The punk subgenre wasnt supposed to go mainstream.
Then MTV met Dashboard Confessional.
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In 2002, the music industry was on fire.
Of all genres, rock seemed most under siege.
Or at least thats what music execs like Jimmy Iovine and Luke Wood were hoping for.
- Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World were just happy to be there.
The Oral History of Emos Mainstream Explosion 19992008,illuminated just how novel it all felt.
These were 90s kids raised on Fugazi.
They never planned on being music-industry saviors.
Then DashboardsUnpluggedwent platinum and Jimmy Eat Worlds The Middle became one of 2002s biggest pop songs.
Shocking as this was to the punks who frequented the Wayne, it was just the beginning.
An excerpt from ‘Where Are Your Boys Tonight?
I was given the opportunity to write about Dashboard Confessional at CBGB.
Emo hadnt been my scene at all.
It was something Id never seen before.
Mike Marsh (drummer, Dashboard Confessional):Chris really went out of his way to condone it.
He would step off the mic, step to the front of the stage, and sing with them.
When people started to have a real sense of community.
We sold 2,500 records the first week.
Most records in their second week drop off 70 percent.
It got to about 2,550.
And it just stayed there for a year.
I remember it was right around a year later when the record hit the 100,000 mark.
The kids loved Chris.
It wasnt a press-created thing.
The press was reacting to the cultural shift.
He was unlike anything before him in our scene.
Carrabba:That album cycle took us from playing VFW halls to headlining our own shows at big clubs.
They would tell me why the songs were important to them or what was special about the night.
And I thought,This doesnt feel that different than being back in Florida.
Were not gonna do the guy-sitting-on-a-chair, Bob Dylan shit.
We need a band.
Its going to be more powerful, itll sell more tickets, the records will be cooler.
Egan:Interscope really wanted to get into the Dashboard Confessional business.
So they bought part of the label to get into that business.
He went to the end of the earth for Chris Carrabba.
Egan:We sold 49 percent of Vagrant to Interscope around October/ November of 2001.
Greenwald:There was a lot invested in the idea that Chris Carrabba was the next big thing.
So they got all of MTV down to Irving Plaza to watch Chris.
That was the tipping point.
I said, Whats your show?
He said, MTV Unplugged.
That was Alex Coletti, the one and only.
Greenwald:Alex Coletti was a major voice and tastemaker at MTV.
Alex saw Chris live, understood it, and was the person inside MTV championing him.
You wouldnt believe it.
The crowd is just singing every word at the top of their lungs.
Not just the choruses!
Alex was like, This will playreallywell on TV.
Jim Adkins (front person, Jimmy Eat World):Chris also looks like a model.
So when hes on TV, people want to watch more of that.
Seriously, Chris is hot, man!
We hadnt done shit yet.
We were still trying to figure out our sound.
And it was exciting, but it was horrifying.
They were hoping to fill the same role that they had filled ten years before.
I played guitar and keys.
Egan:Unpluggedwas recorded for MTV and released as an album with a DVD of the session.
We filmed at MTV Studios.
The windows look down onto Times Square.
We got there in the morning.
Carrabba:I remember walking by the line for the show and thinking,Thats a long fucking line.
The nerves really set in when I saw that line.
Its in Times Square, in the Theater District.
And I really wanted it to be excellent.
Not even a hundred kids could fit in there.
Theres this mix of grandeur and intimacy without being gaudy.
you could see the audiences faces more than anyUnpluggedat that point.
I remember saying, Hey, listen, theyve told me its okay if you guys sing along.
That was a wash of relief: Okay, we get to be ourselves.
you could conduct yourselves like you would at any Dashboard show.
Marsh:I dont particularly care for how campy it was, if Im honest.
I didnt like it at the time; I dont like it now.
They put a lot of emphasis on something that happens at every show.
Lefler:I dont feel that way.
Yes, people sing at shows.
But Dashboard, in those years especially, was a different-level thing.
Egan:Theres that blonde girl with the glasses.
I remember her andher boyfriend distinctly in every shot.
They were directly behind Chris.
His people came with him.
Egan:Man, it was exhausting.
I cant imagine what Chris and all the kids were going through.
Lefler:From what other people have said, we played Screaming Infidelities like seven times.
I dont remember that.
Carrabba:Sometimes thered be ten minutes in between songs.
Marsh:I remember the audience being really tired.
Id turn around and thered be people leaning their head on their hand.
They knew they were gonna miss the last train home.
But as soon as PLACES, EVERYBODY!
they were back singing along again.
Carrabba:There was all this intensity.
And then it was over: Okay, everybody turn in their badges.
Nice having you today.
We had to pack up the euphoria and holster it for a minute.
I remember thinking,What do I do with all this energy?
Egan:It was 5 a.m. the next morning when we finally wrapped.
It was about a 24-hour shoot.
I viewed them as my bandmates for the night.
Finally, without feeling self-conscious or anything, I was high-fiving them like, Wasnt that fucking amazing!
Adkins:A lot of people sawUnpluggedand said,Hey, that looks like me!
I want in on this party!
Egan:Unpluggedwent platinum.Places You Have Come to Fear the Mosteventually went gold.
It wasnt really based on I heard the song on the radio.
Thats not how it happened for us.
I guess there is a certain elegance about … you just have this song.
It serves as an invitation.
Cohen:I was a junior in college, working at the radio station 91.9-WNRN in Charlottesville, Virginia.
We were able to play songs that werent necessarily singles.
Like, aside from greatest-hits albums, you dont clear nine out of 11 songs for airplay.
After 9/11, it died immediately.
But we were all very mature about realizing Were gonna work this album for a long time.
How do we move past this conversation?
There was a desire to prove the album.
We didnt want to lose it because of a tragedy that wasnt related to anything the band did.
We had to decide what single to go with next.
It was between If You Dont, Dont, Sweetness, and The Middle.
Their manager, Gary Gersh, told me how perfect the lyrics to The Middle were.
Everybody feels like that at some point when theyre a kid.
Greenwald:The Middle is a perfect pop song.
Its like, imagine if Goodbye Sky Harbor was three minutes long and you could sing along to it.
Wood:DreamWorks had just had Last Resort with Papa Roach.
We had Hanging by a Moment with Lifehouse.
We had Alien Ant Farm with the Smooth Criminal cover.
And Nelly Furtados Im Like a Bird.
We had a lot of hits.
A lot of things were happening.
Nobody was looking at Jimmy Eat World to bethehit.
Adkins:We played at Tom DeLonges wedding reception.
It was a surprise for Tom.
Cohen:That Jimmy Eat World album got the lead review inRolling Stone.
One of the main talking points was that they played Tom DeLonges wedding.
Like, thats their peg?
This was before The Middle was big.
This was the first thing that made me aware that Jimmy Eat World could be a big deal.
Wood:Bleed Americanwas clearly a little different thanClarity.
Adkins:It was a frog-boiling-in-water situation.
We didnt realize how big it was getting until much later.
By that time, it wasnt uncommon for rock records to cross over into pop.
There was a track record of this.
But not for bands from the underground of third-wave emo.
Egan:The Middle is one of the catchiest songs ever written.
Wood:We all felt like it had to be some crappy high-school party.
Okay, well, what makes you not belong?
Not wanting to be in my underwear at this party!
Adkins:No approachable, normal people were cast at first.
Wood:It was all L.A. music-video casting kids.
I was like, We dont want to see some Keanu Reeveslooking lead guy!
This is Jimmy Eat World!
It wouldnt all be models; thered be all types of people there.
Wood:There was a scramble 72 hours before the shoot.
We ended up recruiting everybody from Arizona State University.
There was no Screen Actors Guild, just kids.
It was one of the primary conveyances for interacting with popular music.
And you would just see that video all the time, for obvious reasons.
Adkins:The Middle went to No.
1 on alternative radio.
On the Hot 100, it went top five.
Wood:Dashboard was a cultural moment.
But in terms of radio, Screaming Infidelities did not get that kind of airplay.
Adkins:When The Middle was headed to No.
1, we got asked to playSNL.
At Starbucks an hour later, The Middle was on the radio.
Then like four times the next hour, Jim got recognized: Are you that guy?
Are you The Middle?
Adkins:Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, and Amy Poehler were on theSNLcast then.
There was like a four-foot hallway between our dressing room and the hosts.
Cameron Diaz was running in and out of there all the time for costume changes.
He was like, Hey, Ive never heard you guys before, its good stuff!
Carrabba:I remember thinking,We made it!
Were onSaturday Night Live.
Adkins:That was the most nervous Id ever been.
I grew up watchingSNL.
I would set the timer to record it so I could watch the musical guests in the morning.
Then all of a sudden, youre there.
Wed played The Middle so many times by that point, and we were on tour.
Once we started playing, its like,Oh yeah, we got this.
But up until that point?Hooooooly shit.
Lind:SNLwas such a blur.
Wood:Then it got to Whats the next single?
Adkins:Sweetness was the next bigBleed Americansong.
In hindsight, I would have gone with Hear You Me one thousand times.
It was probably the biggest A&R mistake I ever made.
But its one of those records you dont worry about, like Green Days Time of Your Life.
We should have gone with Hear You Me.
It would have been a No.
It would have changed their entire career.
Traditionally, our fans thought of us as more of a rock band.
Jim had to go do, like, six interviews.
Whered you get your band name?
and So you played Tom DeLonges wedding … Those three questions.
Lind:We treated the wordemolike a dog youre training not tojump up on you.
The best way to train that dog is just to ignore the dog.
Its so funny to me now … Cohen:I was reading Pitchforkat the time, and they just hated all that shit.
We didnt even use the wordemoback then.
That made it worse.Emowas a derogatory term.
Emo didnt really become cool until much later.
And its still surprising to me.
Egan:Vagrant bands, we never used the word.
Not becauseemowas a like four-letter word or forbidden, but because it was … kinda lame.
To us, it was punk rock, it was indie rock.
The mainstream didnt really start labeling it emo until Dashboard was taking off.
Then they started to drop that word all over the place.
Carrabba:I didnt have a clear picture of how big our band was going to get.
Pryor:Dashboard is its own thing.
Chriss trajectory doesnt follow any norms you read about in music autobiographies.
Its just a phenomenon.
I felt really guilty canceling those shows.
I remember that morning in New York City, getting coffee and feeling conflicted.
It felt like skipping school.
Egan:The morning of the VMAs, I remember thinking we had no shot of winning.
Carrabba:Hopefully, Ill get to meet some people I see on TV, like Jimmy Fallon.
Wouldnt that be amazing?
These are the things I was thinking about.
I was not thinking,What if we win?I thought it was nice to get nominated.
I wasnt gonna write a speech.
Finn McKenty (vlogger, journalist):This is the peak of MTVs relevance.
A lot of people forget or pretend that MTV fell off in the 90s.
I was definitely watching that award show.
We felt like freshmen crashing the seniors party.
We had no business being there.
Carrabba:I was from a scene I was proud of.
I didnt want to get disowned by that scene for visiting another one.
Theres all these pop stars around him, and I could hear people: Who is it?
All right, pose for a picture!
Then Chris got interviewed by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
Egan:The dog was like, And who are you?
And Chris was like, Dashboard Confessional.
Hes like, What are you gonna confess to, sucking?
Carrabba:That was pretty disarming.
So I wrote a list.
The category Chris was nominated in was fan-voted.
So it didnt matter that 99 percent of mainstream America didnt know who he was.
Lefler:Whoevers fans were the most internet savvy in 2002 probably had the best shot at winning.
Carrabba:At award shows, they stage a camera near you.
I was really aware of the camera.
I felt uncomfortable in my own skin.
I remember them announcing the names of the nominees, which included the Strokes and Norah Jones.
Norah was sitting not far from me, and I could see the camera on her.
The Strokes were a couple rows behind me.
Marsh:I remember I couldnt get my armpits to stop dripping.
I couldnt get my legs to stop moving.
Chris was the same.
Egan:I was thinking either the Hives or the Strokes were going to win it.
Brittany Murphy and Anthony Kiedis announced the winner.
Carrabba:I dont remember this, but my name was announced.
Egan:She didnt even pronounce Dashboard Confessional correctly.
Shes like, And the winner is Dashboard Confessions … Carrabba:They just said me.
Wait, I think we won this.
Avril was sitting right in front of me.
I remember her turning around to clap when they announced my name, which I thought was nice.
Carrabba:And then I was on the stairs.
And I was reaching in my pocket.
And Im thinking,Im glad they suggested I write thank-you notes.
I remember thinking,Just speak clearly.
Lefler:When the Strokes didnt win, they bailed right away.
I was disappointed because I wanted to hang out with them.
Egan:Afterwards, we went to the Interscope after-party and Eminem performed.
A hundred people in this little bar up in the balcony.
Were like, What kind of life are we living?
We had a shoot forGQthe next morning.
He looked over at me, and I looked at him.
He says, Hey, Im Axl.
I said, Yeah, I know.
He said, Who are you?
I said, Im Mike, I play in a band called Dashboard Confessional.
Carrabba:I remember getting anattaboyfrom Eminem about winning the award.
I was surprised how much he knew about my music.
I remember him rattling off song titles of mine.
Also, what he did that was really nice …
I wasnt really looking for an autograph myself, and he said, Do you have a sister?
And he signed something on a cloth napkin for her.
He signed it Marshall.
I remember wondering if he always does that.
Egan:The next morning, I completely slept through myNewsweekinterview.
DMX walked in with two pit bulls, in a huge fur coat.
Carrabba:I could see someone having an animated conversation with DMX.
And DMX seemed to be a willing audience.
This kind of piqued my curiosity because I was only a few feet away.
I heard them say Napster a few times.
Egan:This was right when Jimmy Iovine started on his thing of suing Napster.
They were going to go after users, go after kids.
So these Universal Music executives were trying to get all these artists to speak out against downloading.
That was their big initiative.
So a couple suits from the legal department corner us.
They had this big chart.
Carrabba:They said, Youre exactly who we came to talk to.
Egan:Youre the No.
1 one most illegally downloaded artist in all of Universal.
Carrabba:My response was Thats amazing.
Egan:Oh, thats killer!
Carrabba:And the guy said, Right?!
What are we gonna do about it?
And I said, I guess … hope more people download it?
They started yelling at me instantly.
Egan:Theyre like, We need you to do a PSA and speak out against downloading!
Chris was really pissed.
He goes, Those are the kids that come to my shows.
The fact that youre selling less because of it is not my problem.
Carrabba:They went red-faced.
Egan:We played grown-up dress-up for the night.
We went to the MTV Awards and had aGQphoto shoot.
It was all foreign to us.
This was not our punk-rock world.Were not in Kansas anymore.There was no turning back.
It was almost like an ending when we won that VMA.
Could you stretch it around the whole country?
Could you stretch it around the whole world without something essential snapping?
What happens when a subculture goes mainstream?
Egan:I didnt want to be in the mainstream.
With Vagrant, withChris everything we did was based on a DIY aesthetic.
We bought in wholesale to Ian MacKaye and Dischord, that whole thing.
It was almost like betraying it.
I just remember feeling like,Well, that was a good ride.
Being the underdog is over.
- FromWhere Are Your Boys Tonight?
The Oral History of Emos Mainstream Explosion 19992008,by Chris Payne.
Copyright 2023 by Chris Payne.
Reprinted by permission of Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
