The Best Emo Bands of All Time (According to the Fans)

Jul 27
3 min read

The votes are in!

After an unbelievable 27,840,047 total votes, emo fans came together to rank the best emo bands of all time.

Every vote cast through The People’s Playlist at MrBaldman.com/vote helped shape the final rankings!

Final Rankings

Rank	Band	Votes
20	Jimmy Eat World	35,820
19	Motion City Soundtrack	39,084
18	The Promise Ring	76,499
17	Hawthorne Heights	146,401
16	Mayday Parade	160,090
15	Senses Fail	222,710
14	Saves the Day	228,904
13	Paramore	239,069
12	Silverstein	243,143
11	Brand New	254,966
10	Taking Back Sunday	275,534
9	Pierce the Veil	299,182
8	Dashboard Confessional	430,594
7	The Get Up Kids	557,358
6	Thursday	590,689
5	Sunny Day Real Estate	792,334
4	Fall Out Boy	2,984,181
🥉 3	American Football	5,482,856
🥈 2	The Used	5,753,971
🥇 1	My Chemical Romance	9,026,662

More than 27.8 million votes for the best emo bands of all time

This edition of The People’s Playlist generated 27,840,047 total votes as fans battled to decide which band deserves the title of the greatest emo band of all time.

The poll follows other massive fan rankings, including The Best Pop-Punk Bands of All Time, The Best Metal Bands of All Time and The Best Rock Bands of All Time.

My Chemical Romance takes the top spot

My Chemical Romance claimed the title with 9,026,662 votes, finishing an incredible 3,272,691 votes ahead of The Used.

The Used secured second place with 5,753,971 votes, while American Football completed the Top 3 with 5,482,856 votes.

More than 20 million votes went to those three bands alone, making the battle at the top one of the biggest fan responses in People’s Playlist history.

The Used and American Football were separated by 271,115 votes

While My Chemical Romance ran away with first place, the fight for second was much closer.

The Used defeated American Football by 271,115 votes, earning the runner-up position in the final ranking of the greatest emo bands.

American Football’s third-place finish may be one of the biggest surprises in the entire poll. The band finished comfortably ahead of Fall Out Boy, which landed in fourth place with 2,984,181 votes.

A massive divide formed inside the Top 5

Fall Out Boy finished more than 2.1 million votes ahead of fifth-place Sunny Day Real Estate, creating a massive divide between the poll’s four leading bands and the rest of the rankings.

Sunny Day Real Estate received 792,334 votes, followed by Thursday with 590,689 and The Get Up Kids with 557,358.

Dashboard Confessional finished eighth, while Pierce the Veil and Taking Back Sunday completed the Top 10.

Surprises throughout the emo band rankings

Several of the biggest names associated with emo music landed much lower than many fans expected.

Jimmy Eat World finished in 20th place, while Motion City Soundtrack came in at No. 19.

Paramore missed the Top 10 entirely, finishing 13th with 239,069 votes.

Silverstein defeated Paramore by only 4,074 votes, while Saves the Day finished just 6,194 votes ahead of Senses Fail.

Motion City Soundtrack and Jimmy Eat World were separated by only 3,264 votes, making them one of the closest pairings in the final rankings.

Every era of emo music is represented

The final results include influential early emo bands, 2000s scene favorites, pop-punk crossover stars and artists that helped carry emo music into a new generation.

From Sunny Day Real Estate, The Promise Ring and The Get Up Kids to My Chemical Romance, The Used, Paramore and Pierce the Veil, multiple generations of emo music earned a place in the Top 20.

With more than 27 million votes cast, the rankings show just how passionate—and divided—emo fans remain over which band deserves to be called the best of all time.