Here’s what I think of every single emo/emo-adjacent band. Emo is hard to really pin down as a genre but the best description I’ve seen has been “Indie Punk.” This is obviously a subjective list, but I think it’s worth mentioning that I buy into Dylan of 100 gecs’ music rating metric:

Dylan’s metric for what is a good song is so great. You can be like, “I don’t know if I love that song” or whatever. And Dylan’s like, “if you were listening to this on a huge sound system and your friend made it and you were hearing it, you wouldn’t be like, ‘wow, this is great?’”

If any of my friends were in any of these bands I would think it was the best music on Earth.

Tiers are:
S: “This is incredible” has crossed my mind while listening to these bands or they have otherwise moved me in some way
A: I like these bands a lot
B: I think these bands are fine but don’t stand out, or I think they’re good but not lined up with my tastes
C: I don’t like these bands
F: Reserved for music that I think is poisonous to listen to

S

---

• Breakwater
• Bright Eyes
• Burial Etiquette
• Gospel
• Joyce Manor
• Marietta
• SPORT
• Violetear

A

---

• Asthenia (JP)
• Braid
• Cursive
• Dads
• Dollar Signs
• Don Martin 3
• Eldritch Anisette
• Funeral Diner
• Glass Beach
• Glocca Morra
• Heroin
• Inside Voices
• Into It. Over It.
• Jeff Rosenstock
• Jimmy Eat World
• Motion City Soundtrack
• My Chemical Romance
• niiice.
• nouns
• Origami Angel
• OWLS
• Relient K
• Rookie Card
• Small Brown Bike
• Sonic Sea Turtles
• Taking Back Sunday
• Tenue
• worst party ever
• Yaphet Kotto

B

---

• …Who Calls So Loud
• Algernon Cadwallader
• Anything is Everything
• Backbrace
• Blowout **
• Camp Trash
• Camping in Alaska
• Cap’n Jazz
• Chinese Football
• Coheed and Cambria **
• Common Sage
• Crash of Rhinos
• Desaparecidos
• Dogleg
• Elephant Jake
• envy
• Fifteen
• Free Throw
• Grade
• Heart to Gold
• Home Is Where
• I Hate Sex
• Indian Summer
• Knope
• Lemuria
• Lincoln
• Medoed
• Moss Icon
• Nate Dionne
• Panic! At the Disco **
• Pet Symmetry
• Piebald
• Policy of Three
• Pour Me Another
• PUP
• Robo Pumpkin
• Spraynard
• Sunny Day Real Estate
• Ted Nguyent
• The Early November
• The Regrets
• Title Fight
• Touche Amore
• Weatherday
• Wow, Owls!

C

---

• American Football
• Bird Bone
• Decay
• empire! empire! (i was a lonely estate)
• Evergreen
• Franklin
• Funeral for a Friend
• Guitar Fight from Fooly Cooly
• Hot Mulligan
• Il Mare di Ross
• Michael Cera Palin
• Mineral
• Navio Forge
• Papayer
• Pianos Become the Teeth
• Pictures of Vernon
• Remo Drive
• Rites of Spring
• Sympathy Card
• Texas Is The Reason
• The Promise Ring
• The Starting Line
• Tigers Jaw
• Time Spent Driving
• You Blew It!

F

---

• A Great Big Pile of Leaves
• Oolong
• Snowing

Notes

Panic! At The Disco - Their debut release is really really good but I can’t condone Brendon Urie’s musical direction afterwards
Coheed and Cambria - Just The Second State Turbine Blade - I think their later releases aren’t very emo and are more proggy, and they are much better as a prog band than as an emo band.
Blowout - I want to call this band indie rock. It’s a tough call.

Listening List

I’m particularly interested in anything that has a * but there are bands I’m interested in that I forgot to add a * to.

• 125, Rue Montmarte
• A Minor Forest
• Acceptance
• Acuarelas
• AFI
• Age Sixteen
• Alas
• Alexisonfire
• All Birds Are Bad
• Amanda Woodward
• Amber Inn
• Ambulance! Ambulance!
• Ampere
• And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
• Angel Hair
• Antioch Arrow
• Armor for Sleep -
• Balance and Composure
• Battalion of Saints
• Beefeater
• Bicycle Inn
• Blue Depth
• Boilermaker
• Bombastic Dream Pussy
• Born Without Bones
• Boys Life
• Brand New
• Brandston
• Carly Cosgrove
• Cash Cash
• Castevet
• Ceres
• Charmer
• Cheap Haircuts
• Chess Boxing
• Chisel *
• Christie Front Drive
• Circle Takes The Square
• Citizen *
• City of Caterpillar
• Clikatat Ikatowi
• Cling to Youth
• Cold Room Heady
• Copeland
• Crumb
• CSTVT
• Current
• Daddy’s Hands
• Daphne Loves Derby
• Dashboard Confessional
• Death Cab for Cutie
• Deer Leap
• Deid
• Del Paxton
• Discount
• Dominic
• Drive Like Jehu
• Driveways
• Elemantra
• Elliott
• Embrace
• Ethel Meserve
• Everyone Everywhere
• Fakeholder
• Fall Out Boy
• Far
• Fiddlehead
• Finch
• fish narc
• Flight Patterns
• Forests
• foronceinmylife…
• Four Hundred Years
• Foxing
• Frank Turner
• frankie and his fingers
• From First to Last
• Fuel
• Further Seems Forever
• Garden Variety
• Gleemer
• GOMMA
• Grumpster
• Halos for Martyrs
• Have Mercy
• Hawthorne Heights
• Hey Mercedes
• Hoover
• Hop Along
• Hot Cross
• Hot Rod Circuit
• Hotknives
• I Hate Myself
• I Love Your Lifestyle
• Ignition
• Indigo Moire
• Ink & Dagger
• iwrotehaikus
• Jack Binkerd
• JANK
• Jawbox
• Jawbreaker *
• Jejune
• Jeromes Dream
• Jets To Brazil
• Joan of Arc
• Julia
• Just Friends
• Karate
• Kinda Alright *
• Kississippi
• Knapsack
• Komuso *
• kudaranai1nichi
• La Dispute
• Lakeside Bird
• Latterman
• Lentic Waters
• Lifetime
• Lil Peep
• Lions
• Litterbug
• Living War Room
• Los Campesinos!
• Lost Ground
• Lungfish
• Macseal
• Make Believe
• Mallard
• Marschak
• Mat Kerekes
• Mayday Parade
• mewithoutYou
• Midtown
• Mighty Ships
• milesmorales
• Minor Acts of Cannibalism
• Minus the Bear
• Modern Baseball
• Mohinder
• Mom Jeans.
• Never Shout Never
• New Found Glory *
• Northstar
• Not Rebecca
• Nuvolascura
• Off Minor
• Old Problems
• Oliver Houston
• On The Might of Princes
• One Eyed God Prophecy
• One Last Wish
• Orchid
• Oso Oso
• Overo
• Owen
• Pageninetynine *
• Paramore
• Pedro the Lion
• Penfold
• Petal
• Photo Fire
• Pinegrove
• Piri Reis
• Pity Sex *
• Plain White T’s
• Pool Kids
• Portraits of Past
• Previous Love
• Prince Daddy & The Hyena
• Punch
• Pyramids
• Rainer Maria
• Rasputin’s Secret Police
• rawrXD
• Reggie and the Full Effect
• Retirement Party
• reveries
• Riley!
• Saetia
• Samiam
• Sarge
• Saves The Day
• Say Anything
• Scary Kids Scaring Kids
• Secret Stuff
• Senses Fail
• Setsuko
• Sheep Squeeze
• Shin Guard
• Shotmaker *
• Sign Language
• Silverstein
• Sincere Engineer
• Sinking
• Slaughter Beach, Dog
• Sleep Soundtrack
• Sleepy Dog
• Something Corporate
• Sorority Noise
• Spitboy
• Sports
• Staircase
• Still Life
• Story of the Year
• Straylight Run
• summer 2000
• Superchunk
• Swearin’
• Swing Kids
• Takaru
• Tatakae
• Tekaru
• Ten Grand
• The Academy Is…
• The Anniversary
• The Appleseed Cast
• The Brave Little Abacus
• The Casket Lottery
• The Crownhate Ruin
• The Dangerous Summer
• The Death of Anna Karina
• The Diggs
• The Dismemberment Plan
• The Faith
• The Get Up Kids
• The Hated
• The Hotelier
• The Jazz June
• The Jealous Sound
• The Juliana Theory
• The Little Explorer
• The Movielife
• The New Amsterdams
• The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
• The Shivering
• The Spill Canvas
• The Spirit of the Beehive
• The Spirit of Versailles
• The Used
• The Van Pelt
• The White Octave
• The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die
• This Summer
• Thursday
• Tibetan Pop Stars
• Tigers!
• Tommy Boys
• Turnover
• twenty one pilots
• Underoath
• Usurp Synapse
• Veresk
• Waving
• We Are The Union
• White Lung
• Witch Hunt
• You Me at Six
• YOUTHCARE
• даша онзероад
• Пекинский Велосипед

Honorable Mentions

Emo tangential bands that often get lumped in with emo or were otherwise influential on the genre but I don’t buy being on this list

• Soulside
• Weezer
• Vitreous Humor

Other Mentions

Bands that only have one song

• Right Through

Bands that don’t have anything online

• Nexus Six

Bands that don’t fall within my definition of emo Stars are for bands I haven’t listened to much of but moved here after a cursory listen

• 17° Below
• Alkaline Trio
• At The Drive In
• Blink-182
• Dag Nasty
• Ghosts and Vodka
• Gray Matter
• Go Radio
• Goalkeeper
• JR Ewing
• Loma Prieta *
• Second Story Window *
• SeeYouSpaceCowboy
• Stirling Says
• The Blood Brothers
• Three Days Grace