From NME:
Emo music attacked over teen suicide
An inquest in Maidstone has heard that Hannah Bond, a 13 year-old girl from Kent, committed suicide by hanging herself - and emo music has been blamed.
Roger Sykes, the coroner who gave the verdict of suicide yesterday (May 7), suggested that the fact that Bond was an obsessive fan of such music was linked to her death.
The inquest heard that Bond had discussed with friends the "glamour" of suicide, and was obsessed with American band My Chemical Romance. She had a picture of an emo girl with bloody wrists on her Bebo page.
Bond's father Ray explained that his daughter had had an episode of self-harm prior to her suicide, which she told him was an emo initiation ceremony.
Her mother Heather Bond, also provided some background on her interest in the genre explaining: "There are [emo] websites that show pink teddies hanging themselves. She called emo a fashion and I thought it was normal. Hannah was a normal girl. She had loads of friends. She could be a bit moody but I thought it was just because she was a teenager."
However as he gave the verdict of suicide, coroner Sykes criticised the genre saying: "The emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."
If you're not already aware, this is not the first time MCR has been attacked like this. The last time it was in some crappy tabloid, but many people took it very seriously. Probably this will be kept pretty quiet here in the states, but I can only imagine what the reaction will be in the UK.
Everybody's got it all wrong.
"Emo initiation ceremony"? I'm sure there's some cracked up people out on the internet who would convince people of this. "Emo" isn't a cult, it's a label, a stereotype, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some people trying to make it a cult. And, yes, there are some people who believe they need to cut themselves to fit in. This was her problem. Gerard Way said that he once saw a girl in the audience with cuts all over her arms. He said he thought it was sad that she felt she needed to harm herself in order to fit in.
MCR does not support this.
At the end of the video for "Teenagers," there is a short message from MCR - "violence is not the answer."
MCR does not support this.
"The emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."
Now, I'm not really big on "emo." I'm actually unsure of the actual meaning of the word, and I have a fascination with trying to find a definitive meaning for it. You may or may not label me as an emo kid, but (in case you couldn't already tell), I am a huge fan of My Chemical Romance. And I know firsthand how their music affects people.
Sure, The Black Parade is full of death, but it's about learning to not fear death, and at the same time, not fearing life. That very same album saved my own life, and changed it for the better. I'm one of thousands.
Go watch their documentary, Life On The Murder Scene. In the very beginning, Frank Iero says, "We're definitely a band that wants to save your life." Glamorous suicide, indeed.
This isn't to say that people who are MCR fans won't commit suicide. It happens, obviously - they're not a surefire cure. They've helped an enormous amount of people, but do you ever hear about that in the papers? Hardly.
My point is, you've got it all wrong. This girl's problem was not that she listened to My Chemical Romance. Her problem was that she thought she needed to harm herself, and that suicide was somehow glamorous.
The wrong people have been incriminated.
Roger Sykes, the coroner who gave the verdict of suicide yesterday (May 7), suggested that the fact that Bond was an obsessive fan of such music was linked to her death.
The inquest heard that Bond had discussed with friends the "glamour" of suicide, and was obsessed with American band My Chemical Romance. She had a picture of an emo girl with bloody wrists on her Bebo page.
Bond's father Ray explained that his daughter had had an episode of self-harm prior to her suicide, which she told him was an emo initiation ceremony.
Her mother Heather Bond, also provided some background on her interest in the genre explaining: "There are [emo] websites that show pink teddies hanging themselves. She called emo a fashion and I thought it was normal. Hannah was a normal girl. She had loads of friends. She could be a bit moody but I thought it was just because she was a teenager."
However as he gave the verdict of suicide, coroner Sykes criticised the genre saying: "The emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."
If you're not already aware, this is not the first time MCR has been attacked like this. The last time it was in some crappy tabloid, but many people took it very seriously. Probably this will be kept pretty quiet here in the states, but I can only imagine what the reaction will be in the UK.
Everybody's got it all wrong.
"Emo initiation ceremony"? I'm sure there's some cracked up people out on the internet who would convince people of this. "Emo" isn't a cult, it's a label, a stereotype, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some people trying to make it a cult. And, yes, there are some people who believe they need to cut themselves to fit in. This was her problem. Gerard Way said that he once saw a girl in the audience with cuts all over her arms. He said he thought it was sad that she felt she needed to harm herself in order to fit in.
MCR does not support this.
At the end of the video for "Teenagers," there is a short message from MCR - "violence is not the answer."
MCR does not support this.
"The emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."
Now, I'm not really big on "emo." I'm actually unsure of the actual meaning of the word, and I have a fascination with trying to find a definitive meaning for it. You may or may not label me as an emo kid, but (in case you couldn't already tell), I am a huge fan of My Chemical Romance. And I know firsthand how their music affects people.
Sure, The Black Parade is full of death, but it's about learning to not fear death, and at the same time, not fearing life. That very same album saved my own life, and changed it for the better. I'm one of thousands.
Go watch their documentary, Life On The Murder Scene. In the very beginning, Frank Iero says, "We're definitely a band that wants to save your life." Glamorous suicide, indeed.
This isn't to say that people who are MCR fans won't commit suicide. It happens, obviously - they're not a surefire cure. They've helped an enormous amount of people, but do you ever hear about that in the papers? Hardly.
My point is, you've got it all wrong. This girl's problem was not that she listened to My Chemical Romance. Her problem was that she thought she needed to harm herself, and that suicide was somehow glamorous.
The wrong people have been incriminated.
3 comments:
A-fucking-men. :(
1. Emo
Genre of softcore punk music that integrates unenthusiastic melodramatic 17 year olds who dont smile, high pitched overwrought lyrics and inaudible guitar rifts with tight wool sweaters, tighter jeans, itchy scarfs (even in the summer), ripped chucks with favorite bands signature, black square rimmed glasses, and ebony greasy unwashed hair that is required to cover at least 3/5 ths of the face at an angle.
::sniff sniff:: "The Demise of the Siberian Traintracks of Our Rusty Forgotten Unblemished Love" sounds like it would make a great emo band name. ::cry::
2. emo
An entire subculture of people (usually angsty teens) with a fake personality. The concept of Emo is actually a vicious cycle that never ends, to the utter failing of humanity, and it goes something like this:
1. Girls say they like "sensitive guys" (lie)
2. Guy finds out, so he listens to faggy emo music and dresses like a dork so chicks will see that he is sensitive and not afraid to express himself (lie). He dyes his hair black, wraps himself in a stupid looking scarf, develops an eating disorder, and rants about how "nobody understands".
3. Now an emo guy, he meets Emo chick and they start dating, talking about how their well-off suburban lifestyles are terrible and depressing (lie)
4. Emo guy is just too much of a pussy. His penis is too small, he's too depressed to bathe, and has more mood swings than emo chick, and he doesn't even have a menstrual cycle. Emo chick dumps him, saying "It's not you, it's me." (lie) as she drives off with Wayne, the school jock and captain of the football team.
5. Emo guy goes home and cries, proceeds to write a weak song and strum a single string on his acoustic guitar. Another emo chick sees how he is so in touch with his feelings, and the cycle continues.
This is the sad truth of the emo lifestyle/music, and now that I look at how pathetic it really is, maybe the emos DO have something to cry about!
When she sees how sensitive and emo I have become, she'll definitely go out with me!
compliments of Urbandictionary.com
thanks, but I want to find my own definition for myself. I don't think it's as simple as being sensitive and wearing thick glasses.
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