The Get Up Kids may not have started emo, but they're willing to take the blame."If this is the world we helped create, then I apologize," guitarist James Suptic told Drowned in Sound earlier this summer. The Get Up Kids reunited last year after a three-year hiatus. "Honestly, I don't often think about the state of 'emo.' The punk scene we came out of and the punk scene now are completely different. It's like glam rock now."
Emo has its roots in the mid 1980s, but reached critical mass early this decade with bands like The Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World—who honestly, I never thought of as emo because what is "emo" in my head annoys the crap out of me. (see: Dashboard Confessional)
