It’s easy to answer "Yeah, whiny emos, duh," but I’m asking you to restrain for a moment. First of all I do know what ‘real’ emo music is. It started out in the later 80s, and there were bands such as Rites of Spring, Sunny Day Real Estate, and the Get-up Kids until the genre mostly disappeared towards the end of the 90s. It was generally punk-based. Somehow, at this same time, the ‘emo’ stereotype was formed. The ‘emos’ today stereotypically listen to bands that have that image but actually could be classified with many other rock genres. If you actually give them a listen, they aren’t the whiny, inept groups you expect, at least in my book.

As I said, it’s all in the image. The music isn’t really all that different. In my opinion it’s the alternative of today, and it gets a place in the mainstream because there are stereotypes that distinguish the bands. For instance The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They started out as a pretty hard band, probably considered screamo. Something about their image led to the ‘emo’ label. Their last album was very pop-rock-based, and if you listen to it, it’s really not much different from Bon Jovi as of recent years or Matchbox 20. The lyrics are generally about maturing through life, and they don’t sound particularly whiny to me.

Then, you have Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco. Once again, it’s just their images. They are both fairly poppy and energetic. Fall Out Boy isn’t the sligtest bit ‘emo’ and doesn’t deserve the negative stereotypes. Panic! at the Disco at least makes a little more sense, but it’s also a misconception. Their lyrics are often very deep and complex and need analyzing. They often speak through metaphors, and many of their songs are about the abstract, wealth and grand events for the elite, today’s fashion and how it applies, and broken trust in relationships. But it’s mature, not whiny. The song "I Write Sins not Tragedies" is lyrical genius about a cheating bride being found out just before the wedding, and it would have made some great literature years ago, in my opinion.

AFI started out as a hard-core punk band. Listen to 1995′s Answer that and Stay Fashionable. You’ll probably mess yourself out of shock. Then they changed to horror-punk, and eventually, a combination of alternative and, at times, screamo. Their lyrics tend to be dark, but not in an immature whiny way. Like Panic! at the Disco, they would have made excellent stories a century ago.

And I can’t leave out the biggest stereotype of the ‘emo’ community. My Chemical Romance. My question is… Why??? The band started out with a punk-based sound, and now can almost be considered a reincarnation of classic rock and arena rock. 2006′s The Black Parade was a very creative story revolving around a dying individual. Resulting in a huge misconception. It DOES NOT involve suicide.

It’s about ‘The Patient,’ who is dying from cancer and looking back at his life. The song "Dead!" is about how his life was wasted, and how he never did what he wanted and lived a happy life. "Teenagers" could have fit with any decent classic rock band some decades ago. "Welcome to the Black Parade" is all about carrying on. Don’t tell me the chorus "And though you’re dead and gone, believe me. You’re memory will carry on," is negative. The word death is very misunderstood. In "Famous Last Words," the character gets a second chance. Look at this chorus. "I am not afraid to keep on living / I am not afraid to walk this world alone / Honey, if you stay, you’ll be forgiven / Nothing you can say could stop me going home." And they blame THIS band on suicides??? They speak out against it! I guess death is just too touchy of a subject.

It just puzzles me that generally respectable bands take fire for self-harm and suicide. Seriously, just listen to them. I have tricked many people who criticized ‘emo’ groups by having them listen to them. They said they were all right, and their faces went pale when I told them who they really were. If anything, today’s hip-hop is in a state of disarray. It was very decent in the late 80s and the 90s, even heading into this decade, but it’s now abandoned all decent meaning. I used to speak out when people said it was nothing but violence, b!tches and hoes, and money, but now, I’ve found, it really is! With arrogance and lack of skill on top of it all.

I’d just like to know if anyone takes these ‘emo’ bands for what they really are and, like me, finds them to be some of the only decent stuff hitting the mainstream these days. Before you flame me, I am generally a metal fan, with classic and hard rock roots, and I’m just as big into alternative. That being said, people have taken today’s ‘emo’ music all wrong. Listen to the countless sappy love songs that made hits in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Tell me what whiny is. Honestly.


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