This is where the media took over. When bands like Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, etcetera, started hitting the big time and putting out records - Taking Back Sunday and Thursday especially (thanks to Victory, who have a knack for whoring out bands and mislabeling everything under the sun in regards to music) - the media saw they were influenced by these older acts, yet somehow misunderstood them emo sounds, labeling those bands themselves to be emo. I believe it's safe to say the people who did this never looked into what emo actually was, otherwise the conception would be totally different. Eventually fashion came into play (damn you, Rivers Cumono) which of course was pushed onto bands to sell a different style of music, or give it some flare, so to speak. What we now have to day is a totally underground emo/screamo scene where the educated seem to thrive off their obscurity, along with a hip, mall-driven Hot Topic seeking MTV/Fuse scene, where fashion and attitude have over-taken any ounce of musical ability (obvious in bands such as MCR, The Used, and Hawthorne Heights).
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