A Question About EMO

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

(arising from discussion on http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/)

Goths of whatever stripe tend to have a web of cultural reference points/shared interests which are not primarily musical i.e. Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman, Giger I guess for the techno-goth bods, etc. (I can think of plenty of things that *I* wd consider 'typically goth' but which more knowledgeable types might scoff at)

ANYWAY what are the non-musical cultural touchstones for Emo kids? Books, comix, films, TV, designers or styles, not really fashion cos that's fairly obvious/apparent...

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

is emily the strange emo or goth? i would not know obv!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Alex T claims it for Emo.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Neither - she is COMMERCIAL! So I suppose Pop.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

thick black specs.

[(Anonymous)]

is 'donnie darko' goth or emo?

hkm

I am not an EMO

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Hello!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Comix, v definitely. I don't know which off the top of my head, but deffo know it when I see it. James thingummy. Kochalca?

[friedslice.livejournal.com]

Adrian Tomine

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

James Kochalka is NOT EMO! Anthesis of emo if anything. Have you heard his music?

fred is OTM.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Converse trainx0rs. ONE TREE HILL (ie myself and the GFG are def emo)

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

Surely One Tree Hill isn't emo? I like it for one.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Anime!

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

I posted too soon, but you can trace a lot of emo's stylistic and symbolic language to anime melodramas and end-credits music. Sometimes I think of emo as just anime end-credits music as played by kids that only know how to play hardcore.

WE HAVE A NEXUS

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

emo
glam
goth
grunge

all circle similar territory, with much shared material

haha also: where is pozpunk genre?

Re: WE HAVE A NEXUS

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

They all read Terry Pratchett, hahaha

[cis.livejournal.com]

films:
donnie darko, yes;
royal tenenbaums and all Wes Anderson films;
even eternal sunshiyiiine maybe, that breed of slightly-off-kilter.
igby goes down! <-- this film is a bright eyes song. also it has KIERAN CULKIN and CLAIRE DANES in it, the most emo thing ever.

comix:
blue monday! and basically all things published by tokyopop? i kind of feel anime&manga is too dorky but that says maybe more about me? Akira, Evangelion, the general anime-and-manga canon.

speaking of bright eyes

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

film = watership down !!!
my so-called life -- if (present-day) emos are old enuff to recall it

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Haha I think I still have an email from Chynna Clugston 10 years ago wherein she took exception to me claiming she should give up now, never going to amount to anything etc. I still can't stand her, last I checked.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Hang on the mists of memory have parted a bit, and revealed that the subject of the terrible comic in question was... VAMPIRES!

Is she still doing immensely mod-oriented stuff these days? Ironically the one area not rehabilitated into todays youth = hooray they have slain the ghost of influence! </dubdobdee>

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

It depends what we're calling emo though - are we talking the current Panic! At The Disco/My Chemical Romance thing here? Because that's not really emo...

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

fvck off grandad! I think the word has wandered a bit.

[juror8.livejournal.com]

[celentari.livejournal.com]

Keats, but only the Odes, and especially Nightingale and Melancholy.

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Preacher by Garth Ennis, shurley?

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Also MANGA. I did my hanging out in comix places a few years before emo, but manga's gotta be there, surely? And probably hentai, too. Also Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. And DEFO Blue Monday, if they've come across it.

I was going to say Sandman but that's more GOTH. Also, St Swithin's Day by Grant Morrisson (one of my favourite pieces of writing in any medium) is actually v.emo when I come to think about it: boy leaves job at Sainsbury's thinking he might assassinate Thatcher, steals Rimbaud book from Foyles (which he later throws over a bridge, saying 'Well, don't want them to think I'm queer...actually, perhaps I am'), dances in a graveyard to There She Goes, goes to Winchester and wonders why everything looks so very clean, sits in a cafe thinking about his ex and has an imaginary conversation with a girl, then writes Neurotic Boy Outsider on his forehead in the loos at Euston before seeking out Maggie.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

good lord, i didn't think i knew anyone else who read that Blue Monday comic.