What could better appeal to teenagers than a genre accused of being overly serious and painfully self-aware at the same time? Minor ThreatвЂ™s Ian MacKaye, who eventually became best known for his work in Fugazi, was viewed as an ethical barometer when he claimed emo was вЂњthe stupidest fucking thing IвЂ™ve heard in my life,вЂќ and since then, the line has been repeated by just about every emo band to warrant the distinction. ItвЂ™s now a fixed concept within popular culture and a resilient mode of expression. Drake is emo, Game of Thrones is emo, the Beach Boys and Shakespeare are emo, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is emo. In the past 35 years, the meaning of emo has become almost completely inverted - itвЂ™s more likely to mean вЂњhard-core emotionalвЂќ in the public discourse, extending beyond punk or even music itself as shorthand for anything defined by a kind of hyperbolic and demonstrative sadness. Among them were Rites of Spring and Embrace, which each released one self-titled album before breaking up, setting both the sonic and career template for emo bands going forward (and, judging by the above statements, also the prevailing attitude bands should have toward the term вЂњemoвЂќ itself). What they had in common: a greater emphasis on melody, dynamics, and, yes, lyrics about feelings. punk during the so-called Revolution Summer. The first known usage of emo dates back to the mid-1980s, when вЂњemo-coreвЂќ served as shorthand for вЂњemotional hardcore,вЂќ a label applied to a wave of bands that deviated from the macho aggression of D.C. LetвЂ™s just blame it all on Washington, D.C. вЂњThe stupidest fucking thing IвЂ™ve heard in my entire life.вЂќ Musician-activist Jenni Toomey, speaking on behalf of perhaps the first emo band in Andy GreenwaldвЂ™s Nothing Feels Good вЂњRites of Spring existed well before the term did, and they hated it.вЂќ

Photo-Illustration: Vulture and photos by Getty Images and Shutterstock

Fuck the prom soundtrack