One of Emo’s downfalls was all the drama and petty cliquishness, which is why some people left the genre for other stuff like just straight up indie rock (also smarmy) or crusty stoner metal.

I actually think that if Fall Out Boy hadn’t gone the MTV route, they would be more legitimized amongst the old school emo crowd, because their music is very much the archetype of the genre.

Drive Like Jehu was a good band that helped bridge the emo and hardcore genres in the mid 90′s and really influenced the San Diego music scene up until about 2001. They released two albums, recommended if you want to understand the evolution of the Emo genre.

I also recommend, the more sedate, slo-core, but definitely emo band Secret Stars which featured Karate’s Geoff Farina and another girl, (I can’t remember her name) but their s/t 1996 album is pretty good in my opinion.

Emo will probably fade away eventually, like everything else, but it was a radical and potent form of music that a lot of people found really inspiring in the mid to late 1990s.

*yuk yuk, emo joke