JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CUTE WITHOUT THE 'E' (CUT FROM THE TEAM)")
TAKING BACK SUNDAY: (Singing) Your lipstick, his collar - don't bother, angel. I know exactly what goes on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PRESSURE")
PARAMORE: (Singing) I can feel the pressure. It's getting closer now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEAR MARIA, COUNT ME IN")
ALL TIME LOW: (Singing) I got your picture. I'm coming with you. Dear Maria, count me in. There's a story at the bottom of this bottle, and I'm the pen.
SUMMERS: If any of those songs evoke a core memory for you, there's a good chance that you might be an emo kid. I certainly was. In my teens, there was no music that mattered more to me. But today, some people wonder whether emo is still relevant. That question led me to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio...
(SOUNDBITE OF THE HUMAN ABSTRACT SONG, "VELA, TOGETHER WE AWAIT THE STORM")
SUMMERS: ...Where, if you walk across the plaza, take the escalator down past the giant hot dog that the band Phish first flew into Boston Garden for New Year's Eve in 1994, you can step into some recent rock history.
We just walked into the exhibit hall, and, not far from me, there's this big screen that's looping videos and music from all of these bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Destroy Boys, Illuminati Hotties, All Time Low.
I was there to meet a man who might not be a household name, but the mark he's made on the music I love is indelible.
LOUIS POSEN: I'm Louis Posen, the founder and president of Hopeless Records.
SUMMERS: Hopeless' history and the music is the subject of a new exhibit here. And just as we were about to check it out, we got interrupted by a visitor.
GREG HARRIS: Louis.
POSEN: What's happening? Come here, man.
HARRIS: How are you? Thanks for everything - appreciate it.
POSEN: Nice to see you.
HARRIS: You, too. You, too.
SUMMERS: That's Greg Harris, the Rock Hall's CEO. So how did Hopeless Records end up with a spot in the Rock Hall, just down the way from Taylor Swift's catsuit and around the corner from an exhibit honoring 50 years of hip-hop? Louis Posen remembers it this way.
POSEN: We gave him a call, and I said, Hopeless Records. And I thought he'd say, never heard of it. But he said, Hopeless Records? I'm so excited to be on the phone with you guys.
HARRIS: You know what? It's coming back to me.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: I love that. And we also are thought of by many as being a place that celebrates the past. And to do things that are more contemporary is always welcome and to bring new voices into the museum, new audiences and to connect. And so it was a perfect fit.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOPELESS")
GUTTERMOUTH: (Singing) Now I'm 23. My future's in sight. Got a steady, boring job - my future don't look too bright.
SUMMERS: Later, I had the chance to walk through the exhibit with Posen. Something caught my eye - a copy of the first-ever Hopeless Records release back in 1993.
I can't have this conversation with you without talking about Guttermouth because that was the first, right? That was where the - really, where a part of the Hopeless story begins. Am I right?
POSEN: You're correct. Guttermouth's 7-inch was the first release on Hopeless. Actually, the first song on the 7-inch is called "Hopeless," where the name of the label comes from.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOPELESS")
GUTTERMOUTH: (Singing) Die in this world. Born in this world. Die in this world. Born in this world. Life goes on.
POSEN: And I was doing a video for Guttermouth, and they dared me to put out this 7-inch for them. So I went and bought a book called "How To Run An Independent Record Label" and asked my brother and his friend for a thousand dollars and put out the Guttermouth 7-inch. And here we are 30 years later.
SUMMERS: That's incredible. And what - how does that feel to know that something that you started with a book and a thousand-dollar loan is now a piece that's commemorated in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
POSEN: It's a pretty amazing feeling, but it's not about me. And this is really about great artists, a great team and, of course, the fans who make this all happen.
SUMMERS: Posen told me that while what's at the core of Hopeless' music hasn't changed, a lot of things have.
POSEN: Our community is really diversifying, which is an important part of what we do. And our roster is now more than 50% female and nonbinary. Forty percent of our roster is LGBTQ. And so it's nice to see artists like this, you know, really getting a spotlight on them and being put next to Aerosmith and the Beatles.
SUMMERS: What he's getting at there is this music - emo, pop-punk, whatever you call it - started with young, white men. Things are different now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE THE HEART IS")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) Six-thirty alarm - brush my teeth and start the car. And I know what I know...
ZAYNA YOUSSEF: Sweet Pill sounds very big, very rock and emo and just very melodic.
SUMMERS: That's Sweet Pill frontwoman Zayna Youssef.
YOUSSEF: It's kind of like if you took Paramore and asked them to do some math rock.
SUMMERS: Sweet Pill signed to Hopeless last year. When she performed, she told me, she can feel a real sense of community around Sweet Pill's music. She sees firsthand that emo music is thriving.
YOUSSEF: Here I am writing about my feelings. Like, that's what our songs are about. And I see these people resonating with it. And they come to me after shows, and they speak about what the words mean to them. And it, like, just makes me feel a little less alone in myself. And I'm sure the same can be said for them.
SUMMERS: Part of the connection is personal. Youssef is a woman of color born in the U.S. to parents from Syria.
YOUSSEF: One of the most incredible feelings is at a show, when someone who is also maybe Middle Eastern or even just, in general, maybe Indian, Pakistani, like - like, anything that is not white - and they come to speak to me, and they tell me, like, hey, it's really cool to see a person that looks like you doing something like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HIGH HOPES")
SWEET PILL: (Singing) I am trying not to hide, hide from them...
SUMMERS: Back at the Rock Hall, Posen told me that he feels like part of Hopeless' role is to let artists like Youssef and Sweet Pill express themselves and authentically connect with their fans.
POSEN: We want to get better at what we do. We're a home for geeks and freaks and weirdos and everyone who feels like they don't have a home. Hopeless and our community is that home.
SUMMERS: And now Hopeless and that indie-emo community have a home at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which made me wonder, with the Hall of Fame inductions right around the corner, will artists like these ever receive that ultimate honor? And I put that question to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame CEO Greg Harris.
HARRIS: When I started here, people used to say, I can't believe Stevie Ray Vaughan is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I can't believe that Rush isn't in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Can't believe that Tina Turner isn't in as a solo artist. And guess what? They're all in. That happened over time. And I think that, over time, you - the perspectives on impact and influence and importance of music are always evolving, always changing. So, yeah, I think so.
SUMMERS: Whether that happens or not, former and current emo kids like me will always have the music and the memories.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THNKS FR TH MMRS")
FALL OUT BOY: (Singing) Thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so great. He tastes like you, only sweeter. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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