I read this.
Emo critics have singled out My Chemical Romance once again, this time using the band's music to educate parents about the messages emo bands purportedly send to kids. Concerned parents have launched a website designed to inform other parents about the music's suggestive nature and to educate them about teenage suicide and self-mutilation, which they believe is influenced by emo bands. The site has a section containing lyrics from My Chem, Panic at the Disco, Hawthorne Heights and others. --Doug Leibowitz
First of all, lets take a step back! What makes teenagers want to commit suicide??? If you tell me it's bands like My Chemical Romance, then that band can change psychological history forever! That type of influence makes a DAMN good band! What part of a song can MAKE a teen commit suicide? No lyric, no melody, no ballad has that type of cause/effect result. There's something else. Something when a teenager hears My Simple Plan's version of a "Daddy Hates Me" song that they cling to. Maybe their daddy does hate them and maybe yes, there are teenagers that can relate to the song. Is that Simple Plan's fault? Nope... that's Daddy's fault. The teen can just find some sort of subliminal message within a song and seek comfort within it.
That's what music is. It is something that can be interpreted. It's something that one person can hear and relate to one way while another person relates to it another way. (What is the meaning of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box?) It's something you can dance to and not even realize the lyrics are meaningless (Except that "Handlebars" song by FloBots does make me want to mutilate something.)
And now there are Emo Critics. A job title... Emo Critic. I am a Radio Air Personality. My dad is a Project Manager. How would you like to be an Emo Critic? WTF.... inform other parents about the music's suggestive nature and to educate them about teenage suicide and self-mutilation, which they believe is influenced by emo bands. We don't need Emo Critics, we need Skank Critics. People who inform their parents that their 14 year old daughter is shaving her one pubic hair because she saw a picture of Britney Spears cooch and she wants to be like Britney. Skank critics to educate their parents about teen sex and how their daughter is reaching double digits with guys.
Bands don't make a teenager have issues. Situations makes a teenager have issues and teenagers find comfort in music that they can relate to.
If you're worried about a kid committing suicide, call a Suicide Hotline.... not an Emo Critic.