My Chemical Romance

Formed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Gerard Way and co were classic High School outsiders with a love of comic books until they came roaring out of the US East Coast underground scene in a blaze of soaring pop metal. Alongside Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco, they became poster boys of the growing emo (emotional rock) scene, capturing a mainstream audience with heartfelt lyrics, melodic hooks and theatrical rock anthems. Debut album I Bought You My Bullets, You Bought Me Your Love (2002) dealt in tragedy, despair and thrashing gothic punk guitars, drawing comparisons with Thursday and quickly helping to build a cult following. Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (2004) further enhanced their reputation before the vampiric rock opera/concept album The Black Parade (2006) sent them global. Like a gothic, stadium-rocking Ziggy Stardust, it reinvented them, drawing on the ambition of classic 70s rock acts like Queen and producing the smash hit Welcome to the Black Parade.