely not an "emo" list lol.

Glad they put Three Cheers on the list, as that and their first CD were in my opinion the only 2 albums they put out that were any good.

And a list featuring Brand New albums and they rate Deja so low and don't even include Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is so fucking wrong.
 

Sagely

Member
I've heard Disintegration described as goth before (I'm terrible with genres and labels though), so it might follow that it could be considered emo? To me emo always seemed like Diet Goth. Regardless, Disintegration is a fantastic album in its own right.
 
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