While our esteemed Stone Cold Steve Wilkos has already written a very solid analysis of the coming trends in 2017, I noticed a rather large blank spot in his write-up: the complete lack of information regarding the emo scene. Although tr00 music is on the way out, emo still holds a ton of sway with Kids These Days, and it would be a mistake to write it off completely in the coming year. Being that I am the site’s resident emo dork, I thought it pertinent to give y’all a rundown what I think emo’s future will be. Mark my words; now’s the time to invest stock in sassgrind, before it’s too late!

A. Lo-Fi

Featuring members of the World Is A Terrible Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Tell Cops to Shoot Themselves

First of all, lo-fi is an absolutely garbage musical trend; that said, so is shoegaze, and that was the trend that former emo and pop-punk bands had been hopping on since 2012 (Title Fight, Turnover, Whirr, Nothing, etc.). Shoegaze started losing its subcultural currency in 1991 (unless your band’s name was Hum or Slowdive, I guess) and was overtaken by lo-fi, dorky college rock made by and for kids who weren’t cool enough to be into shoegaze, kind of like emo. So expect to see a shitload more bands like the Obsessives, who are basically ripping off Pavement, Sebadoh, and Guided by Voices in 2017, but no one realizes it because noodly guitars are now indistinguishable from twinkly ones.

B. Mom Jeans.

After the slow and brutal death of scene darlings JANK last year, it seemed that everyone turned around and decided Mom Jeans. were going to be the new hype band. This is important, because it seems that the scene has decided not to take itself too seriously. Mom Jeans., like JANK, have a witty, self-aware sense of humor about them that goes beyond emo’s typical silly, self-deprecating song titles. In a scene that is so full of itself at times, it’s nice that there are bands who exist to puncture that self-seriousness. It helps that Mom Jeans. are solid songwriters, able to nimbly balance between indie rock and pop-punk while maintaining a solidly emo vocal approach. Sure, it’s not really emotive hardcore, or even really Midwest emo/emo revival, but we stopped caring about that when we all decided that a sleepy, jazzy math rock band from Chicago called American Football was emo. This, of course, is all helped along by the fact that it’s finally become socially acceptable to openly admit that you have been influenced by bands like My Chemical Romance and early Fall Out Boy, which would have been anathema just two or three years ago, showing that perhaps the scene is finally becoming more concerned with songwriting than posturing. Maybe.

C. Emotive Hardcore

Do you think these guys have ever listened to Embrace?

Never fear, however, because in 2017, Rites of Spring/Dag Nasty-esque emocore is set to become the popular sound du jour. While the emocore label has expanded over time to include everybody from American Nightmare and Hot Water Music to the Pine and Life At These Speeds, there seems to be a resurgence of bands in the DC/Baltimore area who are playing a style of straight-edge/youth crew-oriented hardcore typified by melodic, slightly experimental song structures, deeply personal lyrics, and an aesthetic that fuses passion for social justice with a hippie flair. If you’re unaware, that is exactly how one would describe the original surge of mid-80s emocore bands such as One Last Wish, the Hated, Turning Point, and Beefeater. Although GIVE were the forerunners of the movement, recent records by Praise and Fury have mastered the art of harkening back to Revolution Summer while appealing to the same dorks who drool over Stick Together and Mindset. Keep an eye on the REACT! Records scene, because this style is going to explode in the coming year.

D. Emo Means Indie Rock Now

Although Ian Cohen has been one of the emo revival’s greatest champions, at least attempting to give emo bands positive scores on Pitchfork, he is still one of those Johnny-come-latelys who thinks that Saves the Day, the Get-Up Kids, and the Promise Ring are the “truest” emo bands who ever lived. A side effect of this is that now emo is, once again, suffering the same fat that it did throughout the early-mid-00s, when it was applied to everybody from Bright Eyes to Cute Is What We Aim For; you can probably blame this on the extreme popularity and wide stylistic range of ostensibly “emo pop” bands like Sorority Noise, Modern Baseball, and the Front Bottoms. Admittedly, bands like Cymbals Eat Guitars and Strange Rangers are at least within proximity to Midwest emo, but they have nothing to do with DIY hardcore per se. All we can do is hope that these bands may somehow lead posers to the light :///

E. Emo Trap

Speaking of Pitchfork, they recently ran one of their typically over-blown, under-researched thinkpieces/interviews with a young artist known as Lil Peep, referring to the artist as the “future of emo.” This isn’t that baffling when taken into context: for one, lo-fi, lyrically vulnerable Soundcloud trap rappers like him have been repping hardcore and death metal since at least 2010, and emo was the next logical step; secondly, he has a solid DIY ethic that is frankly admirable; and third, this kind of music has been exploding lately. There was nothing,nowhere touring with La Dispute and Thrice last year, and acts like Spooky Black, basically an emo Frank Ocean, and the Tigers Jaw spin-off Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, who have been active for quite a while, but there’s also Bones sampling La Dispute. That track was produced by TeamSESH, who are definitely leading the pack as far as modern emo rap goes. Lil Peep himself is part of the Goth Boi Clique, who sample pretty much everything from American Football to From First to Last. Then you have “edgy/occult” acts like Suicideboy$ and Ghostmane who are essentially Brotha Lynch Hung and Gravediggaz, but repackaged for dudes on tumblr who post deep thoughts about Hotelier lyrics. There’s a ton of artists working in this style (Scum, OmenXIII, and Velvetears are all artists I could rattle off from the top of my head), and a Pitchfork buzz-piece like the one Lil Peep got is just the catalyst needed for this sound to become the Next Big Thing.

IF YOU TAKE NOTHING ELSE FROM THIS ARTICLE, LET IT BE THIS. It’s essentially the closest thing we are going to get to a crabcore/crunkcore revival.

F. And On the Subject of Skramz

White belt is finally back, in a big way.

Skramz is one of those things that is always in flux, but never seems to change much; in many ways, it’s the most faithful thing to the original DIY emo style (ie Moss Icon, Native Nod, etc) we have today. Skramz kids are generally super aware of their history, which is why it’s no surprise that the current biggest trends, ripping off black metal/neocrust bands and ripping off sass, are primarily based around things that were already popular in the scene circa the late 90s/early 00s. Skramz is also super cyclical, so expect a revival of the classical kittencore sound that CMWHAK fawns over; Swan of Tuonela and Ostraca are already popular purveyors of the sound, as well as the San Diego scene (Flowers Taped to Pens, Nayru, and Letters to Catalonia all spring to mind), and vocals are only going to get higher and shriekier as time goes on. Additionally, skramz is a hotbed of radical leftist politics, and bands like Soul Glo and Amygdala both released absolutely killer anarcho-feminist records this year that rank in my top 10. So, basically, the sound of skramz in 2017 is going to be heavily black metal-influenced, danceable hardcore with unbelievably high-pitched shrieks about anarchism and intersectional feminist issues. Get fucking stoked.

Anything I missed? Are you stoked on the sassgrind revival? Are you prepared for more talking at shows than you’ve ever experienced before?? Are you sick of this skramz bullshit and are just waiting around until you hear Code Orange and Beartooth on the radio (which I heard last night)???? Let me know in the comments below!

You Don’t Need Maps makes predictions about the scene on an estimated monthly basis at his blog, is always stoked for more Twitter followers, and will make fun of you on his Tumblr.