From the early days of Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco to the evolution of emo rap led by artists like Machine Gun Kelly and Juice WRLD, Tell All Your Friends is a history of mainstream emo through 11 iconic albums released between 2002 and 2020. Tying each album to a larger cultural trend, writer and broadcaster Emma Garland tracks the evolution of emo artists, fans and culture to unpack the genre's larger impact, and follows its rise as one of the dominant subcultures of the last two decades.

Through a critical examination of some of emo music's more controversial aspects, Tell All Your Friends analyses the genre's problems with sexism, queer-baiting, and claims of its glamorisation of self-harm. With unapologetic sincerity and witty, intimate prose, Emma Garland fights to give emo the attention it deserves.