"My Chemical Romance is this generation's Nirvana"

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I'm not too sure about Carrot-Top there on the right.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:27 (twenty years ago)

all these people who've never seen a MCR fan is welcome to the view of the pub garden outside our flat every thursday (rock night) where you can pick out a random emo teen and, if you wish, shoot'em with an air-rifle.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:28 (twenty years ago)

i go to community college

― latebloomer: keeping his reputation for an intense on-set presence (latebloomer), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:28 (twenty years ago)

http://www.hmmagazine.com/issue/web%20my%20chemical%20romance.gif

― latebloomer: keeping his reputation for an intense on-set presence (latebloomer), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:29 (twenty years ago)

i kinda like the audacity of that dude's count chocula cape

― latebloomer: keeping his reputation for an intense on-set presence (latebloomer), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:30 (twenty years ago)

See, I *like* these looks. Postpunk gothglam.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:30 (twenty years ago)

xpost

Well yeah, Ned, note my wording throughout: "career journalists" and terms like "would do well" or "it would behoove them." Nobody has to pay attention to anything. And nobody's going to get very far paying attention out of duty. But there's a level on which we make decisions about what we want to investigate, and how receptive we're going to allow ourselves to be to it, and in this case it seems like a bad strategy to go putting up walls.

I also said it's fine if people find it wanting -- just that it might turn out useful or interesting to them to know the stuff. I found it not-worth-attention for a while; then I made a conscious decision to start listening to some and figuring it out; and no, I didn't get all that far, really, and still find loads if wanting -- but I'm certainly glad I know that little bit more about it all. Maybe that's just me, and others find nothing there at all.

The xpost part -- that dialogue involves two very different things, though! The initial reaction was to the music, deciding to be uninterested. The latter pricking is more about trying to figure out how exactly the music is functioning, and what people are getting out of it and what it'll do -- which is, yeah, more ethnomusicological than just critiquing the music, but it can totally totally be of use.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:31 (twenty years ago)

Put another way: I wish I'd had that same curiosity when I was younger and the issue was hardcore stuff,(*) if only so now when someone says "that sounds like XYZ" I would know who XYZ were!

(*) Now this is just an outright lie, because I did have that curiosity, and bought various hardcore albums and just never listened to them BUT STILL.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:35 (twenty years ago)

xx post

Yes, except WHY IS THERE ALWAYS ONE WITH A SHITTY PERM??

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:35 (twenty years ago)

It can totally be of use! But it kinda shades over into what I think Ultragirl's core point/problem is, namely a complaint about how dare people get old and find other things to think about. The active engagement you are outlining -- and yes, for a certain kind of listener/writer first and foremost -- reminds me, inadvertantly but not too happily, of the total commitment academia demands in its 'publish or perish' extremes, of awareness or presumed mental death, one or the other and no middle ground allowed or accepted. I didn't start writing because I wanted to join a secular priesthood.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

not to split hairs, but does My Chemical do anywhere close to Nevermind type numbers? (didn't that sell like 10-12 million)...I'd think, at least in terms of her "voice of a generation" thesis, it seems like the compared sales w/the two bands would have to be in the same ballpark at least...altho I guess sales in general have gone way down since 91, so maybe it's the same slice of a smaller pie. I dunno.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:49 (twenty years ago)

Can we just admit the only reason we really care is that music industry makes most of its money off the teenage/early 20s demographic? I haven't seen any numbers lately but this age group surely still accounts for most record sales. That's it, Ned -- how dare we talk about irrelevant stuff that doesn't even move product!

What I was getting at earlier is that "this generation" has to refer to today's teens -- I still don't really buy the whole "Nirvana : teens of 1990s / MCR : teens of today" argument though.

― mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:50 (twenty years ago)

Hm. Just another proclamation from yet another generation eagerly waiting with a shovel at an empty grave. Although I run from the looming shadow of 35, I think I'll be fine as long as I'm curious about music and am willing to listen to new things. Otherwise, I guess I'm an ignorant curmudgeonly remnant of the despised slacker generation. Ah, well. Them's the breaks.

I just hope she realizes that before long, IT WILL HAPPEN TO HER.

― Terrible Cold (Terrible Cold), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

It likely already has and she's trying to look hip to neu-Spin. How many other 26 year olds listen to this stuff? Hyping up bands that appeal to a younger populace, making waves about what people supposedly would want to read about, etc. Didn't MCR already have a couple Spin covers and the magazine still pretty much bit it?

― mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

Y'all are spending way too much time on the generational pissings of the bands and not enough on he generational pissings on the critics. Don't most of you resemble that remark (the one about geezers are writing for kids)? Are we really that clueless?

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:08 (twenty years ago)

Here's where I gotta say I have no exact idea what my intended audience via the AMG is -- presumably the AMG crunches its own numbers on that point. Now maybe that's a failing, but I like to think that precisely because I don't know, I want to aim for something as reasonably all-inclusive as possible.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:13 (twenty years ago)

From what I've read of hers, it'll hit her harder than most.

So just to talk about the kind of music under discussion here more generally, here's the thing about these bands. They're the biggest group of white-people guitar bands in recent decades to combine three things -- actually let's say four things. All of these terms are used advisedly, because they're not quite accurate, but let's give it a shot:

- fashion
- earnestness / stylized torment
- hard rock (relatively)
- grand pop ambition

There are a lot of exceptions here -- exceptions to the idea that we haven't seen that combination in a while -- but most of the ones that spring to mind (for me, anyway) seem like some of the main influences on lots of today's bands: Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, etc.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:15 (twenty years ago)

People who follow the next thing are basically lame. This generation's Nirvana? Seriously, who gives a shit?

Maybe people should listen to music instead of spending all their time placing it in some historical social context.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:16 (twenty years ago)

I'd rather listen to Finntroll.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:16 (twenty years ago)

I was actually going to say that I decided at lunch that MCR are actually this generation's NIN.

It's interesting how on ILM instead of having arguments about a band's authenticity we have arguments about the audience's authenticity.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:22 (twenty years ago)

It can get a bit "noble savage" at times.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

THOSE TEENERS I SAW JUST NOW ARE REAL.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:25 (twenty years ago)

*chews Metamucil*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:25 (twenty years ago)

eppy otm. why is this thread so popular?

― whatever (boglogger), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:25 (twenty years ago)

I was actually going to say that I decided at lunch that MCR are actually this generation's NIN.

http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/Nine-Inch-Nails-banned-out-from-MTV-Movie-Awards-2.jpg

http://www.andiemarkoebyrne.com/2005/my%20chemical%20romance325.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:26 (twenty years ago)

(There's actually a 1994 press shot that's even better for the comparison but I can't seem to find it.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:28 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, both came up through a particular subculture and in the end were mainly embraced by said subculture but had a decent amount of crossover success and led people in different directions than they'd have gone in otherwise. Some people have a very strong attachment and many either respect 'em or consider them "gay" or "weird."

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:30 (twenty years ago)

This thread is popular because old wo/men want to be young again.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Maybe people should listen to music instead of spending all their time placing it in some historical social context.

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

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:32 (twenty years ago)

I tend to think Pumpkins myself, Eppy, but both bands are good comparison points.

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

Absolutely not, there's a law against that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:32 (twenty years ago)

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

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.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:37 (twenty years ago)

Is this whole thing just people trying to re-experience a feeling they had when they were 15?

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:39 (twenty years ago)

This generation is the next generation's "that generation".

― nancyboy (nancyboy), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:39 (twenty years ago)

And I'm sure there are people in the generation before us who have also moved on to bigger and better things.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:40 (twenty years ago)

Ultragrrrl = cooler and more in-the-know than you because she can view search topics.

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

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:51 (twenty years ago)

the NIN comparison is OTM

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:54 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but Carrot-Top.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:56 (twenty years ago)

nobody's saying you have to experience MCR as kids today do. it's the same with teenpop, nobody's saying you have to be (or pretend to be) a ~~strawman~~ 12-year-old girl to enjoy Skye Sweetnam. you're trying to experience it as a 35-year-old who likes pop or rock music.

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.

― yuengling participle (rotten03), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:01 (twenty years ago)

It's funny that new-Reznor has completely thrown off most of the affectations of old, though! People I know who went to a recent concert thought that everyone in the band looked like Trent Reznor, except for Trent Reznor. I'd like to see those MCR guys get some fitness madness and shave their heads in 15 years, though.

― mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:12 (twenty years ago)

But why the emphasis on the nextness of it then? Why the need for pretending it's important. I'm saying it's fine to enjoy rock music, but to have to compare it some canon act to legitimize it is fucking bullshit. The problem with all this is not the enjoyment of music, the problem is the inability to enjoy music as something other than a significant youth cultural icon, the incapacity to enjoy something without making it self-important. And anyone writing about the importance of bands in relationship with Nirvana is fertilizer as far as I'm concerned.

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

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Being old is where it's at.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:17 (twenty years ago)

There is no better feeling than being out of touch.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:18 (twenty years ago)

I think the emphasis on nextness has more to do with journalism than criticism. If you're reading, say, The Believer chances are you're going to expect historical perspective and if you read Blender you're looking for the latest thing. There's nothing wrong with either perspective.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:44 (twenty years ago)

I thought greying musos complaining at losing their edge was the rage in zero-two?

― winter testing, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:47 (twenty years ago)

(200+ posts on MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE????? Really?)

― Dan (What's Next, The Cultural Ramifications Of Lifehouse?) Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:48 (twenty years ago)

Nah, Three Doors Down.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:49 (twenty years ago)

"How Ne-Yo Rocked The World"

― Dan (Find One (1) Interesting Band) Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:50 (twenty years ago)

i think this has more to do with a girl telling some nerdy guys that they're not hip anymore.

― ant@work, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:15 (twenty years ago)

hip versus relevant, maybe

― mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:18 (twenty years ago)

"The problem with all this is not the enjoyment of music"

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.

― whatever (boglogger), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:32 (twenty years ago)

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