"My Chemical Romance is this generation's Nirvana"

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Kee-rist, man. Can we not do both?

Kee-rist, man. Can we not do both?

Absolutely not, there's a law against that.

We can do both, but I find the "next best thing" idea to be a bit infantile. Don't you? Isn't this topic basically older guys living vicariously through the rock heroes of today's kids? It's one thing to have idols when we're teenagers, but to look for idols when we're supposedly adults is a bit odd to me. Does it matter what rock band becomes the next Nirvana to the kids today?

From a sociological or cultural perspective, this might be interesting. But I can't imagine mustering more than bland, neutral pleasure from trying to experience it as kids today do.

Anyway, I'm calling MCR = this generation's CCR.

people have niches, that's fine, but niches age too. if MCR falls in your particular row to hoe and you ignore them in favour of similar bands from 10 years ago, that's your prerogative, but you will likely find that the audience for your writing will rise in average age, as well as steadily decrease in size.

And I actually agree with some of what Ultragrrl is saying.

no, the problem with all this is not not the writing of how to not be able to not enjoy some dumbass group that does not cut the mustard just like the rest of 'em, not.

And oh how my heart is bent.

Keep in mind that Ultragrrrl likes to think that she 'discovered' MCR (although they were widely known in NY/NJ long before she knew who they were, and on their way to a major-label contract), and it's pretty obvious to me that she sees herself as this generation's Malcolm McLaren or something. She probably thinks the Misshapes parties are the 00's version of Max's Kansas City or CBGB.

Completely true and OTM, but then someone says something like this --

some dumbass group that does not cut the mustard just like the rest of 'em, not

-- which doesn't fly for me. The issue isn't this group in particular; it's a lot of groups like this, and the fact that they're actual formative favorite-band material for lots of kids. It's a whole musical worldview and grounding that a sizeable number of people are going to have. Casting any one band as not-cutting-mustard is fair enough and often accurate, but insufficient to really understand the gaps between those different musical worldviews.

"MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
(Warner Bros.)

Now that after-school programs and arts funding are being excised from our public schools thanks to the Bush tax cut and the states' subsequent budget rejiggering, music has become the latchkey baby-sitter, educator, and supporter of our world-weary teens. Guess what, Mom and Pop, you'd best be keeping tabs on your children's favorite bands, since they'll likely have as big an effect on the kids' worldview as you will. And if your kids have any sort of taste, New Jersey newcomers My Chemical Romance's "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" rocks their Discmans regularly. The MTV-ready single—featuring a playful, Rushmore-lite video—puts some pump in the slump of many a tragi-lescent with its peppy, let's-group-hug-the-pain-away chorus and all-inclusive sentimentality. The rest of the quintet's major-label debut similarly sandblasts dimples on middle-class ennui thanks to Gerard Way's hyperactive, hiccupping vocals and guitarist Ray Toto's unabashed love for both the Fugazi and Guns N' Roses catalogs. Considering the smart, sensitive, and melodic pleas of "Helena," "Cemetery Drive," and "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Death Wish," we could do worse than a generation hooked on emo. Sure, it sucks that there ain't much adult supervision or book learnin' going on, but why educate when the only goal of our education system is to raise more burger flippers, right? YANCEY STR1CKLER"

You really need excuses and pseudogrievances like these to justify the fact that one of the most affluent groups of people in history (middle-class Americans) are incredibly self-indulgent. What problems do emo and MCR fans have that need to be "hugged away"?

It's hard to symptathize with bands and audiences who whine and cry a lot unless you give them all sorts of big problems for which they are trying to cope with (real or not). They just look like brats without the grievances and so you can't make their crosses fast enough.

if MCR are her Sex Pistols, what will be her Bow Wow Wow? or duck rock, for that matter.

MCR looks like such a caricature of a "Hot Topic band" that I can't see them expanding their audience too much outside of that audience and the Arctic Monkeys seem a little too tied to British culture to have the kind of success Franz Ferdind had in America. We'll see though.

i could do a LOT better than a generation hooked on (m)emo.