Emo: The Misinterpretation Of Youth

In “The C Word in the Hallway”, author, Anna Quindlen expresses her pleas to reach out and end the neglect of teen struggles. Bullying, break-ups, isolation, family issues, academics, and more could result as contributing factors to the hardships of teenagers. Unfortunately, “role models” setting the examples, overlook the fatal outcomes of these hardships. The poor example taught is to mask our struggles and toughen through them. This masking method can only be effective for so long before one cracks. In her article regarding the uprising of mental health issues found in teenagers, Anna Quindlen calls to action on parents, educators, and politicians to emphasize the importance of recognizing teenage hardships, so the teenagers can too recognize

A common phrase that adults can testify to hearing from any given teenager is, “You don’t understand!” This proves a struggle between the youth and the adults that quite possibly is never-ending. Adults make assumptions about kids, based on the way they dress, which pushes kids further and further away. In the essay, “Goths in Tomorrowland” by Thomas Hine (2001), he emphasizes the beliefs that adults began the idea of youth alienation from older societies and the teenagers keep it that way. Donna Gaine’s (2001) essay, “Teenage Wasteland,” discusses four teenagers who were mocked and misunderstood by adults and reporters alike. Jon Katz (2001) lets the kids explain themselves about their seclusion from society and the misconceptions about them in his column, “More from the Hellmouth: Kids Tell About Rage.” The fear that elders show towards young people is merely a fear of the unknown. Adults are worried about the younger generations because of their misunderstandings of the youth culture, their failure to accept youth into the adult society, and the instigation provoked from young people.

Today’s teens relate to people in dystopian societies. The main people in dystopian stories are the people who see the wrong in the societies that they are living in. this is shown in

Your Longing for death but your not willing to leave life happiness left with out saying good bye but don't cry emo girl wipe your little tears save them for another turn you've survived all these years stirring in the night not being able to sleep wondering with a fight "why did it have to be me?" and in your waking hour you still have the same mine set the feeling creeping over like a tower "I wasn't ready to let him go yet" but don't cry emo girl wipe your little tears save them for another turn you've survived all these years your parents fight every chance they get but it happens to a lot of us please don't forget don't cry emo girl you will make it threw don't lie anymore we all know the truth quit going home and crying at night and screw

(Simond 2007) These are set behaviours and the people who fit themselves to this new classification of emo adopt these, illustrating as dynamic nominalism proposes, “people spontaneously come to fit their categories”. (Hacking 2002:100) We then see the manufactured society and the people within it working together, fulfilling their new role of expressing emotions showing “classifications and our classes conspire to emerge hand in hand, each egging the other on”(Hacking 2002:106) As will be shown next classifications are not stagnant and through life individuals may choose to affiliate with another label.

Media has influenced a lot of today’s trends and ideologies. Adolescents, being on the psychological level of self-identification, bring this deceptive notion of fashion and social classes to school. The problem comes when this trend affects the performance of students and their personal lives. We all remember our days back when the talk was “Who are the jocks, the cheerleaders, the rick kids, the geeks, the losers, etcetera?” Believe it or not, the status quo in schools is always composed of them. These cliques have identities exclusive for each. Students who do not look, act, or dress the same as one group are, more often than not, left out. They could be hurt physically and or psychologically with cruel teasing and rumors. Bullying and

This reference shows how music lays a foundation of teenage values beyond school or parental teaching. A musical artist can influence a young mind by the chosen lyrics with greater effectiveness than formal education. Music can control or enhance moods. A good mood can get better or a bad mood can be worked through with the choice of music. A bad mood can also be enhanced by lyrics about suicide or violent behavior. Teens can also use music to gain information about the adult world, to withdraw from social contact, facilitate friendships and social settings, or to help them create a personal identity. (O'Toole, 1997)

Yet with all the wonderful things that music can do for human beings, could it possibly be responsible for them committing suicide, or murder? In this paper I am going to explore the chaos that occurred in the 80’s and 90’s when heavy metal music faced accusations that the music and lyrical content was driving adolescent and young adults to commit suicide and murder. I will argue that it is not the music or the lyrics that result in such violent behaviors; rather, individuals with underlying psychological issues such as depression, or anger disorders tend to be more attracted to heavy metal music.

“Mean girls, jocks, band nerds, geeks, and freaks” are all terms used to stereotype and group teens in the 2004 movie hit, Mean Girls. This film created controversies in the content that it delivered. The credibility of adolescents is questioned greatly in this film. Mean Girls taught us that popularity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, in fact, they taught us that it’s actually meaningless. Through extreme character development, this movie shows the viewer that at the end of the day, all of the teens are the same. They all struggle to fit in, and that’s really the moral of this hilarious, but raunchy story. Mean Girls captures the struggle that every teen seems to have at some point of where they belong and how they relate to everyone around them. The film takes those stereotypes and melds them into what all high schools should aspire to be: a community.

“Numerous studies indicate that a preference for heavy metal music may be a significant marker for alienation, substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, suicide risk, sex-role stereotyping, or risk-taking behaviors during adolescence” (http://www.aap.org/policy/01219.html). This statement, and others like it, has been used as a hypothesis as to why the students opened fire killing 13 and wounding 23 at Columbine. The explicit lyrics have been thought to motivate teenagers into committing acts of violence. Take, for example, the lyrics from a band named Drowning Pool, “Push me again, this is the end, skin against skin, blood and bone, you're all by yourself, but you're not alone, you wanted in, now you're here, driven by hate consumed by fear, let the bodies hit the floor” (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/drowningpool/bodies.html). This song is titled Bodies and speaks out about committing murder because of alienation. All teenagers feel these feelings at some point while they are growing up. While most teenagers can look to someone or something to get them through this difficult time, some find release in music. If they are exposed to these types of lyrics, without any rationality, the teenagers can find themselves in

The idea of pop culture has many different opinions surrounding it. Some people believe that it’s a God sent to us, others think it's the devil. Chris Hedges and Melissa Ames both have opposing opinions on this topic. Hedges, in “American Psychosis,” discusses that pop culture is bad because we focus too much on superficial topics and not enough on the real problems in our world. Whereas, Ames, in “Engaging ‘Apolitical’ Adolescents: Analyzing the Popularity and Educational Potential of Dystopian Literature Post-9/11,” suggests that pop culture is a unique tool that you can use to understand politics and our world’s problems. Both authors struggle to convince their peers to believe their ideology and they both have unique ways of doing so. By

Now a days, we are used to shocking lyrics and eye catching looks. It seems that every artist now is fighting to be so different that everyone is drawn to them. It was not always like this. In the late nineties and early two-thousands, most artists tried to fit in with the other blonde, processed pop stars that the industry was spitting out. When there was an artist who was not always happy and did sing about PG rated topics, they were blamed for what was wrong with the world, especially teenagers. In his article ‘I’d Sell You Suicide: Pop Music and Moral Panic in the Age of Marilyn Manson”, Robert Wright delves into and debunks claims that rock music, especially that of Marilyn Manson, is a main cause for teenage suicide.

In today’s society, is the media mirroring our behavior, or are we mirroring the media’s portrayal of us? That question was posed in the documentary “The Merchants of Cool”, narrated by Douglas Rushkoff. This program examined the teenage culture and how the media is used to manipulate and portray our generation. With examples from Sprite, MTV, WB, and other massive media outlets, evidence is shown that our media-teenager relationship is tainted with sex, music, rebellion and a broad image of what it is to be “cool”. Most of the images portrayed of teenagers aren’t the best. With TV shows such as “MTV Spring Cruise”, teenagers are shown as sex-driven, reckless kids. TV corruption is just one of many examples of the blurred line between reality and perception in media and advertising.

For an album with the title Scooter Dudes and tracks titled “Walmart” and “Naruto” – it’s not half bad! In fact… it’s pretty good (as in really good.) Handwriting have crafted what could be the next emo “classic” (if such a thing exists.) They sound like they should probably be signed to CYLS or Broken World (if you catch my drift.)

With the economic decline and availability of jobs with upward movement, a culture of youths formed in Britain that challenged the ideals and cultural norms of the generations that came before them. A consistent movement from traditional society through youth subcultures brings light through the eyes of the musicians that describe their generation’s feelings of homelessness in an era filled with unemployment, low wages, and violence. The insurgence of the counterculture movement, poor economic conditions, and the commercialization of previous Rock and Roll music in Britain directly led to the punk subculture because it allowed youths to speak up about their conditions and frustrations through an easily understood and accessible medium while maintaining a different stance than their predecessors.