Emo pop (alternatively typeset with a hyphen, also known as emo pop-punk and pop-emo) is a fusion genre combining emo with pop-punk, pop music, or both. Emo pop features a musical style with more concise composition and hook-filled choruses. Emo pop has its origins in the 1990s with bands like Jimmy Eat World, the Get Up Kids, Weezer and the Promise Ring. The genre entered the mainstream in the early 2000s with Jimmy Eat World's breakthrough album Bleed American, which included its song "The Middle". Other emo pop bands that achieved mainstream success throughout the decade included Fall Out Boy, the All-American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore. The popularity of emo pop declined in the 2010s, with some prominent artists in the genre either disbanding or abandoning the emo pop style.
Characteristics
Emo pop is a fusion between emo and pop-punk. AllMusic describes emo pop as blending "youthful angst" with "slick production" and mainstream appeal, using "high-pitched melodies, rhythmic guitars, and confessional lyrics concerning adolescence, relationships, and heartbreak." MasterClass describes emo pop as featuring "soaring vocals and upbeat songs with melancholy lyrics." During the 2000s, emo pop artists would fuse the "lyrical and visual elements of emo with radio-friendly sonics of pop-punk." Emo pop music is notably more commercially viable than other styles of emo due to its minimal influences from indie rock and hardcore punk, and less extreme use of loud/soft dynamics. This has resulted in a sound comparable to boy band pop.
History
Origins (1990s) Emo pop was influenced by emo and pop-punk bands in the early 1990s such as California's Samiam and New York's Jawbreaker. Jawbreaker has influenced future mainstream emo pop bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. Pop-punk band Blink-182 has been a very big influence on emo pop bands. The new generation of emo fans view the Blink-182 sound as "hugely influential," with James Montgomery writing, "[...] without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records."
Emo pop truly began during the mid-to-late 1990s with bands like Jimmy Eat World, The Get Up Kids, Weezer and The Promise Ring. Weezer's Pinkerton (1996) is viewed by Spin as "a groundbreaking record for all the emo-pop that would follow" and went number 19 on the US Billboard 200 chart upon release. Jimmy Eat World pioneered an early emo pop sound in their album Clarity (1999). Both albums were very influential on later emo and emo pop bands. According to Nicole Keiper of CMJ, Sense Field's Building (1996) pushed the band "into the emo-pop camp with the likes of the Get Up Kids and Jejune". Emo pop began to have independent success in the late 1990s. The Get Up Kids had sold over 15,000 copies of their debut album Four Minute Mile (1997) before signing to Vagrant Records, who promoted the band strongly and put them on tours opening for popular rock acts such as Green Day and Weezer. Their album Something to Write Home About (1999) was a major success, reaching No. 31 on Billboard'''s Top Heatseekers chart.