10 Emo Bands That Rebranded & Made It Big in Other Genres
Jamie Frater Alisdair Hodgson
As a musical genre, emo developed out of the '80s and '90s alternative rock scene. It became a whole new subculture in the 2000s. Pairing rock band music
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As a musical genre, emo developed out of the ’80s and ’90s alternative rock scene. It became a whole new subculture in the 2000s. Pairing rock band music with often unorthodox structures and angsty themes—and a strand of fashion that prioritized skinny jeans, eyeliner, and straight black hair—the scene hit hard but burned out by the early 2010s.

As a result, some of the biggest names from emo’s heyday moved on and enjoyed success with something quite different, whether shifting into new wave, returning as fully-fledged pop groups, taking a leaf out of the hip-hop playbook, or digging down into something heavier. These 10 bands made it big without the eyeliner, but with the 2020s seeing a renaissance for both emo and pop-punk, some of them might wish they hadn’t.

Related: 10 Darkest Rock Albums Ever Made

10 Paramore

An icon of the mid-2000s emo scene, singer Hayley Williams released some of the era’s finest black tear-streaked ballads and flippy-haired bangers with Paramore. The band put out their sophomore album Riot! in 2007, which earned them permanent status in the emo canon with tracks like “Misery Business.”

But having never been comfortable with the emo label—despite being one of the groups responsible for the genre’s mainstream success—Paramore began to explore other musical avenues. By the time their self-titled fourth album rolled around in 2013, the group had moved in a more new-wave/indie direction.

This was compounded in the years to come with 2017’s After Laughter, a bright, new-wave synth-pop record that made it in drivetime radio, clubs, and charts and saw the group take on pastel and primary color branding and outfits. But why the dramatic shift? Well, years of making emotionally charged music to match emotionally charged intra-band fallouts took their toll, and it was either time to disband or show up and try something different.[1]

9 Fall Out Boy

Given the Fall Out boys were being told they had sold out as early as their third album Infinity on High (2007)—deep in the heart of their emo days—it should come as little surprise that they have flexed with the times and changed their sound significantly over the years.

After a four-year hiatus (2009–2013), Fall Out Boy returned with Save Rock and Roll. The pop rock album is packed with guests from across the musical spectrum and an array of genre influences to boot, and burned the band’s emo image (quite literally, with 2 Chainz taking a flamethrower to their records and memorabilia in the “My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark” video). This allowed the Illinoisan foursome to cultivate a mainstream sound, giving them the freedom to explore other genres like reggae and dubstep without worrying about their base.

Pete Wentz divides the band’s output into two distinct sections: pre-hiatus emo and post-hiatus mainstream. He likens the band’s trajectory to that of the Star Wars movies, whose originals, prequels, and sequels have different aesthetics that bring new relevance with each era.[2]

8 All Time Low

All Time Low reached the height of their original run with 2009’s Nothing Personal, an album that used Panic! At the Disco’s producer (Matt Squire) to refine the band’s emo sound and boost their international presence. While they repeated this formula for follow-up Dirty Work (2011) and maintained decent sales across the next few records, they gradually lost their widespread appeal, and experiments with new-wave on Last Young Renegade (2017) couldn’t save them.

Three years on, after guitarist Jack Barakat poured all his emo tendencies into weepy electronic side project WhoHurtYou and singer Alex Gaskarth had blown off steam with pop-punk/new-wave outfit Simple Creatures, the band announced Wake Up, Sunshine, an album which “hit reset on All Time Low.” Far from being a rehash of the “Dear Maria” days for the foursome, their new material featured collaborations with the likes of Blackbear and Demi Lovato and a radio-friendly tone.

The album’s re-tooled sound jettisoned their emo origins and other generic experiments for a slice of pure pop-punk nostalgia, much aligned with the mainstream revival scene led by Machine Gun Kelly. And the album and singles went to #1 in several charts, driving a newfound success.[3]

7 Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World has never been comfortable with the emo label despite being considered one of the genre’s founding fathers. Their original run of albums in the ’90s made their name within this space before hitting the mainstream with their fourth album Bleed American (2001) and hit single “The Middle.”

The band graduated out of the scene as the now iconic mid-2000s bands (like Fall Out Boy and MCR) moved in, adopting a rock-heavy power pop sound that is less tears and more party. More recently, their work with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen has seen Jimmy Eat World move into a phase of releasing singles untethered from full albums, allowing them to explore different creative avenues without needing an overarching vision.

And now that emo has come around again, the band is more forgiving of it, recognizing it as a label for a particular sound and particular scene at a particular moment in time that they can look back on fondly.[4]

6 Thirty Seconds to Mars

Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto’s passion project with brother Shannon, has been in motion for over 25 years, and the pair are still playing stadiums across the globe. But while some of their biggest tracks came during the height of emo and embraced that genre’s aural and visual aesthetic, they have continuously shifted gears to remain relevant to contemporary listeners.

Three years after their self-titled first album, which didn’t travel as far as the band might have liked, Thirty Seconds to Mars released emo standard A Beautiful Lie (2005), coming out strong with an onslaught of eyeliner, jet black hair, and genre-defining emotional singles. Indeed, “The Kill” is still synonymous with the scene as a whole.

Yet, just four years on, the band moved away from this sound entirely, releasing stadium-size alt-rock record This Is War. This dramatic shift came from an extensive battle with their record label over breach of contract, which shifted their perspective on writing and recording music toward inspiration rather than introspection. And they have continued to reinvent themselves on every album since through to 2023’s electronic/pop record It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day, landing big singles like “Stuck.”[5]

5 Falling in Reverse

After going to jail and being thrown out of Escape the Fate, frontman Ronnie Radke returned to the scene with Falling in Reverse, a band positively smeared in guyliner and a mix of bleeding-heart and tongue-in-cheek tunes. Following a successful first album in the genre, The Drug in Me Is You (2011), Radke began gradually reworking the band’s sound and image. From their second album onward, there was a deep infusion of other generic elements.

Remaining fluid over the years, Radke has shifted through hip-hop, rap, pop, country, rock, metal, and post-hardcore, stepping well outside the band’s traditional emo underpinning so as not to get pigeonholed and stuck in a creative rut.

After the decline in sales of 2017’s Coming Home, Radke was at a loss and was desperate to do anything not to “disappear into the abyss of aging emo” like many of his contemporaries. As such, Falling In Reverse took inspiration from Drake and the rap scene, shifting their output to focus on singles, putting their creative energy into each individual track, securing Billboard spots, and going platinum with a new blend of genres.[6]

4 Coheed and Cambria

While Coheed and Cambria is today known as one of the foremost names in progressive hard rock, there was a time before they found their niche where the band would have slotted in closer to Fall Out Boy and Silverstein rather than The Mars Volta and Closure in Moscow.

While their first two albums, The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002) and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003) were straight out of emo’s hardcore end, awash with nerdy lyrics, high vocals, and power chords, their third record Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV (2005) swerved hard into progressive rock territory and opened them up to a whole new audience with international hit track “Welcome Home.” And despite forays into various rock and metal subgenres over the years since, this is primarily where the band has planted their flag.

Frontman Claudio Sanchez admits to being happy to be associated with the genre tags applied to the band and has consciously adopted aspects of them as Coheed has moved toward a core sound. For Sanchez, this is pure, undiluted rock, and he believes that maybe “one day [they’ll] just be called a rock band.”[7]

3 Weezer

Since their breakout on the emo scene with their second album Pinkerton (1996), Weezer has cut a jagged path through music’s recent history. Moving between emo, college rock, power pop, and other genres, they have courted the kind of mainstream success and longevity many hope for, but few achieve.

While Pinkerton is hailed as one of the foundation albums of the emo genre, it was only a brief stay for the band and stemmed more from some dark nights of the soul rather than any intention to build a new movement. For frontman Rivers Cuomo, the record developed from the pain of a 13-month sojourn with leg surgery that took over his life, turned him into a shut-in, and sent him to a “serious and dark place.”

Despite Pinkerton overshadowing subsequent records and becoming a sore spot for Cuomo in particular, Weezer still managed to ditch the emo overtones, bring their songs back to the sunny side, and tack toward the simpler compositions and less personal lyrics that have made them alt-rock royalty.[8]

2 Panic! at the Disco

Alas, Panic! at the Disco is no more, with singer and sole remaining member Brendon Urie closing out the “band” with a last tour in 2023. But it’s not as if these were the final days of the eyeliner and vaudeville, as those went out years ago.

Despite the band’s first two albums, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (2005) and Pretty. Odd. (2008), defining emo elements in the mid-aughts, the core members came and went in these early years, and Urie took control. Over the next decade, he pivoted away from Panic!’s hallmark look and sound and found significant success in transplanting his generic root from emo to big-band pop.

This shift was cemented with Pray for the Wicked (2018), which courted global commercial success with singles like “High Hopes,” which broke the record for the most weeks spent at No.1 in the Billboard Rock Chart. But while the album is broadly pop rock, Urie’s compositional inspiration came from a curious blend of artists like Kendrick Lamar, Dua Lipa, and Cardi B and the music he grew up with—including jazz and folk.[9]

1 My Chemical Romance

Having just recently returned from a decade-long hiatus, My Chemical Romance has neither fallen back on their old ways nor started a new chapter, lounging instead in that nostalgic limbo while they play some shows and figure themselves out. But there is no denying that before they left, they went in an entirely different direction from the one established on their foundational emo record The Black Parade (2006).

Poster boys for the moodiest, saddest side of the movement, MCR rebranded in the years following The Black Parade, thanks to a gnawing discomfort with the emo tag. Rather than being upset about being characterized as emo, singer Gerard Way was primarily upset at all his hard work and sacrifice on the album being lumped into a category with other bands that he felt just weren’t as good.