Show Notes
On this episode I speak with Varun Chandrasekhar about all things emo, but perhaps most pertinently, the academic conference he’s organized around the music, to take place at Washington University in St. Louis on April 10th and 11th. Varun is a PhD candidate in Music Theory at WashU, where his dissertation focuses on reading Charles Mingus through the existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. In our conversation, we discuss the EMO CON 2026—TO WHICH YOU MAY STILL SUBMIT ABSTRACTS—as well as 4th wave emo’s aesthetics and politics, neoliberal disillusionment, THE MIDWEST, music about being a bad person, and MORE.
Timestamps
1:34: Emo Con/4th Wave Emo
24:30: JPMS article/Neoliberal (dis)identification
42:00 Silly Little Emo Band/Charles Mingus
49:30 What’s Making Guest Cry
(two playlists, for the enthusiasts)
References
Chandrasekhar, Varun. Forthcoming. “‘When Things Don’t Get Better, No Things Don’t Get Better, Just Different’: Emo and Affect Under Neoliberalism.” Journal of Popular Music Studies.
Chandrasekhar, Varun. 2025. “Jazz and Commitment: Sartre, Jazz, and Charles Mingus.” Jazz and Culture 8 (2): 1–27.
Fathallah, Judith. 2020. Emo: How Fans Defined a Subculture. University of Iowa Press.
Gabbard, Krin. 1995. “Signifyin(g) the Phallus: Mo’ Better Blues and Representations of the Jazz Trumpet.” In Representing Jazz, edited by Krin Gabbard. Duke University Press.
Howie, Tyler and Matt Chiu. 2022. “Analytical Frameworks for Post(-Millennial) Punk: The “Twinkle” Schema in the Emo Revival.” SMT-Pod Podcast, Season 1 Episodes 11 and 12. https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season01/e1.11/.
Peters, Sean. In Process. “Life in Plastic (It’s Fantastic): The Significance of the Cassette Tape to Punk Rock in Four Stories.” PhD dissertation, Cornell University.
