parents: be on the lookout for "emo"

[Kionon]

Bullshit.

Pure unmitigated bullshit.

Someone dropped the ball on this "investigation." Emo is not underground, it is not hidden. And Mr. Cowen's statement that emo "comes from the internet and has made its way into music and fashion" is ass backwards. I thought everyone under the age of 40 new that emo comes from a type of punk music, and that the rest of the culture has developed around it.

How the fuck can people like this get journalism jobs when I can't. I wrote better stories in high school than these people.

I have half a mind to send them a nasty letter demanding a retraction.

[JaddziaDax]

i actually remember when i was a kid "Emo" looked nothing like what it looks like today...

it mostly people who dressed in late 70's earley 80's thick brown glasses, sweater-vests and what I call "grandpa pants"... most of these people were obssesed with alot of "New Wave" music...

[SQ]

How the fuck can people like this get journalism jobs when I can't. I wrote better stories in high school than these people.

I have half a mind to send them a nasty letter demanding a retraction.

because research journalism costs more than it gets back?

[jubjub2]

i actually remember when i was a kid "Emo" looked nothing like what it looks like today...

it mostly people who dressed in late 70's earley 80's thick brown glasses, sweater-vests and what I call "grandpa pants"... most of these people were obssesed with alot of "New Wave" music...

80's punk movement = today's emo, at least style-wise including the self-mutilation and piercings. The main difference is that the punk movement focused more on retaliation and push against the norm and authority, versus the depression and self-absorption of Emo which was present in other followings, i.e.: the Smiths, the Cure, Depeche Mode, etc. (Many of the 80's bands that I love.)

Looking back to my parent's generation (pre-hippie), there was the same thing with the 'rockers' dressed in leathers with thick grease in the hair and thicker attitudes.

There's always going to be the cycle of teens and young adults trying to express themselves in ways that will shock and alarm their parents and society as a whole. (20's flappers and page boy haircuts, 40's women's pantsuits, yadda yadda...)

I'm betting those Greek and Roman kids really gave their parents FITS when the toga hemline got raised.

No news here. Move along.

[JaddziaDax]

pretty much what i was saying is that the "deffinition of emo" (style wise at the least) has changed since the 90s...

emo back then was not the pop-punk-hot topic consumer whores that they are now...

they didnt have "chains" all over their pants everywhere they didnt wear eyeliner, and they sure as hell didnt have "the emo haircuts" infact they pretty much looked like your "classic dork" (or perhaps Doug Funny would be a good comparison) they looked like they jumped off the set of Happy Days

[Kionon]

I did send them a nasty letter not that it will do any good:

Dear ABC 4,

You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Mr. Cowan's so-called "report" on "emo culture" was riddled with
inaccuracies and twisting of the facts to encourage fear amongst your
viewers. As a fellow journalist, I am appalled at your lack of ethical
standards and the weaknesses in Mr. Cowan's reporting. What happened
to real investigative journalism, or did you just decide your ratings
would go up if you instilled a sense of fear in parents across Utah?

I am demanding a retraction because of blatant falsehoods in your story:

Mr. Cowan reported, and I quote, "Well, Barbara, this is something
that has come out of the internet and into the music and lives of Utah
teens."

This is inaccurate. Emo is a musical movement that developed out of
the punk genre in the 1990s and early 2000s. While its development
occurred during the rise of the internet, it did not intersect the
internet until arguably somewhere around 2002, and has only really
become the so-called "phenomenon" you supposedly report in within the
last few years, mostly due to social networking websites such as
myspace or facebook. It most certainly was not a creation of the
internet subculture like Mr. Cowan reports. Even a cursory overview of
musical history would have revealed this.

Furthermore, all of the stylistic elements Mr. Cowan attributes to
"emo" have existed in other musical genres, and yet there is no
mention of them. These elements are found in general punk, goth,
"emo", and even some of the more subdued music of the 1980s. The band
quoted in my signature, The Smiths, even have a song with the lyrics
"I wear black on the outside, because that's how I feel on the
inside," and yet I hear no one claiming they're advocating suicide or
self-mutilation. Good thing too, because it'd be laughable, since the
band broke up in 1987. I myself have several "emo" bands in my
collection, and did when I was a teen, did this make me more likely to
be suicidal or self-mutilating? Of course not, those actions are
caused by deeper issues. Emo may be an outlet for expression, but it
is NOT the cause. Your report implies, and implies strongly, that it
is.

Depression, suicide, and self-mutilation have been issues with
teenagers as long as there have been teenagers, especially since the
development of mainstream, middle America. One only need read Catcher
in the Rye to see the same sorts of themes inherent in the narrative
of Holden, the book's main character. Yet I have never had an English
teacher describe him as "emo," since the musical movement did not
exist in the 1950s. The beat generation had their share, just read
"Howl" by Ginsberg. So has every generation since. The idea that this
is something "new" "hidden" or "underground" shows just how little
research you have done for this report.

In addition, I am familiar with many of the websites you show, and the
song "Must Be Emo" that you include in the report. The song, and the
quiz, are PARODIES. They make fun of emo culture, and are not created
by members of the culture themselves. Many of the movies you will find
on such sites as you-tube are also parodies. The fact that you would
report these creations as factual primary documents instead of the
works of parody they are show once again just how little research you
have done for this report.

Mr. Cowan reports, "Advanced emo kids cut themselves," as if emo was
some sort of video game you could level up in. Again, self-mutilation
is independent of the way in which the pain that causes it is
expressed. I have known several self-mutilators and not one of them is
a member of the emo culture. Again this implication that emo causes
self-mutilation is inaccurate, inappropriate, and unethical.
Self-mutilation causes an interest in emo, not the other way around.
The psychological issues are present first. This is not emo culture's
fault.

And don't even get me started on the inclusion of gender-bending. That
part of the report so badly glosses over a very complex series of
issues relating to gender theory and sexuality theory that unless Mr.
Cowan was prepared to present a diverse range of academic texts, it
should simply never have been included. Again, the implication is that
gender-bending is bad, and in fact, is a dangerous aspect of the emo
culture. That is a moral call, and one that should not be included in
unbiased news reporting.

You say not to react with fear, and yet that's exactly what you are
generating through this inaccurate, inappropriate, and unethical
report. I expect that you will do right by your viewers and issue a
retraction and an apology. As for Mr. Cowan... retaking Journalism 101
might not be out of the question for him.

[guy07]

This just in: don't go to utah.