Because the genesis of those early post-hardcore bands — the common ancestors of all emo subgenres — was in Washington, D.C., The New York Times recognizes that emo is often associated with the East Coast. Never mind that many bands that would later blow up were all from New Jersey. Among them were My Chemical Romance, Thursday, Armor For Sleep, Saves the Day, Senses Fail, Hidden in Plain View, and The Early November, but the Jersey scene didn’t explode right away. There was something about New Jersey. As Drive-Thru Records owner Richard Reins told The Times in 2005, “We came back, because as label owners we couldn’t be away from it.”
In her book, “From the Basement,” former scene kid Taylor Markarian observes that, much like their Midwestern brethren, the Jersey and other East Coast bands started out playing in garages, VFW halls, firehouses, random dives, anything to get themselves out there. Record labels eventually started to pick up local acts that rocked someone’s basement.
Jimmy Eat World (who actually came from Arizona) lit up the Jersey scene when they played the Wayne Firehouse, as the New York Times also remembers. At least this was back in 2000 during their actual emo phase. Not long after the new millennium, even MTV admits they almost entirely ditched that sound for something that was pushing pop.
