(no subject)
Wait... I just realized something.
If the whole point of emo is to be unabashedly earnest and sincere (or "emotional"),
but all your song titles and lyrics are faux tongue-in-cheek, and display a 10th grader's grasp of irony,
then you're really taking away the only thing that made emo decent or unique in the first place.
Which is, of course, that unabashed sincerity: The total opposite of anything ironic.
So that's why Panic ("!") At The Disco is so annoying. You can't be snotty and blasé jaded and ironic if you play music that's supposed to be anything but. Think about it. The only thing pop-punk/emo/core had going for it was that "really sappy, embarrassingly simplistic and revealing, yet somehow amazingly cathartic" vibe. Which I realize I probably shouldn't like but of course I kinda do.
But trying to make emo or pop-punk "cool" by trying to turn it "smart" and "ironic" makes about as much sense as building a Rodney King ride at Disneyland.
If you think you're smarter than lines like "She's so important/And I'm so retarded"... fine.
But don't try to dress it up in all-black and Max Factor eyeshadow and gratuitous synthesizers and drum machines to overcompensate. There are plenty of different genres out there. And if you-- Panic ("!") At The Disco --think you're smarter than pop punk: Don't play pop punk (or "emo," or however you'd categorize it).
But don't try to suddenly "smarten it up" with asinine afterschool observations like "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off." Because it doesn't sound "smart." It sounds like someone trying to be smart. And that just comes off like a moronic 12 year-old who started watching South Park reruns, and now he's going to do all the voices and repeat all the funny lines ad nauseam.
It's not funny, or cute, or novel. It's just irritating.
I'm sorry: Pop-punk/emo can never be "hip." It's always going to be a little dorky.
But that's the idea.
Trying (and, by the way, failing) to make it hip just feels... sad.
(And "feeling sad"-- ironically-- is actually very emo.)
If the whole point of emo is to be unabashedly earnest and sincere (or "emotional"),
but all your song titles and lyrics are faux tongue-in-cheek, and display a 10th grader's grasp of irony,
then you're really taking away the only thing that made emo decent or unique in the first place.
Which is, of course, that unabashed sincerity: The total opposite of anything ironic.
So that's why Panic ("!") At The Disco is so annoying. You can't be snotty and blasé jaded and ironic if you play music that's supposed to be anything but. Think about it. The only thing pop-punk/emo/core had going for it was that "really sappy, embarrassingly simplistic and revealing, yet somehow amazingly cathartic" vibe. Which I realize I probably shouldn't like but of course I kinda do.
But trying to make emo or pop-punk "cool" by trying to turn it "smart" and "ironic" makes about as much sense as building a Rodney King ride at Disneyland.
If you think you're smarter than lines like "She's so important/And I'm so retarded"... fine.
But don't try to dress it up in all-black and Max Factor eyeshadow and gratuitous synthesizers and drum machines to overcompensate. There are plenty of different genres out there. And if you-- Panic ("!") At The Disco --think you're smarter than pop punk: Don't play pop punk (or "emo," or however you'd categorize it).
But don't try to suddenly "smarten it up" with asinine afterschool observations like "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off." Because it doesn't sound "smart." It sounds like someone trying to be smart. And that just comes off like a moronic 12 year-old who started watching South Park reruns, and now he's going to do all the voices and repeat all the funny lines ad nauseam.
It's not funny, or cute, or novel. It's just irritating.
I'm sorry: Pop-punk/emo can never be "hip." It's always going to be a little dorky.
But that's the idea.
Trying (and, by the way, failing) to make it hip just feels... sad.
(And "feeling sad"-- ironically-- is actually very emo.)