Emo Wars!!!

Chances are that if you aren’t considered “emo” – a term that has mutated so much over the past few years – at least a part of you can’t help but laugh at those who are. \nYet as funny as it may be to chuckle at 14 year olds loitering near Hot Topic, emo haters in Mexico are taking things past flaming MySpace and to a whole new level. Over the past month, groups have been prowling the streets looking for any emos so they can get rid of them through violent means, and they even have the support of a television personality. \nAs much as emo kids are hated here, it’s never gotten to the point of mass-organized beat-downs. Aside from asking the obvious “What the heck?” question, these altercations signify that emo culture is out of control. As an individual who’s maneuvered in and out of the emo label, I’m shocked to even see this “culture” turn into almost another race of people. Inside the walls of secondary school, I comprehended the sharp distinctions of group dynamics. But in the real world, I would have never thought emo kids would be the subject of such scorn aside from pity or laughter.\nAll the anti-emo rhetoric in Mexico has stirred up another sub-sect of this oddity. “Scene kids” – those who have an even more ridiculous appearance featuring highly-teased hair, hundreds of bracelets, pounds of eyeliner and unironicly loud T-shirts – are now using their primary means of communication (MySpace) to distinguish themselves from emos.\nObviously, sub-cultures are part of our world, but why are people letting the groups battle it out when almost all of them are still of middle-school age? The ever-growing networking possibilities of adolescents worldwide need to be curbed. Kids are now in a level of supposed hyper-development, in which the trends they motor through now have more outlets for expression. There has to be a point where someone (read: parents) steps in to tell them that they’re all the same, no matter what their Buzznet or what the “How to Be a ____” wikiHow they constantly visit says. \nAs a die-hard fan of the music that used to be labeled emo, a title that I’m not sure even fits anymore with all this ruckus, I can’t help but wonder how we made it to this point. Three years ago, most of the bands that played music that supposedly catered to these groups just played shows.\nBut once a few gained some popularity in the mainstream, where current emo/scene kids first heard the bands, everyone realized that because all the music sounds the same, whoever had the hippest image would make it. As it was marketed more to kids with their parents’ dough, these heinous trends only exploded further. \nThere’s a lot of blame to be passed around for this unbelievable situation – parents, technology, Pete Wentz – but some of it has to fall back on the scene itself. And it’s time for scene heroes such as Wentz to step up and implore kids to chill out. Of course, that’s just what they need – something else to cry about.