London’s Barbican is hosting a new emo exhibition

Good news for emos wanting to get nostalgic: The Barbican Music Library in London has just opened a free retrospective exhibition looking at the people and culture in the scene from 2004 – 2009.

Twenty years on from the release of landmark albums like My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge and The Used’s In Love And Death, which marked the start of the emo explosion proper, it takes a look not just at the music, but the fans and the significance of the culture behind it. Gathering together camera phone photos retrieved from old hard drives and Photobucket accounts, among other stuff, the collaboration between the Museum Of Youth Culture and City Of London Corporation promises an “unfiltered look at when youth culture was cute, raw, vulnerable, and unapologetically different”.

“The ethos of emo resonated deeply with a generation, channeling collective teenage melancholy into a transatlantic subculture that thrived in cyberspace just as well as in the basement venues of grotty pubs,” is how the museum puts it. “With one foot IRL and the other in MySpace, emo wasn’t just a scene – it was the only way of living, the only way we could envision our futures.

“The exhibition examines how this scene intertwined with internet fame and drama, with teens expressing their angst through confessional lyrics, tight jeans, and dyed black hair. I’m Not Okay delves into how emo became a positive force for acceptance, addressing issues of sexuality, mental health, gender, identity, and belonging. It was one of the first subcultures to bridge the physical and digital worlds, laying the groundwork for today’s digital youth quake led by TikTok and Instagram.”

“The emo scene resonated deeply with teens who wanted to express their angst, doubts, insecurity, and sense of feeling and being different, and channelled their collective melancholy into a transatlantic subculture,” explains Jamie Brett, Creative Director at MOYC.

“As well as the content that we unearthed digitally, we are very grateful to everyone who remembered how emo culture helped shape their lives and answered our shout-outs for visual material for the exhibition, essentially, giving them a degree of ownership of it.

“We are all hugely proud of I’m Not Okay (An Emo Retrospective) and over the course of its four-month run at Barbican Music Library, the Museum’s team is looking forward to hearing how it evokes vivid memories of this pivotal time in people’s lives.”

Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee, Munsur Ali, adds, “Free to view and always very well-received, exhibitions at Barbican Music Library excel in showcasing the work of legendary bands, solo artists, and music photographers.

“This new exhibition, rich in discovered and donated visual material from the era, will prove very popular with everyone who drew comfort and inspiration from their favourite emo bands’ confessional lyrics, and strength and a sense of release from creating their own visual identity.”

The exhibition is open now, and runs until January 15, 2025.

Read this: “We thrive on conflict, opposition… everything”: The story of MCR’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge