It ended up being discovered by a younger generation, and its influence directly led to the sound of third wave emo. The mix of fan backlash and inner-band tension led to Jawbreaker breaking up a year later, but that wasn't the end of the road for Dear You. There was talk of Jawbreaker becoming the next big thing with their 1995 major label debut Dear You, which was released by the label that put out Nirvana's Nevermind (Geffen) and produced by the person who helmed Green Day's Dookie (Rob Cavallo), but instead, the album was instantly hated by longtime fans and considered a commercial failure. Read our new interview with Jim Ward about the album for more.ģ2. He may have been previously best known as a sideman (a role he says he's still more comfortable with), but Sparta gave him the opportunity to bring his voice and more of his ideas to the forefront, and it resulted in great records like Wiretap Scars. The album fit in perfectly with the emo/post-hardcore boom that had really started to explode just as ATDI were breaking up, and the album also served as a reminder of how crucial Jim Ward's backing vocals were to the sound of At the Drive-In. ![]() Sparta signed a major label deal with Dreamworks the same year they formed, and debuted in 2002 with the Austere EP before releasing their debut full-length Wiretap Scars later that year. ![]() In conjunction with the list, we've also got some of these records in our online vinyl shop.Īfter the initial 2001 breakup of At the Drive-In, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López formed the more progressive rock-influenced Mars Volta, while guitarist/backing vocalist Jim Ward, drummer Tony Hajjar, and bassist Paul Hinojos stuck to a more post-hardcore vibe with Sparta, which found Jim Ward assuming lead vocal duties and Paul Hinojos moving to guitar (the lineup was rounded out by bassist Matt Miller). Like any list, this one is bound to leave off some great albums, so let us know your favorites in the comments. Some albums on it lean more indie rock, some more metalcore, some more pop punk, and some of these artists would probably balk at the idea of being called "emo" (though there's nothing more emo than insisting you aren't emo!), but for one reason or another, they all scratch that itch. Genre is endlessly debatable, and often has more to do with scene or image than sound, so I stuck to somewhat liberal definitions of "emo" and "post-hardcore" for this list. As a way of looking at this monumental year 20 years later, I've put together a list of the 35 best emo and post-hardcore albums of 2002, ranked from least best to most best. Some bands that had been grinding for years released their most-loved album in 2002, others released albums that remain divisive to this day. A lot of the veterans who helped shape emo's second wave in the '90s were putting out records in 2002 that challenged (or entirely rejected) the boundaries of the genre. Of course, when you look at the scope of 2002 emo and post-hardcore, it wasn't all up-and-coming bands. A lot of these groundbreaking emo/post-hardcore bands had no idea they were contributing to something that was about to be a worldwide cultural phenomenon that would still be celebrated 20 years later so many of them were just scrappy hardcore kids who liked Something to Write Home About and Clarity and wanted to make something a little catchier and more melodramatic than other hardcore kids. As it became clearer and clearer that this type of music was quickly resonating with a new generation of music fans, record labels like Victory and Drive-Thru and Triple Crown and Equal Vision and eventually even the majors found themselves scooping up melodic, emotional punk bands like crazy, and though the new interest in that style of music might've outraged some older punks, the rise of this sound was largely ground-up and organic. ![]() 2002 was really the year that emo and its heavier sister genre post-hardcore began surpassing pop punk as the punk subgenre of choice for the youth of the era, and so many albums from that year are still influencing new bands today. In honor of their 20th anniversaries, this edition of 'In Defense of the Genre' looks at the best emo and post-hardcore albums from that year.Ģ001 was the year that emo broke (on a mainstream level), and once the floodgates were opened, 2002 birthed even more now-classic albums that fall somewhere under the emo umbrella.
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