Swoon. This book took me back to my emo/scene days and I couldn't have (unironically) been happier. This is an amazing review of the bands and emotions we held in the mid-aughts. A must-buy for emo music lovers everywhere.

5/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Where Are Your Boys Tonight? is an oral telling of the history of the mainstream emo movement in the early 2000s. Many of the star players of the time were interviewed for the book, telling the story in their own words. It was really interesting to get the behind the scenes stories on how some of my favorite bands and albums were created.

This book seemed like it was made for me. This was my era. I listened to these bands, went to their shows, went to Warped Tour. I still listen to a lot of these albums and songs today. The reason I rounded up to 4 stars was because these are my people. But the reason for a lower rating is the presentation of the materials. The introduction explained it…these were the stories, told by the people who were part of it. But from an execution standpoint, it was just a bit messy. The timeline skipped around a lot. I felt like we were missing a cohesion to the events that could’ve been helped by a narration between quotes. We jumped from one band to another, and then it felt like we never finished some of those stories. It was trying to tell entirely too much in some parts, and skimming over the details of others.

Overall, the content and stories were great. But maybe the style of the “oral history” just wasn’t for me. I would’ve preferred it be told more cohesively than just sound bites pieced together.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dey Street Books for an advanced copy of this ebook!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of Where Are Your Boys Tonight by Chris Payne.

I'm a big pop punk/emo fan, but even I feel like I didn't know enough to stay engaged in this loooong, niche book. Feels like it was written for other music writers, which is totally valid. Still, I enjoyed all the gems, and hearing from so many artists I loved when I was younger (and even now!)

This book was so fun to read - it was great to hear about the rise of emo and pop punk right from the source. I was a little overwhelmed by the number of people at first and had to refresh my memory on who people were a few times, but that could also be because the book goes into depth on so many bands, some of which I have never listened to. Still, as I listened to My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore starting in middle school, I didn't know very much about the backstory so much of that was new to me.
I was impressed by how openly the sources talked about the issue including racism, misogyny, and homophobia, and their initial impressions of each act, knowing how famous they would become later. I know it must have been quite an undertaking to gain sources' trust and get them to talk about this. It was such a treat to learn all these fun facts that I hadn't learned before. I would often stop while reading to listen to a song that was referenced or read more about what a source mentioned.
This could make such an interesting topic for a documentary! I'm tempted to get a physical copy for the pictures.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dey Street Books for the free ARC for my honest review.

Firstly, the minute I saw the title and description of this book I felt like an old crone. How has it been so long since the music I listened to in high school and college is getting a retrospective already? It only feels like yesterday that the black parade and from under the cork tree were released! Second, I was very excited to see that someone cared enough to do an in-depth history of emo music's popularity explosion in the early aughts. It was obviously a subject the author was passionate about and they researched thoroughly and did interviews with countless people in the scene. This was such a nostalgic read for me and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully this will be a useful primer for the kids today that are getting into emo music like England's Dreaming by Jon Savage was for me as an early high schooler just getting into "alternative" music types.

A great retrospective on emo's beginnings that includes both artists and scene kids. Recommended for anyone who lived through those early days or who's interested in seeing how emo got to where it is today!

As an elder millennial, I was part of the emo movement. I grew up with these bands, so to read this, I was right back into middle school. I love that this scene is getting a redemption!

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

First, thank you so much to the publisher for the ARC of this book.

Growing up amid the emo scene in the early-mid 2000s this book was everything to me. I really enjoyed being able to take a trip down memory lane and reminded me of things I completely forgot about.

My favorite part of this was the fact that while we are talking about the past, the interviews are all from now so it really gives this book a reflective tone. I was really worried about the oral history aspect because I get confused pretty easily sometimes when reading non fiction with different voices but this was super easy to follow.

The music mentioned was so nostalgic. An easy 5 star read based on nostalgia properties alone but the depth and scope of this book makes it a content based 5 stars too. If you grew up within the scene in any capacity I highly recommend you pick this up.

Book Review — “Where Are Your Boys Tonight: The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008” by Chris Payne

Pub Info — June 2023 from @deystreet. Currently has 4.54 average, 340 ratings on Goodreads.

Format — Oral History, so it’s quotes and clips from interviews, 150+ people.

My Thoughts ⤵️

This was one of the most exciting releases I waited for in a long time. I read a lot of music history, but there’s not much about our own recent past 00s but it’s coming! This is all about the formative age for many “elder emo” who have spent almost two decades with favorite bands included in this book. Just so happens to be my favorite bands too 😂

It doesn’t matter if you just listened to the music, maybe caught a video on MTV, got the rock magazines with the posters; Or maybe you were old enough to go to the first concerts and Warped Tours, or you saw MySpace create massively successful bands plucked straight from the internet…

If so, you’ll relive the days. If not, you’ll get the insider scoop of the rise of “emo” music.

Details ⤵️

💿 Bands — Fall Out Boy, MCR, Paramore, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Underoath, PAtD, Jimmy Eat World, Say Anything, The Used, many more

💿 How It’s Made — Internet, Blogging, MySpace, Napster, AbsolutePunk.net, Alternative Press, LiveJournal, record companies like Fueled by Ramen

💿 Band Stuff! — Touring, Concerts, Magazines, Music Videos, Collaborations, Hit Songs and Albums

💿 Personal Stuff — Rivalries (like Brand New v TBS), mental health, vices, etc.

💿 Some Big Names Interviewed — Chris Carrabba; John Noland (TBS), Patrick Stump (FOB), Brenden Urie (PANIC), Pete Wentz (FOB), Mikey Way (MCR), Eddit Reyes (TBS), Spencer Chamberlain (Underoath) and many more.

💿 Others — interviewees include techs, managers, producers, roadies, former head of Tumblr, merch designers, concert crew, record executives, much more. Very comprehensive.

I loved this book. I’m so happy it was made and look forward to even more histories of our recent past coming out. It’s so much fun to look back and learn about the rise of bands you love, especially learning new things about them and their experiences firsthand. 4/5.

As an elder emo the second I saw this book I knew I had to read it. And wow did I enjoy it. I’ve always been a big fan of My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, so getting to learn more about the emo scene and how it started was really interesting to me.
I didn’t know a lot of things that were mentioned in this book. Reading it gave me a better understanding of the music I’ve always loved, and gave me more music to listen to that I somehow missed. One thing to note about this book is it is an ORAL history so it reads almost like a long interview. I wish I had the physical copy so that I could flip back to the pages where they listed who everyone was.
My biggest complaint about this book is I feel like the allegations that have come out against so many bands were glossed over. I know a lot of the bands who came after this generation of emo (think All Time Low, Pierce the Veil) are the ones facing allegations, but if you’re familiar with the scene you’re also probably familiar with Brand New and the accusations that surround the Jesse Lacey. I was disappointed that only a few paragraphs were dedicated to mentioning what happened. I don’t think you can separate this music scene from the awful things so many people within the scene have done and the sexism that has always existed. I would have loved to hear the people interviewed in this book delve further into these topics. Especially the women. I would have loved to read more about what it was like to be a women in the scene at this time. It was talked about, I just found myself wanting more.
Overall, I do highly recommend this book if you’re interested in learning more about the bands that we all grew up listening to.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I was so excited to jump into a book on the history of emo as I still listen to the music all the time. Was a little daunted with how long this book was but jumped right in. Started a little slow but has so many amazing facts about my favorite bands such as my chemical romance, fall out boy and panic at the disco. Overall really informative and interesting read just wish it was a little shorter. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A really in-depth look at the rise of pop-punk and emo music and culture. Chris Payne pulled no punches in the up close and personal interviews with some of the top players of the mid-2000s emo royalty. From Adam Siske, Pete Wentz, and Hayley Williams you're gonna get a nuanced and fresh look at the scene.

This deep dive follows turbulent events that the bands faced in their rise to fame with great attention to detail. My only complaint/criticism is that the formatting is a bit of a nightmare. It's a lot of words all at once with not a lot of indentation and only bolding of the names to differentiate the speakers. It would be a hard read for anyone with dyslexia at the least.

Definitely one I'm picking up for my library and myself!

Ohhh not only did I love this for the nostalgia (I was 15 at the peak of the emo zeitgeist in 2005), but Payne did an amazing job weaving all of these interviews together. Which, is definitely helped by the fact that these people have been giving interviews for 20 years now.

You can tell that they trusted Payne to tell their story as truthfully as possible because they touch on some of the personal drama I remember as a teenager that I’ve never really heard these guys talk about before. I adored seeing their opinions of each other, too. There was such a mythology around all of these guys while I was growing up, and to see how much they DO really care for each other feels great.

This book is gonna hit the best with elder emos and scene kids, but anyone that is interested in the history of music will love it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this Advanced Copy of Where Are Your Boys Tonight? This was a super nostalgic read and a great way to preserve the history of that era.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dey Street Books for this ARC, in exchange for my honest review.
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This book was a wild ride, and I loved every second of it. As someone who started listening (and still does) to this music around 2004, this felt like hopping in an eyeliner fueled time machine. This books feels like it should be sponsored by MySpace, and I mean that with all the love in the world.

Even though I already have one, I'm ready to head to Spotify and make a new emo playlist with all the bands I forgot about that this glorious book reminded me of.

After reading this book, it feels like a companion piece to Lizzy Gordon's Meet Me In The Bathroom. Because while The Strokes, Interpol and Yeah Yeah Yeahs were getting the music press hype, these Emo bands were getting the record sales. I admit I wasn't into these bands when they initially hit the scene because I was in college and more into the aforementioned bands more, but now that they have endured the way they have, learning their history has been illuminating.

One minor quibble. Why was Chris Gethard allowed the last word in this book? I understand he was part of the early Jersey scene, but his whole spiel about being backstage at an improv show with Ian MacKay isn't the best way to put a button on this whole journey. It was more about his comedy career than anything else. Ponderous.

4.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC edition of this title.

Such a cool read for anyone missing their emo years or wanting to learn more about the genre. Every time I picked this up I found myself wanting to pull up old music and playlists I'd made. The format took a little time for me to get into, and I'm not the greatest at remembering band members' names, so having the list of "characters" at the beginning of each part was super helpful.

Definitely, definitely recommend. This was really well put together and the flow of conversation was really nice. It didn't feel like some jumbled mess of people trying to talk to one another, and there was a even balance of history and "band drama." I also appreciate that there were people who realized that even though the emo and punk scenes in music "were for everyone" and "welcome to all," it was still a hard place to feel welcome if you weren't a straight, white, male. And even within those labels, there was so little support for people going through addiction and mental health crises. I absolutely believe that the eruption of emo music helped catalyze the discussion on mental not only for adults, but taking mental health seriously for teens as well.

Plus this is getting me even more excited to see Emo Nite at Bonnaroo this year.

Where Are Your Boys Tonight? is an in-depth look at the history of Emo music from 1999-2008. Segmented into time frames, and divided into chapters, often based on location, if you ever wanted to know how bands like Fall Out Boy, The Used, or My Chemical Romance rocketed into the spotlight, this one is for you. The back and forth of interview snippets from members of the scene during that time period can be overwhelming at first but it paints a very descriptive picture from multiple angles of exactly what happened in that time period. This book is an obvious labor of love and a must-have for anyone interested in the history of Emo's evolution from basement shows to mainstream fame.

This was a wild ride. I will admit that I don’t read a lot of non-fiction in this vein, so I don’t know how normal this format is, but Where Are Your Boys Tonight? is an oral history that mixes together dozens of different interviews to create one “narrative” that traces the emo genre from the ‘90s to around 2008. I was pretty young around this time and did not follow celebrities or musicians at all, so it was both nostalgic and very, very interesting to find out what was going down with all these bands while I was listening to Sugar We’re Going Down on youtube 2000 times.

I would be so interested to read more about how this book got made, because it seems like such a massive undertaking and I cannot imagine the work that went into weaving all these interviews together. Overall, I thought this format worked well, and once I got into the rhythm of the book I didn’t have too hard of a time following things. There were some moments where it almost felt like the wrong people were being interviewed. But at the same time, I understand that not everyone is going to have the time (or desire) to be part of a project like this, so given that I think the author did the best they could creating a cohesive story.

I was also pleasantly surprised that many of the people being interviewed for this book talked openly about the racism, misogyny and homophobia that was pervasive in the scene during this time. I honestly wish it had been discussed in more depth, but as it is this book is almost 500 pages and each of those subjects could easily be its own book. I was a bit surprised that both the author and several of the interviewees in the book openly acknowledged Jesse Lacey’s sexual assault allegations, but didn’t mention anything about…anyone else. There might be legal reasoning behind this, but it did strike me as odd.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!