Muuuum – it's not a phase! "I’m Not Okay" exhibition celebrating Emo culture launches in London and runs until January 2025. Crack out your darkest eyeliner, put on My Chemical Romance and prepare to yell “I’m not o-f*cking-kay" because there’s a new exhibition on at the Barbican Music Library in London that celebrates emo culture at its finest. Or darkest.
Whatever applies. Currently on and with doors open until 15 January 2025, “I’m Not Okay (An Emo Retrospective)” explores the rise of Britain’s Y2K subculture, focusing on the first-generation Emo scene from 2004 to 2009. For those of you scratching their heads and not currently vibing to Fall Out Boy, here’s a quick refresher.
Emo is a music genre that stems from the word ‘emotional’ or the term ‘emotional hardcore’ - a style of music in the mid-80s that was characterised by songs’ introspective lyrics and influenced by The Smiths, Joy Division and The Cure. Stereotypically, Emo tends to be associated with sensitivity, shyness, or a bucket-load of angst – which often translates as social alienation and introversion. More controversially, the stereotypes extend to destructive behaviour and depression or self-harm.
But unless you have a subscription to British tabloid Daily Mail, Emo is a subculture that offers a vehicle for creativity and self-expression, and is not characterised by harmful clichés linked to anger and extreme sadness. In the 00s, Emo was reinvented by alt rock and indie ban.