Emo music gets its flowers at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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Over the last several decades, emo music has experienced moments of mainstream popularity. Dashboard Confessional won a VMA in 2002. And the MTV2 award goes to... You ready? Oh, Dashboard Confession! And more recently, Paramore won two Grammys in 2024. And the Grammy goes to...

But the vast majority of the scene has always existed in a more under-the-radar way, so much so that it can be easy to wonder if emo is even still relevant in 2024. Well, if you take the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an authority, the answer is a resounding yes.

At the Rock Hall, there's a new exhibit featuring Hopeless Records. The independent record label has had an impressive roster over the last 30 years, featuring some of pop, punk, and emo music's biggest names, from Sum 41... ...to Yellow Card. ...to

22-year-old Haley Cronin is an assistant curator at the Rock Hall. She was the main researcher on the exhibit for Hopeless. Cronin says she wants people who walk through the exhibit to feel connected. I want them to feel a sense of belonging, a sense of community that

punk, emo, metal is still alive and well. And if people look at one of these artifacts and one of these video stills or the big picture wall here and find themselves in one of these bands, then we've done our job. Consider this. This new exhibit at the Rock Hall puts emo music in esteemed company and makes clear that emo music not only still exists, it's thriving. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers.

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It's Consider This from NPR. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Your lipstick is calling, don't bother, Angel. I know exactly what goes on. The pressure is getting close. I got your picture, I'm coming with you. Dear Maria, count me in. There's a story at the bottom of this bottle and I'm the pen.

If any of those songs evoke a core memory for you, there's a good chance that you might be an emo kid. I certainly was. In my teens, there was no music that mattered more to me. But today, some people wonder whether emo is still relevant. That question led me to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. ♪

Where if you walk across the plaza, take the escalator down past the giant hot dog that the band Phish first flew into Boston Garden for New Year's Eve in 1994, you can step into some recent rock history.

We just walked into the exhibit hall, and not far from me, there's this big screen that's looping videos and music from all of these bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Destroy Boys, Illuminati Hotties, All Time Low. I was there to meet a man who might not be a household name, but the mark he's made on the music I love is indelible. I'm Louis Posen, the founder and president of Hopeless Records. Hopeless is history, and the music is the subject of a new exhibit here, and just like

Just as we were about to check it out, we got interrupted by a visitor. What's happening? How are you? Thank you for everything. Appreciate it. Nice to see you. You too. That's Greg Harris, the Rock Hall CEO. So how did Hopeless Records end up with a spot in the Rock Hall? Just down the way from Taylor Swift's catsuit and around the corner from an exhibit honoring 50 years of hip-hop?

Lewis Posen remembers it this way. We gave him a call and I said, Hopeless Records, and I thought he'd say, never heard of it. But he said, uh, Hopeless Records, I'm so excited to be on the phone with you guys. You know what? It's coming back to me. I love that. And we also are thought of by many as being a place that celebrates the past. And to do things that are more contemporary is always welcome. And to bring new voices into the museum, new audiences, and to connect, and so it was a perfect fit. 923! 823!

Later, I had the chance to walk through the exhibit with Posen. Something caught my eye, a copy of the first ever Hopeless Records release back in 1993. I can't have this conversation with you without talking about Guttermouth because that was the first, right? That was where the really part of the Hopeless story begins. Am I right? You're correct.

Guttermouse 7-Inch was the first release on Hopeless. Actually, the first song on the 7-Inch is called Hopeless, where the name of the label comes from.

And I was doing a video for Gutter Mouth and they dared me to put out the 7-inch for them. So I went and bought a book called How to Run an Independent Record Label and asked my brother and his friend for $1,000 and put out the Gutter Mouth 7-inch. And here we are 30 years later. That's incredible. And how does that feel to know that

Something that you started with a book and a thousand dollar loan is now a piece that's commemorated in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's a pretty amazing feeling, but it's not about me. And this is really about great artists, a great team, and of course the fans who make this all happen.

Posen told me that while what's at the core of Hopeless' music hasn't changed, a lot of things have. Our community is really diversifying, which is an important part of what we do. And our roster is now more than 50% female and non-binary. 40% of our roster is LGBTQ. And so it's nice to see that.

What he's getting at there is this music, emo, pop-punk, whatever you call it, started with young white men. Things are different now. I'm a cross-white teen.

Sweet Pill sounds very big, very rock and emo, and just very melodic. That's Sweet Pill frontwoman Zaina Youssef. It's kind of like if you took Paramore and asked them to do some math rock. Sweet Pill signed to Hopeless last year. When she performs, she told me, she can feel a real sense of community around Sweet Pill's music. She

She sees firsthand that emo music is thriving. Here I am writing about my feelings. Like, that's what our songs are about. And I see these people resonating with it. And they come to me after shows and they speak about what the words mean to them. And it, like...

just makes me feel a little less alone in myself. And I'm sure the same can be said for them. Part of the connection is personal. Yousef is a woman of color born in the U.S. to parents from Syria. One of the most incredible feelings is at a show when someone who is also maybe Middle Eastern or even just in general, maybe Indian Pakistani, like anything that is not white and white

They come to speak to me and they tell me like, "Hey, it's really cool to see a person that looks like you doing something like this."

Back at the Rock Hall, Posen told me that he feels like part of Hopeless' role is to let artists like Yusuf and Sweet Pill express themselves and authentically connect with their fans. We want to get better at what we do. We're a home for geeks and freaks and weirdos and everyone who feels like they don't have a home.

Hopeless and our community is that home. And now Hopeless and that indie emo community have a home at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which made me wonder, with the Hall of Fame inductions right around the corner, will artists like these ever receive that ultimate honor? And I put that question to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO Greg Harris. When I started here, people used to say, I can't believe Stevie Ray Vaughan is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Can't believe Stevie Ray Vaughan is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Can't believe that Rush isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Can't believe that Tina Turner isn't in as a solo artist. And guess what? They're all in. That happened over time. And I think that over time, the perspectives on impact and influence and importance of music are always evolving, always changing. So yeah, I think so. Whether that happens or not, former and current emo kids like me will always have the music and the memories.

This episode was produced by Brianna Scott. It was edited by Sarah Handel and Courtney Dornan. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.

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