The truth about "emo" is that most of what is accepted here isnt really emo, it's some form of indie rock. People here point back to Cap'n Jazz and Sunny Day Real Estate as the progenitors of everything they listen to today, which is true, but they are not progenitors of emo. They are pioneers in college indie rock (and in SDRE's case, mainstream indie rock [yeah, they were on MTV in 96 and half the members went to Foo Fighters, look it up]) incorporating influence from post-hardcore and emo.

There's a reason this stuff is called "post-emo indie rock," or as it has been branded thanks to a handful of early 90s bands no one remembers any more who were from the actual midwestern United States and actually played emo (including Gauge, Current, Ordination of Aaron, Endpoint, Split Lip, Friction, and Chino Horde), "Midwest emo." The reason is because it isn't really emo and needs to be distinguished, kind of how 'metalcore' came about when that scene stopped being primarily hardcore and moved to metal/alternative.

In a similar sense, the post-emo/midwest/indiecore scene moved away from hardcore in the mid 90s, and was seen as a new, post-emo movement, hence the name and ridicule from hardcore bands. Meanwhile, I doubt anyone who lists Mineral or American Football as their favorite 90s "emo" bands could name any actual mid/late 90s emo. Sucks cause there's so much good shit: Traluma, Chocolate Kiss, Stratego, Edaline, Twelve Hour Turn, Unionsuit, Blue Water Boy, Still Life, Thumbnail, Four Hundred Years, Assfactor 4, Sleepytime Trio, Amber Inn, The Deadwood Divine, Bread and Circuits, The Red Scare, Metroschifter, Radio Flyer, The Hal Al-Shedad...I could go on.

You see, the fake/real emo dichotomy is nowhere near nuanced enough to capture the layers of relation to emo that all the music referred to as "emo" has. That's a pretty annoyingly confusing sentence so lemme break it down - there are four types of emo:

REAL REAL EMO (emotive hardcore. Usually melodic hardcore punk with minor influences from post punk and what would become, with emocore's help, post-hardcore indie rock; from Rites of Spring and Moss Icon to Walleye and Falling Forward to The Shivering and End on End to Slow Code and GIVE. Emotional hardcore punk rock music)

FAKE REAL EMO (non-hardcore music that gets considered "real emo" by pretentious middle class dorks who have no clue. Usually indie rock, math rock, or post rock that is influenced by the instrumentation, composition, and/or dynamics of emo; from The Van Pelt and Boys Life to Penfold and Boilermaker to Mock Orange and No Knife to empire! empire! and My Heart to Joy to Hightide Hotel and Oso Oso. Post-emotional hardcore punk rock music)

REAL FAKE EMO (non-hardcore music that has just as much influence from emo as FAKE REAL emo, but because it's not sad, mellow, and somber [cough or not rock music] is refuted as "emo" by most twinkle dorks. Usually post-hardcore, alternative rock, or melodic hardcore/pop punk that takes from all the same places as indiemo; from Samiam and Trusty to Sense Field and Grade to Seaweed and Kill Holiday to The Movielife and Boys Night Out to Title Fight and Polar Bear Club to Self Defense Family and Narrow Head. Post-emotional hardcore punk rock and "emo-adjacent" [meaning, diy bands who played shows with emo bands in the underground] music)

FAKE FAKE EMO (non-hardcore, non-emo related music that still gets referred to as such by the mainstream/anyone who thinks emo is synonymous with "sad." Can be anything but most commonly indie rock, because people don't understand the difference between releasing a chart-topping record that influences the whole landscape of music, including the underground and therefore emo; and actually being related to the underground DIY hardcore punk movement known as emo. Take your pick; Weezer, Boys Like Girls, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Modest Mouse, Julien Baker, Pinegrove, Linkin Park, The Cure, Morrissey/Smiths, blink-182, Atreyu, Simple Plan, AFI, My Chemical Romance after their first album (especially Black Parade, a pop rock album), The Front Bottoms)

If you ask me, artists like lil peep, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, nothing,nowhere, shinigami, and LiL Lotus all fit perfectly into category three, REAL FAKE EMO. These are all DIY artists who are inspired by the same "emo" bands as every revival/sparklepunk/sadwank indie band that gets jerked to death here, but because it only comes through in aesthetic and lyricism as opposed to...oh wait, no, thats exactly the same as pretty much all modern emo -- it is only related to Real Emo (aka REAL REAL EMO) via aesthetic and lyrics - if it's actually related to any degree. The sound is not even kind of close and isn't rooted in hardcore at all. Every twinkle-centric band you love is rooted in indie rock because twinkles dont come from hardcore; every band with a sing along chorus is a pop band. How are you gonna tell me that indie pop artists with sad yelling are emo, but indie trap artists with sad yelling aren't?

TL;DR - here's your ultimatum, indie dorks: either both American Football and Lil Peep are emo, or neither of them are.

Your sad indie rock is not emo either.