so what's emo music? (most egregious examples!)

[Spiderdancer]

A lot of those songs do seem to involve threatening to jump off things, don't they? Nobody ever threatens to OD on sleeping pills, hang themselves, or drive their car into a tree. Must not be dramatic enough.

[DarthShady]

Watching a guy take some cyanide capsules is not nearly cool enough to put in a video. Falling/cutting self always gets the TRL votes.

[Spiderdancer]

And yet cutting yourself is so MESSY. I mean, the average adult human contains over a gallon of blood. You don't have to lose all of that to die, but bleeding out through your wrists would take a long time and a BIG volume. Imagine filling a quart milk container with blood and tossing it around.

I've noticed that in movies - people committing suicide that way never bleed the right amount. Constantine is a good example. A character loses maybe a pint through both wrists and dies almost instantly - despite cutting horizontally across the wrist AND supposedly deep enough to sever his tendons.

I know this makes me sound morbid, but I'm very interested in medical facts in general and this just happens to be one that's frequently depicted wrongly.

Also, falling off things may look emo on the way down, but it tends to be a mess after the landing.

[StarOpal]

They should do one about sleeping pills and call it Carol Landis.

And what about the old fasion head in the oven method?

My problem with the whole slit wrists thing is when it takes place in a tub with water. If you're not found in a few days they're taking you out in buckets 'cause all that's left is greasy sludge and bones. Not the prettiest corpse to leave behind.

[Hilasophy]

staropal said:

And what about the old fasion head in the oven method?

I maintain that Sylvia Plath was just cold.

[DarthShady]

hilasophy said:

staropal said:

And what about the old fasion head in the oven method?

I maintain that Sylvia Plath was just cold.

That made me laugh a lot harder than it really should've....

[kylerexpop]

ha ha! yeah: take that, sylia plath! (i had to read 'the bell jar' ten times in college)

here's a variation on this question: can you name some songs that ACHIEVE the "emo effect" (being emotional, communicating complex feelings, fears, and thoughts via the music and lyrics, and/or simply being awesome) without crossing over the dreaded threshold and becoming EMO?

like, bob dylan's 'the hurricane' is devastating, but i don't think many people would call it, or dylan, emo.

can you dig it?

[Hilasophy]

I think the "emo" effect has more to do with a certain set, pop, rhythm that causes an emotional euphoria along with extreme sadness. It's a way of all these people that see themselves as loners all listening to the same crap together. They're really mainstream brats listening to pop music...unlike listening to Dylan, a select group still listens to Dylan...and that group usually does not include Hot Topic-shopping, emo kids.

[StarOpal]

hilasophy said:

I think the "emo" effect has more to do with a certain set, pop, rhythm that causes an emotional euphoria along with extreme sadness. It's a way of all these people that see themselves as loners all listening to the same crap together. They're really mainstream brats listening to pop music...unlike listening to Dylan, a select group still listens to Dylan...and that group usually does not include Hot Topic-shopping, emo kids.

That may be the best explanation of emo music I've ever heard.

[kylerexpop]

of course it's an excellent definition. our dear hilasophy HATES emo and emo kids and things that look vaguely emo (like my cherished blue mountain dew: now available in slurpee form at your nearest 7-11!).

she's kind of like robert duvall's character in 'apocalypse now,' except for the charming surfing hobby.

my main fear is that i'll randomly break out my skintight jeans (not out of any emo drive; more to show off that i have the legs for them) and go to south coast plaza or fashion island, and hilasophy will see me and SET ME ON FIRE, cackling "now you match your shirt!" (i'll be wearing a "boy sets fire" shirt, and i'll be too busy burning to argue the merit of her witticism as it relates to my shirt).

i have weird fears.

[Spiderdancer]

Apparently anyone who has ever stepped inside a Hot Topic is a poser. This being as opposed to other, more authentic stores that sell body piercing apparati, random-short-slogan tee shirts and rings with skulls on them.

Not that I care particularly - I've never bought anything at one, as I generally go to Wal-Mart for my morbid steering wheel cover needs - but forum folks here and elsewhere frequently cite it as a place you go if you're not a "real" goth, punk, or emo kid.

Why is that, exactly?

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

The ever-reliable MC Lars has this to say about Hot Topic (from his song Hot Topic is not Punk Rock)

Hot Topic is a contrived identification with youth subcultures to manufacture an anti-authoritarian identity and make millions. The $8 you paid for the Mudvayne poster would be better spent used to see your brother'’s friend’'s band. DIY ethics are punk rock. Starting your own label is punk rock. G.G. Allin was punk rock. But when a crass corporate vulture feeds on mass-consumer culture, spending mommy’s money is not punk rock!

True words. I mean, there must be other stores guilty of exploiting teen angst as well, but Hot Topic is the most...visible, I guess the word would be.

[Al]

Is he saying people should aspire to be G.G. Allin? 'Cause that's just... wrong.

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

I'd rather be G.G. Allin than...uh...uhh...insert popular emo musician here.

I honestly tried my best to think of a name to put in that last sentence, and failed. Take that as you will.

[Hilasophy]

Thank you Kyle, for those accolades.

OogieBoogie quoted Lars before I had the chance. But that is exactly my feelings toward Hot Topic as well. I have never shopped there...I try not to judge my friends that have (Boondock Saints t-shirts, studded belts,etc...are kind of cool).

I do dislike the emo generation as much as Kyle suggests, but neither light nor condone the lighting of emokids on fire...at malls.

As my rocker friend Christian told me last night during a serious caf' session, round table at my school, "emo kids need to stop whining and start rocking." Because if they would care less about their problems and really channel some of their angst into rock, they might overcome their designer-depression... And our school wouldn't have so many sh*&*y bands playing at school, with no knowledge of music outside their genre or current time period.