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I'm Not Okay: An Emo Retrospective

An exhibition by the Museum of Youth Culture

— ,Barbican Music Library
I'm Not Okay (An Emo Retrospective) in black and pink colours

A pilot exhibition exploring the rise of Britain’s Y2K lost subculture: Emo. Focusing on the first-generation Emo scene from 2004 to 2009.

The exhibition highlights a pivotal era when bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Finch sparked a transatlantic exchange, fuelling a distinct UK movement led by acts such as Funeral for a Friend. The ethos of emo resonated deeply with a generation, channeling collective teenage melancholy into a transatlantic subculture that thrived in cyberspace just as well as in the basement venues of grotty pubs. With one foot IRL and the other in MySpace, Emo wasn’t just a scene —it was the only way of living, the only way we could envision our futures.

Featuring personal photos snapped on early digital and mid-00s phone cameras, content for this exhibition has been digitally unearthed by the Museum of Youth Culture from old hard drives and Photobucket accounts. 

 

Tagged with: Library Level G Free

You can visit the exhibition during library opening times, which can be found here

Please note this exhibition tends to get very busy on Saturdays from lunch time onwards, and that we close on Saturdays at 4pm. If you would like to attend at a quieter time, we recommend coming in on a Saturday morning, or visit during the week. The Library is open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 7.30pm.

Barbican Music Library