Chris Carrabba is more “rock and roll” than you’ll ever be

Yeah, this guy.

I remember in high school I was sitting at lunch one day and a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, sat down at the table looking very upset. We all ignored him for awhile until he finally spoke up. “Hey guys, do you ever go home after school and lock yourself in your room and listen to Dashboard and just cry?” We all waited a second for him to start laughing, hoping that he was joking, but by the look on his face we could tell that he wasn’t. This was my first venture into the world of “Emo.”

Starting in the early 2000’s a giant whine was spreading across the country. Pop-punk mentalities were being mixed with the nasal voiced angst of the next generation. This movement came to be called “Emo,” and its face was one Chris Carrabba. Carrabba fronted the one man band named Dashboard Confessional. He sang songs with titles such as “Screaming Infidelities” and “Vindicated” with lyrics such as, “As for now I’m gonna hear the saddest songs, /and sit alone and wonder, how you’re making out. / and as for me I wish that I was anywhere, with anyone, making out.”

Despite the sappy sentimentalism of the music, it took off. “Emo,” originally derived from a subgenre of the hardcore scene called “emotional hardcore,” seemed to be attracting hordes of disaffected youths much like the punk and Goth movements had earlier. However, like all subcultures, there was a backlash, and Carrabba and his band bore the brunt of it.