Here's an interesting article i found about garage rock revival and how they were thought of as the next big thing in the mainstream only to be slashed by emo...
Vampires and Failures: Musings on the Garage Rock Revival Scene of 2001-2004
Here's an excerpt:
In Fall 2001, the big change was supposed to be
Is This It?, (
The Strokes most popular album to date). Let’s be frank: the real story was with another band that had slightly altered their album for the sake of sensitivity to the events of September 11th. That band was
Jimmy Eat World and their song was “The Middle.” The banner they led was the emo banner. The song was a smashing success. Months later, the unprecedented sales and popularity of the Dashboard Confessional and New Found Glory would follow. The message was clear but never acknowledged: the ’00s would be the decade of Emo’s mainstream love affair and all opposed could suck on it.
The dichotomy between the two trends, neither acknowledged as battling the other, couldn’t be greater. Strokes: upper class, pretty, sleeping with supermodels, overnight sensations, critical darlings making music derivative of older critical darlings. Jimmy Eat World: working class, dull looking, married with families, seven year veterans of the American underground with a slow slog towards success, drew off music critics didn’t care for, but America’s teenagers held as essential.
Simply put, the Arizona quintet had their New York brethren beat in several areas; they were more accessible, their music had roots in what the vast majority of Americans already liked, and their message was easy to understand. “The Middle” was perhaps a tacky cheerleading song, yes, but ultimately easy to wrap your mind around, the pep anthem that so many dour teenagers needed to fuel their dreams of kicking field goals and acquiring the girl of your dreams. Julian Casablancas, on the other hand, sounded detached as always, observing problems without ever seeming invested in them, pleading sometimes but never at any expense. The appeal of grunge was that the musicians seemed like members of the audience. Emo ran with that and came with a ready-made and completely uniform style and ideology. Meanwhile, the Garage Rock Revival seemed made up of privileged hipsters and gimmicks, something cool because all the magazines and media personalities said so.
Also, the confessional mentality of emo perhaps had a greater impact on the underground in its own quiet way. Notice how its dramatics and forlorn state of mind has manifested in literate-minded singer-songwriters (Bright Eyes), instrumental post-rock bands that always go for the grandiose, heart tugging effect (Explosions in the Sky, Saxon Shore), and its continued presence in hardcore punk (The Forecast). Check your indie pop music too; notice perhaps how it grew a bit weepier post-2000? Heck, it’s even influenced the original 20th century sad bastard music: country. Check out a Lucero record for evidence. Even runaway indie successes like the Shins and the Arcade Fire were wussier than their ’90s counterparts and put a greater emphasis on grandiose musical flourishes and introspective lyrics. Furthermore, emo has been relevant enough to prompt an actual backlash movement. “I hate emo” t-shirts exist. Governments have taken steps to curb emo fashion, much like the Goths were subject to a crack down.
Of course, like grunge before it, a sanitized version saturated the mainstream (My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic At the Disco) and any connections to, say, Sunny Day Real Estate and Pedro the Lion seems all but completely severed.