How My Chemical Romance changed an entire subgenre

When you hear the word “emo,” chances are the first band that comes to mind is My Chemical Romance. And technically speaking, if that’s your first thought, you’re actually wrong.

My Chemical Romance wasn't the poster child for emo until 2008, when the Daily Mail waged a campaign against the band. The Daily Mail had insinuated that My Chemical Romance and the emo subgenre as a whole were indoctrinating listeners into a cult that was obsessed with self-harm and suicide. They used the suicide of 13-year old Hannah Bond, claiming that she had taken her life a mere three months after becoming an “emo.” It started a war on emo, one that My Chemical Romance never intended to be in the middle of, especially because they never considered themselves to be an emo band in the first place, and even more especially because they were so vocally and adamantly encouraging their fans to stay alive, being a band that stood against violence and suicide..

This attack inadvertently changed the definition of emo music. If we go all the back to the 1990s, emo had just become established as both a subgenre and a movement as it offered different sounds in the same genre to appeal to everyone. It took the sound of hardcore and stripped it of all the “bullish machismo” that had become the norm for the genre. Instead, they infused it with honesty, sensitivity and emotions that had never been heard in that context and capacity before. Bands like Jawbox, Far, Nada Surf, Gameface, Garrison, along with others, existed deep in the underground attracting to this emo scene the audience of college-aged people that avoided the traditional aesthetic of punk rock. They were influenced as much by rock and post-punk bands like The Smiths as they were by hardcore punk bands like Black Flag.

But the one thing these underground emo bands didn’t really do is sell records, which ensured that emo stayed as an underground movement and subgenre, keeping it unheard of, unseen.

At the turn of the century, however, emo rose from the underground, being given a distinct sound with the success of bands like Jimmy Eat World, Thursday, Taking Back Sunday and Funeral For a Friend: chiming guitars, whisper-to-shriek vocals and a melding of anthemic choruses with indie-esque punk. They also presented a distinct look for the genre and movement: skinny jeans, fringes and classic American apparel.

Pretty much none of that should scream “My Chemical Romance” to you. They’re radically different than all of those bands mentioned above, than the look and the sound that was known as emo at the time of their rise to fame. So where exactly do they come in? How exactly do they fit in to this genre they're known for?

Early in their career, they toured the world with Thursday and Taking Back Sunday and somehow, despite those radical differences, found themselves pigeon-holed into the same genre. And by 2008 and their rise to fame, they became the front men for a genre they technically aren’t a part of. There was no going back, and because of that, without meaning to, without wanting to, they redefined the look and sound of emo to the public eye. They didn't fit in with the subgenre, and since the subgenre was so little known, the public changed it so they fit perfectly.

Their infamous g-note at the very beginning of “Welcome to the Black Parade” became a call to emos, so much so that it’s often joked that the g-note is a sure-fire way to find an emo—especially after the band’s breakup in 2013.

They made black clothes, black hair and black eyeliner—just the color black as a whole, to be honest—synonymous with emo. It wasn't long before the public's opinion of their sound pulled away from their control as themes of suicide, self-harm and depression became tied to their sound, despite being vocally anti-violence and anti-suicide. They wanted to help people, not cause them to kill themselves.

They unintentionally outshined the people who were actually representing the subgenre and movement of emo music. Technically speaking, bands like Dashboard Confessional are today’s face of the emo genre, with emotionally infused lyrics and music. But the war on emo that was specifically targeted at My Chemical Romance overshadowed the bands who were a part of this already established subgenre of music. By the mid-2000s, My Chemical Romance had become one of the most famous bands in the world, which meant millions of people were now associating the subgenre of emo with them, not the dozens or hundreds of smaller, lesser known bands who hadn’t had a rise to fame, but were really truly a part of the emo subgenre and movement.

My Chemical Romance didn’t want this, and they’ll still tell you to this day that they’re not an emo band. And, yeah, technically speaking, they’re correct: they’re not. Yet, if you google “emo genre” or “emo bands,” they’re the first one that comes up. Their songs “Welcome to the Black Parade,” “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Teenagers” are some of the most iconic “emo” songs. Hell, Gerard Way is still the face of Spotify's "Emo Forever" playlist and has been for who knows how long.

Quite simply, they’re a band that became associated with emo bands through touring with them, lumping them into the same subgenre, even if they didn’t actually belong. When their career took off, the label stayed, and their success changed how the world knew “emo” – mostly because a lot of the world didn’t know what “emo” was. Now they were being thrown something they didn’t quite understand, which is what essentially fueled the war on emo.

And honestly, their breakup in 2013 pretty much solidified them as the poster child of emo. The g-note was immortalized as the note of the emos, their look was solidified as the emo look – well, at least the emo look of the late 2000s. Any emo knows My Chemical Romance and will recognize the g-note probably better than any other note – how triggered they get depends on how much My Chemical Romance’s breakup stung them.

They definitely didn’t intend to take over a genre and change its DNA, but whether they liked it or not, it happened. While the technical definition of what the emo subgenre is hasn't really changed, they still influenced the next generation of emo bands who all took a page in some shape or form from them, whether that be their look, their sound, or even the lyrical content. Emo now isn’t just the more stripped back music it used to be. For better or for worse, those days are gone. One band really can have the power to shake things up, and for the emo subgenre, that band was My Chemical Romance.