Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture – The Definitive Reference to Music, Fashion, and the Internet's First Counterculture

by Leslie Simon, Trevor Kelley

What is emo? For starters it's a form of melodic, confessional, or EMOtional punk rock. But emo is more than a genre of music–it's the defining counterculture movement of the '00s. EVERYBODY HURTS is a reference book for emo, tracing its angsty roots all the way from Shakespeare to Holden Caufield to today's most popular bands. There's nothing new about that perfect chocolate and peanut butter combination––teenagers and angst. What is new is that emo is the first cultural movement born on the internet. With the development of early social networking sites like Make Out Club (whose mission is to unite "like–minded nerds, loners, indie rockers, record collectors, video gamers, hardcore kids, and artists through friendship, music, and sometimes even love") outcast teens had a place to find each other and share their pain, their opinions, and above all, their music–which wasn't available for sale at the local record store. Authors Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley lead the reader through the world of emo including its ideology, music, and fashion, as well as its influences on film, television, and literature. With a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm, EVERYBODY HURTS uses diagrams, illustrations, timelines, and step–by–step instructions to help the reader successfully achieve the ultimate emo lifestyle. Or, alternately, teach him to spot an emo kid across the mall in order to mock him mercilessly.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Humor, Pop Culture, Cultural, History

234 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2007

About the author

Hey there, I’m Leslie. Thanks so much for visiting my GoodReads Author Page! Wanna know more about me? Take a seat. This could take a minute.

- I’m a recovering Diet Coke addict
- I think John Green is a literary God
- If I could only listen to one band for the rest of my life, it’d be The Wombats
- I get excited every time I get to clean out the lint trap in the dryer
- I like to catch solo morning movies at the Arclight
- I look forward all year to Peppermint Jojo’s
- I laugh (a lot) at my own jokes
- It only took me three weeks to watch all 15 seasons—that’s 320 episodes—of Law And Order: SVU in chronological order
- I sleep with an eye mask and earplugs
- The smell of mustard makes me gag
- I know all the words to Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle


If you want to read more of my musings online, follow @redpatterndress and @geekgirlsunite. If you’d like to see me take pictures of coffee cups and the books on my nightstand, follow me on Instagram.

Reviews

[Tacobutt]

i can really connect wit this book because i think that everybody does hurt and i hate life nd things r stupid and i need a gude to my life!

[Mike Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book to gain some insight into the emo demographic. Boy was i disappointed. All it does is describe what emo kids are doing. The chapters are Fashion, Film, Literature, Music, TV, etc. So what you have are two emo kids describing what they do in their life. What they like. They don't provide any insight into why something is emo just whether it is or isn't

A few examples:

1. They name an iPod as being emo, saying:
An mp3 by any other name would not be as emo. Actually come to the think of it, try even naming another mp3 player. Go ahead and take a minute. What? Can't think of any? Yeah we didn't think so

That really makes me happy i read this book. Gee - as if i didn't know the iPod was popular.

2. They have a section of emo TV shows and they basically just list all the popular shows of the past 10 years. For instance, they name 24 even though they can't even describe why it's emo:

"There's no teen angst or high school romance, and no one broods over the meaning of life. Instead, 24 is about the life of a federal agent whose days are lived out every week in real time... So why is it that emo fans in huge numbers list 24 as one of their favorite shows? Honestly, we have no idea. "

Get them a Pulitzer.

Don't waste your time on this one.

[Megan Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard mixed reviews about this book. I decided I'd need to read it for myself. And while some things they said were totally ridiculous, most of it was based upon stereotypes which wouldn't exist if there weren't some aspect of truth to them. So in essence, it definitely made me laugh, it definitely showed me how much the "modern" emo scene has changed based on the pre "emo" underground scene that I'm more familiar with. Overall, very creative approach to an interesting culture.

[Mena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having already been a fan of Leslie and Trevor's writing from being an avid reader of Alternative Press, I was quite interested when one of the issues contained a section from their upcoming book. Being a big fan of music and a supporter of the emo movement, I bothered my local bookstore constantly asking if they had it in yet (sorry about that). And when I finally got a copy in my hands and read it, I was more than pleased.

This is an amazingly well written and snarky look at what emo was and has become from the '90s to the 2000s. Rather than most people who view the genre as nothing more than black hair, skinny jeans, and a brooding attitude, these two tackle every aspect of "being emo". Both authors are more than familiar with the genre due to their work for Alternative Press, so it's not as if we've got a Puritan writing about Paganism here. They're both well versed in the way of music.

I've re-read the book at least seven times since buying it, and I'm undoubtedly going to flip through its pages again.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anybody who grew up listening to the "emo" music that was lurking beneath the mainstream at the turn on the millennium, Leslie Simon & Trevor Kelly have condensed your nostalgia into one convenient guide. Everybody Hurts pays homage and at times even pokes fun at a group of music lovers that simultaneously felt loathed by their peers and loved by their parents. If you spent your teenage years scouring Livejournal communities, you went to any show you could just to get out of the house, reading AlternativePress, you were the first in your class to sport skinny jeans, and you wore thrift store t-shirts with Chuck Taylors, this is your book.

[Sami Wax · Rating 5 out of 5]

kind of hilrious to read looking back on 2007 and that golden emo age. some gems are the idea that 2007 had a television overdose and the homage to the t-mobile sidekick

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me chuckling at myself. I was a big fan of the emo movement, infact I was even called emo for many years. Heck, I'm still an emo, I just don't dress much like one anymore. So this book is basically a throwback to those days for me (albiet that weren't that long ago).

It's great for fans of the scene, because there's so many little jokes that if you know what these guys are talking about, are hilarious. All the music references of bands I listen to, and TV shows I watch, it just gives those kids something to read and go 'yeah, that's me, this is us and what we did'. It seems pretty vain and self-centered, but that's why I adored this book, it read back as me. It was a conversation I could have had with someone when I'm explaining why I like something (tv shows, movies, books, albums), or a conversation I would have with my boyfriend about how that music scene developed, and all the little inside jokes about Taking Back Sunday and Brand New.

I loved almost all the books, but the guide to restaurants and shops weren't overly helpful considering I live in Australia. However, the book gave me new TV shows to watch (thank you for My So-Called Life, really) and movies to hire. I've read it so many times over, and if people were to ask me what book was my bible, I'd probably say this.

[Mysh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for something a bit more light-hearted and humorous and that's pretty much what it was. Don't expect a deep analyzation of emo culture, it's pretty surface level like listing bands and fashion but not pinpointing definite timelines like 'and this is how ear plugs made their way onto the scene through appropriation from such and what'. More like 'ear plugs from Hot Topic (HA!)'.

As a former (and secretly always) emo, the funniest part was coming across things I related to before I ever even knew what "emo" was (like having a crush on Jake Gyllenhaal), or things I liked when I had proclaimed myself as emo but didn't know I shared this interest with enough emos that it was considered emo (yes, I had an Arrested Development DVD boxset), or things I'm NOW currently doing as an adult that apparently is what it means to be an adult emo (not going to Warped and instead going to Ikea).

While it was touching to find myself in so many expected and unexpected ways throughout these pages, I really would love if there was a version of this book that went deeper. The separation of topics (fashion, music, cities, tv, films, books, etc.) is a great foundation if anyone were to really delve into just how it all came to be.

xXxExtra love for the multiple William Beckett mentions.xX<3

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly what I expected it to be: it was a fun, lighthearted trip down memory lane for me. What's funny is reading this book in the scope of time, as it was published in 2007. Just six years later, all the references to Myspace seem almost comical--Facebook was still on the "college email address only" mode, and therefore was only a side note in the social media. Streaming music services were almost non-existent, mp3 players were just emerging as the standard for listening to music, and Fall Out Boy hadn't yet broken up and gotten back together.

Is this literature with a capital L? No, of course not. Is it fun? Is it entertaining? Is it a fun walk down memory lane? Absolutely. For anyone who has read Leslie Simon's other books (which I highly recommend you do), it's a pretty familiar format and tone, but it's set up that way because it works. If you'd rather let the past be the past, and forget that year in your life where you wore guyliner, feel free to skip this book, but if you have some nostalgic warm fuzzies for that weird period of the early 2000s, you'll have a lot of fun with this quick read.

[Bivisyani Questibrilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book renders me quite nostalgic. The emo culture has been and always will be a huge part of my adolescence. It reminds me of the time when I wanted to die because I didn't feel like I had any friends or when my chest hurt so bad but not a single tear would fall. The book covers the culture very well. The bands they mention over and over are extremely familiar to me, though most of them I've never listened to. It is also packed with hilarious inside-humour that only an emo kid would understand. Wish they would write an updated version with bands like Daughter and Funeral Suits now. This culture will keep evolving, which is why it lived for as long as it did.

The last paragraphs are the best ones. And they're right, no matter what music you listen to or what your hobby is, being emo comes from the heart and it never truly changes. There is an email from Pete Wentz at the last page, which I'm hoping is real, and it definitely sums up how I feel now that I'm not 15 anymore and no longer feel like having bangs that runs down to my nostril or wearing black all the time. No matter how old I get, I'll always have a soft spot for dark emotions.

[Jackie "the Librarian" · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned I am very, very old, and should back away from the eyeliner.
This book has more than you would ever want to know about emo culture, from music, to blogging, to fashion. For example: I did not know that emo guys should wear girls' jeans.
You are all, I'm sure, familiar with the emo combover hairstyle - but that is merely scraping the surface of the awfulness that is emo hair. I shudder to report that one of the hairstyles in this culture is that "Flock of Seagulls" reverse faux-hawk. That should never have been revived! The misery, oh, the misery!

I can sympathize, and be grateful I am too old to get caught up in this particular fashion trend. The 80's were bad enough!

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this mostly because it was only $2 in the bargain bin, but I found it surprisingly entertaining. Published in 2007, the book is horribly out of date, and it's hard not to laugh at all the references to Myspace, but it had the nostalgia factor going for it. (My own emo days were at their height somewhere around 2005.) The book is self-deprecating and fun, humorous but still kind. My favorite part was the final chapter on the aging emo. At 29, I'm done rocking black mini-skirts and band tees, but I like the final statement that it's not just a temporary lifestyle, it's a part of you that never really goes away.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no choice in the matter, I really didn't - once upon a time I met one of the authors whilst working at Warped Tour. I had no choice but to pick up a copy the week it came out and immediately begin to read it. What I found was exactly what I expected - a hilarious breakdown and explanation of all that is Emo. While I'm really not emo, don't think I didn't appreciate everything these two had to say.

Definitely a good book if you want a light read and a good laugh. But, really, only read it if you want to laugh and don't want to think. At all.

[Windy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before reading this book, I had no idea that my music tastes or weird preference for shy flannel-and-jeans clad men could be classified as "alt country emo." But considering Ryan Adams's lyrics, it does kind of make sense now. Especially the entire Love is Hell album. Anyway, back to the book. I thought it was pretty funny and cute even before I found the numerous Adams/Whiskeytown references. Then I immediately classfied it as downright rad.

[Nicole Zeckner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really humorous when I first started reading, but as it went on, it was just grasping at straws. When you get down to it, half this book is just "Shit Millennials Like." It grabs items from pop culture just to fill pages. If this was about half the length, it would have been really entertaining. Or if it were an emo version of "The Preppy Handbook" it would have been hilarious. As it is, it just feels "meh."

[Allegra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be more about the Promise Ring and less on Dashboard Confessional. Basically this book is about my middle school years, replete with tasteless fat and sex jokes I would have tolerated seven (!!!) years ago. Obviously I appreciated some references but overall, waste of time man.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the humor in this!

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a bunch of crybaby losers. When I was in highschool we just called them Dorks. And beat them violently.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

kind of funny at some points but mostly just describes outfits and playlists of the gays

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, funny & embarrassingly accurate

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this for the Pioneer book challenge.

It was pretty funny. I mean, it’s an essential guide to Emo culture!

Sections include ideology, fashion, internet, film, literature, music, eating habits etc. A lot of the references are now out of date but my 90s heart understood, saw the pain, and felt the feels. Haha

On their scale of Emo to So Not Emo, calculated by E = MO^2, you should know that Paris Hilton is SO not Emo. Jared Leto, obvi Emo. Nancy Kerrigan is So Emo. And Hilary Duff is decidedly undecided. iPods definitely Emo. Puppies, not Emo.

[Deborah Takahashi · Rating 3 out of 5]

After much debate, and confusion, Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley have finally put out a definitive guide to the term "Emo." According to this Simon & Kelley, " Emo is a kind of music, but more than anything, it's a state of mind"(p. 1). The term "Emo," is for "emotional," which can be applied to music, fashion, literature, and film. To be "emo," individuals are highly sensitive and in-tune with their sadness and use it to their advantage; hence, the success of Dashboard Confessional, one of the recent, and most popular, Emo bands.

Teens are at an age where they are not only experimenting with fashion trends, but are beginning their search for themselves and where they belong. In this guide, there is tons of information on Emo ideology, fashion, lifestyle choices (becoming a vegan or vegetarian), music selection, taste in movies, literature that should be read, history and television show NOT to be watched. Basically, this is a beginner's guide to everything Emo as well as handbook for those who have already converted. The humor and sarcasm are not only entertaining, but required since sarcasm is usually a teenager's best friend. Teens, and adults, will get a kick out of this book since it reads like an authoritative text, but, by no means, is authoritative. The drawings, time lines, fact boxes, and suggestions are incredibly useful, especially when deciphering the different types of Emo.

[Ariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I auctually didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. Probably because I can't relate to it. The book talked a lot about Fall Out Boy and bands I don't listen to. My best advice is, if you don't like Fall Out Boy, or Death Cab For Cutie, then this book probably isn't for you. And if you detest My Chemical Romance. Just don't pick the book up at all. Because they talk about Gerard Way, A LOT! To be honest....if anything, the book kind of annoyed me. Because it just seemed like they were making up a bunch of stuff to sound entertaining and cool. And I didn't really feel that the book was all that good. Still, it wasn't all bad. Some parts were quiet funny, But I wouldn't put it on my top ten.

[Nicole Cichon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really funny. its a great thing to read when youre in the mood to laugh at yourself and others. It is very humerous because the observations made about those who adopt the 'emo' mentality are so true. You wil find yourself noticing characteristics of yourself described in this book as well as people you know. above all its a nice light read that teachs you a lot of fun things as well as good literature to read.

[Mary BookHounds · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the better written books of this genre. It had some hilarious insight to the emo world. Emo is short for emotional, which came out of the punk music scene. You know, those kids you see at the mall always looking like they are gonna cry? The ones in the Cure T-shirt. Everybody Hurts is a great field guide for spotting these kids. I did learn a lot about this type of lifestyle, but it frightened me that I knew a little too much about the culture.

[Shayna Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book written when MySpace was the hype, all your friends had LiveJournals, and Warped Tour actually booked really amazing bands. If you fell in the emo hype or at least were familiar with the crowd (hard to miss), then this is the ultimate guide for you. I found this to be quite the reminiscing material to read, and actually felt a bit of sadness to know these days are long past. Regardless, I laughed more than anything when I remembered when being emo was totes cool.

[Jas · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I found this at a used bookstore about a year ago and just got around to reading it– the ideology section is timeless and got some laughs out of me but the rest I mostly skimmed through and found too outdated to be really relatable.

[Carolina Colleene · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most entertaining part is that I don't know if the authors were being serious or satirical.

[Jes Reaver]

I hate that this is the first book I read this year and I mostly skimmed it for research purposes. It was not what I needed.

[The Rudie Librarian (Brian) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, the book is what it says it is, it just isn’t as funny or interesting as I thought it would be. Somewhat informative. Somewhat funny.