If you've ever identified as an emo kid, chances are, you know at least one of the many bands on the Hopeless Records roster – Guttermouth, Avenged Sevenfold, All Time Low, Sum 41, to name a few. Now, the Southern California-based record label is celebrating 30 years of working with pop-punk greats with an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
All Things Considered host Juana Summers recently visited the exhibit and met with Louis Posen, founder and president of Hopeless Records. As they walked through displays of artifacts, they stopped at the label's first ever release in 1993: a seven inch record from punk band Guttermouth.
"The first song on the seven inch was called 'Hopeless' and where the name of the label comes from," Posen told her.
As for how he started the label in the first place, with no experience in the music industry: "I was doing a video for Guttermouth, and they dared me to put out the seven inch for them...so I went and bought a book called How to Run an Independent Record Label and asked my brother and his friend for $1000 and put out the Guttermouth seven inch. And here we are, 30 years later."
Posen said it's a "pretty amazing feeling" to see his work commemorated in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "but it's not about me. This is really about great artists, a great team – and of course, the fans who make this all happen."
The core of Hopeless' music hasn't changed, but a lot of things have.
"Our community is really diversifying, which is an important part of what we do," Posen told NPR, adding that more than half of the label's roster is female or nonbinary, and many are LGBT. "So it's nice to see artists like this really getting a spotlight on them and being put next to Aerosmith and the Beatles."
One of Hopeless' bands, Sweet Pill, signed on last year, in 2023. Frontwoman Zayna Youssef is a woman of color, born in the U.S. to parents from Syria.
"One of the most incredible feelings is at a show, when someone who is also maybe Middle Eastern – or even just in general, maybe Indian-Pakistani, like anything that is not white – they come to speak to me and they tell me, 'hey, it's really cool to see a person that looks like you doing something like this.'"
Youssef told NPR she feels that connection even when she's performing.
"Here I am, writing about my feelings, like that's what our songs are about. And I see these people resonating with it," she said. "And it just makes me feel a little less alone in myself, personally. And I'm sure the same can be said for them."
Louis Posen of Hopeless Records said he's always striving to be better.
"We're a home for geeks and freaks and weirdos. And everyone who feels like they don't have a home. Hopeless and our community is that home."
What next?
Now that Hopeless Records has a home in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will its artists ever receive that ultimate honor?
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO Greg Harris told NPR he thinks so.
"When I started here, people used to say 'I can't believe Stevie Ray Vaughan is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.' 'I can't believe that Rush isn't...' 'Can't believe that Tina Turner isn't in as a solar artist.' Guess what? They're all in. That happened over time. And I think that over time, the perspectives on impact and influence and importance of music are always evolving, always changing."
In the meantime, emo fans will always have the music ... and the memories.
