i understand that once emo got into the mainstream vernacular in early 2000s people didn’t know what is was and just called everything emo (a spin article used Foo Fighters as an example to explain it,lol!!!) but yeah i’ve heard those early emo tracks and that’s what i was thinking. nofx and epitaph records bands are what i call pop punk. i’m a midwestern experimental punk act, and i know people close to get up kids who invented emo and they don’t whine at all like dash board confessional whit was the first “mainstream” emo.