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Argumentative Essay Up on stage, a skinny white boy dressed with thick rimmed glasses, a striped tee shirt from the 80 s, a pair of torn jeans and black converse sneakers strums his guitar and sings out You filthy whore Shut up and swallow my pride for me move closer and drive further suck on the end of this dick that cum lead. The boy is the lead singer of a band called Glassjaw whose musical focus is the genre of Emo, (emotional type of alternative punk music). This boy, hidden by his exterior look, sings the same message as his thuggish black rapping counterpart. The question is why doesnt society comment on his language and blatant disregard for women? Emo has some how escaped the feminist persecution. Because male Emo artists demean women from a passive position in which the males are seen as the weak partner in a relationship as opposed to the dominant position prominent in rap music, Emo has succeeded in fooling its audience and not allowing them to realize that the genre has still reduced women to sexual muses and heartbreakers through its lyrics and imagery.
The Emo genre shares its roots with many other musical genres of today. Its emotional roots come from the 80 s from bands like the Cure, and the Smiths. After nearly twenty years of developing, Emo has become a major genre in todays musical society. The genre is based on capturing mans emotional pain and putting it into lyrics; hence the title of Emo meaning emotional.
The most prevalent type of pain in Emo is the pain of failed relationships between these male singers and the women in their lives. The artists present themselves from a passive position to display the pain women cause. Shes the blade and Im just paper a lyric from the band Sugarcult, shows the emotion that the men place in their lyrics. The woman is the one that cuts him up; the woman is the one who is causing the problems. All Emo bands use the theme of pain cause by females to inspire their lyrics. A band that exemplifies the portrayal of men as the victim in the game of love is Taking Back Sunday.
They fit right in with normal Emo genre, preaching Dont call my name out your window Im leaving. Im sick of writing every song about you. Every time lead singer Adam sings this line he cries on stage. Emo easily lures its listeners to its trap.
With his stage act of crying, he displays the passiveness of an Emo artist. Sugarcult and Taking Back Sunday are able to gain compassion from their listeners with cries of sorrow. This compassion however is falsely aimed. The listener finds themselves feeling emotionally attached, and forgets that the lyrics are still degrading women. Adam proves exactly the point; the rouse of Emo is to demean women from a passive position over and aggressive position thus allowing it to get away with it. Emo conveys its abuse towards females best in its lyrics about how women are sexual muses.
Many Emo artists look towards women, who are very sexual active, as victimizing the male in their lyrics. The band Brand News song Sic transit Gloria Glory Fades depicts a woman as a sexual muse, leading a boy into an unwanted sexual pursuit. You dont recover from a night like this a victim, still lying in bed, completely motionless a hand moves in the dark to a zipper hears a boy bracing tight against the sheets barely whisper this is so messed up. The genre of emo has created an alternate theme than that of most music; they have now made sexual pursuit by women a crime. Most other genres welcome the sexuality of a female; however emo has made women who are sexual the origin of emotional pain.
By doing this the audience still sympathizes with the man. It seems as if the listener forgets that they are targeting women because they show the listener their side of pain. Not only does Emo music constantly display women as sexual muses, they also use the roll of heartbreaker to gain emotional respect, while defacing women. The same band as before, Brand New, dedicates their song Jude Law and a semester abroad to the girl who left the lead singer to go across the Atlantic, it sings And even if her plane crashes tonight shell find someway to disappoint me by not burning in the wreckage or drowning at the bottom of the sea Lead singer Jessie finds women as always something to blame for his heartache.
While the audience connects to his heartache, they forget that he is continuing to blame the girl who is dying. Emo artist stereotype women into two genres sexual muses and heartbreakers; because the listeners connect with them on the emotional level of pain, they forget that these artists stereotype and ultimately lower the status of women. But is the role of a heartbreaker really degrading? In a sense these men lift these women on a pedestal, by giving them the power to break their hearts. Maybe this actually even makes women higher then men in the genre. But this is the trap of Emo.
It is not a problem to occasionally accuse women of being heartbreakers, but in Emo it is the overall theme of the music. The women are to blame for all of a mans emotional problems. Emo boys may be crying out their pain, but rather than taking some responsibility for the heartache caused, they blame everything on women. The reason that people do not normally look at t the effects of Emo on women is most feel that it is important that men have finally become so emotional.
By men displaying their heartache it may finally equalize men and women. The hope that is if they are equal on an emotional level, it may act as a segway for them to be equal on all levels in society. However, the emotional routes of Emo are different. They do not equalize women and men.
In fact they sneakily do the exact same thing other genres of music do, the music that feminist groups often attack, for their blatant disregard for women. The lyrics of Glassjaw, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday reflect that Emo is not an equal world of sensitivity. In the world of Emo the woman is the antagonist. Emo music is not void of the anger and violence that other genres present against women.
In fact it may be more vocal and prevalent than other genres. While the lyrics are disguised by peppier harmonies, they still say the same angry violent messages as Eminem's Kim. The song Rocks Tonic Juice Magic by Saves the Day, the lead singer paints a disturbing picture of his feelings on women when he says, Let me take this awkward saw and run it against your thighs cut some flesh away Ill carry this piece of you with me Ill take my rusty spoons and dig out your blue eyes Swallow them down to my colon/ Theyre going to burn like hell tonight Cause you beautiful Just not on the inside. This heartfelt revenge fantasy refutes any argument that Emo should not be looked at in the same light as other music with violent thoughts towards women. Emo uses violence continuously throughout its music, the word bleed or blood and its variations are prevalent in many songs.
However, what is interesting is that Emo artists find away to resort the reason for the violence back to the women. In the previous song, Saves the Days lead singer Chris Conley blames his violence on the fact she is not the person he wants her to be within. Chris Conley when asked about the inspiration behind these violent lyrics has said oh I just make a lot of it up. Chris actually feels this about women, not only does he blame his violence on her, but the fact he can just make up lyrics with no inspiration says a lot about the genre. Emo males know in order to gain and audience they must sing on the torment of women, sometimes drawing off of false pretexts. This is how Emo males artfully disguise there deceit.
It is her fault that she is the subject of these revenge fantasies. Another band, Taking back Sunday, also illustrates with violence when its lyrics say And the truth is you could slit my throat but with my one last gasping breathe Id apologize for bleeding on your shirt. Ultimately it is the woman who slit his throat, and in the end result he would still be the protagonist hero, loving her to the end throughout all of her deceit. Emo artist blame even their violent revenge on women, they never take responsibility for their actions. Emo bands have made their mark on the music scene by expressing how women have done them wrong. Though they have showed to the listener a sensitive side of men, the still show their disregard for the female sex.
Emo artist continually place the cause of their emotional pain on women, from the passive position. Emo will continually deceive its audience until it is given the same attention that its rap counterparts receive for its defamation of females. The game of Emos deception is best summed up in the lyrics of Brand New because Emos disregard towards females will always be The quiet things that no one ever knows
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