The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

Pre-ordered

 

Just chatted with Chris about his new book recently and the interview will be going live during the release week.

 

I still need to read Sellout. Adding both to my summer reading list.

 

Sellout was easily my favorite read of last year. You’re gonna enjoy it!

 

Sellout ruled. Pre-ordered this one right away, too! These oral history books (especially music ones) are right in my wheelhouse.

 

I’m just a bit peeved that the book covers up until 2008 - I would consider Paramore’s/BLG’s /Cobra Starship’s/3OH!3’s/Gym Class Heroes’ mainstream success in 2009-2011ish as the proper end to the “mainstream explosion.” That said, the decline of FOB, AAR, MCR, among others, def gave the signals that the end was near. Either way - should be a fun read.

 

Decline of MCR?! HOW DARE YOU.

 

Eager to read it. I still think Sellout by Dan Ozzi is the king of books like this.

 

I did not see if there will be pictures included. That would determine if I get a hardcover or the kindle version

 

I enjoyed the book a lot.

A piece where I think it fails is that it really discounts how pop-punk was inseparable from "emo" at the time of its explosion and likely fostered the growth of the genre covered by the book.

I'm not saying that Blink-182 and Green Day are part of the MCR/FOB/Paramore genre necessarily, but in 2004-2005, which the book highlights as just this massive year for the genre... Blink-182 have a platinum album reinventing themselves with a darker, more progressive sound and Green Day have the biggest album on the planet while wearing guyliner all over the place.

Also, Blink's breakup creates space in the "scene" for some of these bands to go further and +44 ends up touring with a lot of these bands. Angels and Airwaves too.

That and I think, the inability to really know what to do with Brand New (I get that they discuss it a little bit but... I'm never entirely satisfied with how that discussion goes) are the two major flaws in a book that was still a massive blast for me to read and one I'll probably read again soon.

There were obviously gonna be bands that got too much coverage (Looking at you, Gabe Saporta) and too little coverage (multiple members of All-American Rejects and no real deep dive into how big those guys got? What about, as previously mentioned, the groups that got bigger as the decade ended?), maybe not enough on how this music went out to the rest of the world outside of NJ, LI and Chicago (there's brief mentions of MCR's popularity in the UK) but for the most part I think it does a fairly thorough job.

 

Good points to know as it arrived on my doorstep an hour ago. Excited to read this, and perhaps your lens helps frame a bit of what I'm getting into ahead of it.