The Get Up Kids

Though often cited as being instrumental in forging the mid-’90s, post-hardcore aesthetic that was the second wave of emo, many of the Get Up Kids’ latter-day critics forget that the band wrote pop songs worth imitating. And it just so happens that the airwaves of the last decade have been glutted with the not-often-inspired spawn of that sound and songwriting style. But the Kids never intended to be the godfathers of a movement any more than the Beatles set out to be a big influence on Charles Manson. What they did, however, was take their core of intensely energetic punk-rock-based pop and evolve its sound with each album. Not strictly kids anymore, the Get Up Kids still perform with their hearts on their sleeves.