you are neither a sin nor a tragedy.

first of all, i wrote this like, a month ago. while i don't necessarily agree 100% with everything i said in a fit of passion, i think it's a good dialogue piece. yeah? if you want to kick my ass, i understand.

there are few things that get me riled up these days. the state of existence for native americans, bad hipster art, asshole pushy people in the crowd, and my job were, for the most part, the only things that would get me blustering, flustering and cursing as though i were seized by tourette's. now i have another to add to the list: panic! at the disco and what they've done to emo, or rather, what the essence of emo has done to them.

this could potentially make me lose some friends. but chill outz, i have reasons behind it.

i have nothing against panic (i refused to use the exclamation point) existing and doing their thing. their music, despite it all, doesn't totally suck. admittedly, last night, after having received my spin with them on the cover, and my blender with a huge-ass spread, i said they sucked a big one to a group of people-- but it was in relation to a few other things for comparison. they're okay, i will give them that. their sound is pop-driven and catchy, and i can see why tons of small, screaming girls lust after their music as well as their hot bods.

but something bothers me, and it's been building for quite some time. how did their synthy, carnivalesque, over-the-top baroquian thing get defined as emo? is it because they're whiny? is it because they're dark and "alterna" by wearing eye makeup? is this supposed to be my generation's cure?

i look back to rites of spring and fugazi and weep inside.

i've fallen for it too. everything i do is "emo." everything is melancholy and misty and i wear dark eyeliner and dye my hair black to show my pain from living in this shadowy, horrible world. not really (but sort of). yet, i still can't find within myself the acceptance that bands like panic et al. can be described as this, as "totally beyond emo." it all hits me as shallow and considerably unpoetic.

emo has become a box to check off. don't believe me? go to livejournal, make a profile, and then when it comes time for you to put in your interests, you can find a short-cut box entitled "emo," right along with writing, reading, and cooking. wtf. well well well, isn't this the paradox. people were emo because they didn't fit in (there was always that antisocial element). now in order to fit in they are emo.

and while i saw this coming a mile away, because when you start describing a music genre as "emotional," which as a definition can cover pretty much anything, and people start making parody websites about how to dress emo because it's that ridiculous, it's beyond my comprehension. emo is the norm, and the world is clearly going to end because of it. but i have hope. i have hope that this over-bloated style will eventually lose speed and either implode completely or it will transform into something even greater, something we've never heard, something that's musical, for god's sake.

maybe i'm just growing tired of it all. maybe i'm just bitter and jaded by the scene because that's all that really ever comes out of it these days. or maybe i need to get off my high horse, suck it up, and admit that i'm running out of excuses to be so angstily adolescent.

you say you want a revolution? so go begin one, then.


/jen/