what passes for emo these days isnt even really emo.emo was emotinal hardcore instead of writting about politics and that jazz they wrote about bad life experinces.mainsteam so called emo is either pop punk,mall-core and really crappy wannabe goth rock.the some bad thoughs about emo have gone to screamo too and the mainstream as twisted its meaning to.if you want to hear emo listen to rites of spring,fugazi,and sunny day realestate.for actual screamo listen to orchid,circle takes the square there are plenty of others.people need to not judge music by the mainstream crap that plays on your radios,sells in your malls and ruins music scenes.

nobody in here mentioned any of the old boston bands so i'll take care of that. siege, ss decontrol, jerry's kids, dys, gang green, the freeze, proletariat, deep wound, outpatients, negative fx...all good old style hardcore. the freeze were/are a little poppier than the others and a few of those bands (ssd and gang green come to mind mostly) had an era of really crappy rock/metal that i dont recommend.
and if you like black flag you should check out annihilation time and ds-13 plays some raging hardcore in the vein of minor threat. and if you're more into the newer style of hardcore, like american nightmare, you should check out final attack from indonesia and gold kids from italy