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Emo Gatekeeper

Someone who doesn't consider the nuances of emo music as a genre, and always try to shut down the conversation about what bands are considered part of the genre or not. They always refer bands like American Football, The Promise Ring, The Get Up Kids, and other midwest emo bands as "true emo", and anything mainstream like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore as "fake emo".

They also like using the excuse "Gerard Way hates MCR being called emo" and completely ignoring that Rites of Spring and Jawbreaker also hated being called emo, but they proceed to insist their emo title anyways. It's the same thing that happened with Grunge and Nu Metal before where people used the excuse that bands hated labels, thus they aren't part of it.

Their primary source for this information comes from isthisbandemo.com which 1. Is an extremely contradictory website (stating bands like Senses Fail and Pierce the Veil aren't emo, but bands similar to them like Silverstein and Coheed and Cambria are) 2. They change emo rulings all the time (they used to consider The Used emo, but not anymore, or when they used to not consider Paramore emo, but now they do, etc.) and 3. The website owner came out and said that it shouldn't even be taken seriously back in 2019.

Obviously, there are some bands that aren't emo that people can clear the waters about like Panic! at the Disco or Twenty One Pilots, but to gatekeep what is "real and fake emo" is ridiculous.

Emo Gatekeeper Copypasta: "Real Emo" only consists of the dc Emotional Hardcore scene and the late 90's Screamo scene...

by SlytheEmo August 4, 2023