The early 2000s were characterized by black hair, a floppy fringe covering a smoky eye, and music from bands like Green Day. This was the height of emo subculture, and it has recently been revisited in an exhibition called I’m Not Okay: An Emo Retrospective. The exhibition, located at the Barbican Music Library, has attracted over 35,000 visitors to reminisce about the era.
Rare moments of packed shows, candid backstage moments, and intimate portraits of emo youth are pinned on black walls of the building. The exhibition has given emos a chance to reconnect with others and share their memories of the time.
The music of popular emo bands like My Chemical Romance and hits like Welcome To the Black Parade were at the heart of emo culture. The exhibition delves into themes of identity, angst, and catharsis that marked a generation’s search for belonging and self-expression. However, the genre was sometimes associated with notions of self-harm, which led to artists trying to disassociate from it and ultimately leading to its apparent downfall in mainstream media.
According to Jamie Brett, the creative director and curator at the Museum of Youth Culture, emo originated in Washington DC in the 1980s and expanded to create another subculture called scene in the mid to late 2000s. Scene was defined by its brightly colored fashion sense, big, garish, dyed hairstyles, and layered clothing. Social networks like Myspace, Buzznet, and hi5 allowed young people to share their styles online to the rest of the world. For the first time, young people were using the internet to express themselves – it was the first digital subculture.
The exhibition, a collaboration between the Museum of Youth Culture and the Barbican Music Library, is free to visit and runs until 7 February. The public has been asked to share their photos and memories of the era with the museum
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