The goofy concept-driven video for Fall Out Boy's new single, complete with Panic! & Guns & Roses allusions, Seth Green cameos and possible racial stereotyping/homophobia.

See also: Status Ain't Hood's emo goes crazy
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Also here. Looks awesome, yeah, but I'll reserve my opinion 'til I see it on TV.

I think the best thing about emo is that it's a sign that teenagers are somewhat healthier today. The most popular emo bands (who all seem to be nerdy) deserve props for learning from their peers in all sorts of areas, and not making the same rock n' roll mistakes, i.e. overdosing on heroin. They're simply teenagers/20-somethings: messy and somewhat unpredictable, but smarter and more world-wise than they used to be. (et tu, LA riots, Columbine, 9/11, Katrina?)

From emo's perspective, Kurt Cobain was essentially a whiner who had both a meteoric passion for music and a self-defeating, ultimately fatal, worldview/psychology.

With emo and today's suburban teen culture, it's more about the medium than the message/music.

         

EMO its more about the medium. lol. The EMO scene thing... is stupid. end.

And this video from "Fall Out Boy" (WTF? steal something from the simpsons???) sucks. The Video sucks. Could also be a video from "PINK!" like "stupid girl". MTV compatible SHIT. imho.

I hate videos with teenies sitting in front of the computer and getting some info from the band (with very slow loading images... like with an 56k Modem).

Jon BOn Jovi "have a great day" is the same. oer "it's my life"... its so... kotz

         

Clearly lots of money and ton of work was put in it, but I find irony a little out of control. I mean, if one reshoots every cliche they hate, what distinguishes their final product from the videos they can't stand? As straight forward as the black and white stuff tacked on at the end was, it at least gave me an idea of what the band was all about, which is more honest I think. -j

         

Fuck this video.

         

...this video is WHY i hate being 16 in 2007.

Fueled By Ramen sucks some serious ass. Even if I really do like Cobra Starship.

         

kevathens, I'm kind of surprised by your comments. If ever there were a time when we needed to be in tune with message it's now.

Formalist tinkering and irony is very 90's to me, a decade obsessed with its own naval and subsequently blind sided by reality. I'm not sure what's so "heathy" about turning a blind eye. Or perhaps I've misunderstood your meaning.

         

Kevathens: You need to do some reading into how this type of music was genrefied, and how the term was appropriated -- and misappropriated.

Start with hardcore (Black Flag, Minor Threat, etc.), and move your way up through the '80s to Fugazi, Rites Of Spring, Embrace, Moss Icon, etc.

You'll realize that what you call "emo" today is essentially bullshit corporate rock masquerading as a mouthpiece for disenfranchised youth.

The '90s are where it all came unraveled, as the sound surfaced in mainstream media -- most people think that's where it started. But they're wrong.

... or you can continue to toe the line. :)

         

This is formalist tinkering writ a bit larger - I'm talking vertical integration, here - than it was in the 90's. The 90's do not own irony.

Things (in a very broad sense) are trending upwards from what I can tell, however small and infrequently reported. This is why I highlighted that book Everything Bad is Good for You. I find that a vital book/concept when talking about culture.

I agree, fam: I don't like emo music much at all. But the music is beside the point for me in this argument: it's about the vertical (and horizontal) integration of ideas.

Anyway, I gotta go, more later - happy new year!

         

seriously, what the fuck is emo?

         

c-dub is right. what the fuck is emo? The word really has no meaning now.

         

The end of the video really solidifies everything FOB is not, and their awkward admittance to that fact.

And nobody has been 'emo' since the early 90s.

         

I think the word 'emo' is actually used quite well to describe Fall Out Boy. The band might not share much with the original bands of the genre, but they've marketed themselves as a cartoonish version of every emo cliche in the book, and they're reaping the benefits of having become the archetypal representation of an entire subculture that most of today's suburban high school crowd identifies with (even if they don't fully understand it). In this video they play the role of socially awkward losers, even though in reality they're millionaire rock stars. Scary black guys harass them, they experience humiliation and girl problems, and they ultimately reject the glitzy MTV pop world to play some tiny basement show in a small town. It’s done with humor and self-parody, but ultimately this video is a primer on the emo worldview for all of the disenfranchised suburban teenagers who are just catching on. Musically, this might sound like a cross between the Backstreet Boys and Blink 182, but it’s not an accident that Fall Out Boy is doing everything they can to align themselves with the ‘e’ word.

         

i think "emo" is just an invention from the media. Most "emo" band / people that looks like emo say that they are not emo. So what is emo? The whole emo hype is so ridiculously.

         

emo: I was speaking with a friend yesterday about this. His music was often branded emo in the early mid 90's. He didn't particularly like the lable but it didn't drive him crazy, either.

He sees it as a label that replaced what people often described as, "whiny white music". It was a way for a group of people to embrace and indentify with liking "whiny white music" with a wink and a smile.

         

emo (n): white kids, black converse, tight hoodies, and carrying a notebook to write ones feelings in.