generational terror, pt 3

Here we have some more fine purveyors of autotuned emo bullshit, Breathe Carolina. This is pretty much straight-forward modern pop, but sung by tattooed pretty boys who occasionally scream. When did screamed vocals become acceptable in pop music, I wonder? I know that at many times in my life, after (misguidedly) attempting to get my friends into metal, I was met with the response "I just don't like hearing people screaming like that".


Both of those videos are of the same band. When I started this week's feature, I thought the most remarkable cross-pollination occurring in the emo scene was influence from hip-hop, but now I'm starting to think its super-gay techno music (I'm not using that term in a pejorative sense, btw). That kind of switch, from macho chest-thumping metalcore to flamboyantly dancey techno-pop, in an effort to gain more traction among today's youth, is pretty puzzling to me. This next guy, too.

BrokeNCYDE opened for this guy on his "I'm So Fierce" tour in 2008. He also has toured with Warped Tour. ??? I don't really know what to say about this. I mean I guess its cool that the kids are down with ultra-homo pop but what does it mean when a flaming caricature of homosexuality (Jeffree Star) shares a stage with a suburban appropriation/caricature of urban black masculinity (BrokeNCYDE)?

Alright, one last video. This song in a minor radio hit on the local alternative station right now, and these guys are on this year's Warped Tour. Again, there's a weird balance of flamboyance and masculine posturing:

"Tongues always pressed to your cheeks,
While my tongue is on the inside of some other girls teeth,
Tell your boyfriend if he says hes got beef,
That I'm a vegetarian and I ain't fucking scared of him."

I give up! I give up trying to understand this shit.

generational terror, pt 2 - BrokeNCYDE

Yesterday's post was just an introduction- testing the waters, so to speak. While covering "Such Great Heights" with chugging guitars and screaming vocals is a terrible idea, it is at least understandable why a band would want to do that. What we examine next is something that I truly cannot comprehend.

I don't really know where to start analyzing this sort of mind-fuck. Musically, its horrendous (although the above track is significantly better than their most recent singles). Questions of sincerity, humor, sexuality and race are far harder to answer. How seriously are these guys playing it? Obviously there's a certain amount of humor here, but do they actually believe they've produced quality music, or is this a sort of joke they couldn't finish? A scheme to get laid that has taken on its own unnatural life? Don't they remember nu-metal? And why, for god's sake, is E-40 on their new single?!?

I have many, many more questions about this band, and what their existence says about today's society; but somethings are perhaps unknowable to the human mind. One point I would like to raise about this band, though, is the question of mothersagainstbrokencyde.net. This website highlights some pretty controversial facts about the band. And not just traditional anti-rock tropes, like accusations of promoting devil-worship or some vague sense of sexuality; rather, accusations of a more serious manner, of lyrics promoting rape and racial purity. And yet, the "mothers against brokeNCYDE" website is a bit too clean looking. A bit too appealing to the eye. The layout and font choice suggest a designer familiar with how to use the internet, post web 2.0. The idea of parents coming together to object to a single band, rather than "rock music" or "youth culture" or some great societal ill is also suspicious. Which all leads me to believe that the website is stealth marketing for the group- WHICH IS FUCKING INSANE. That would mean that the guys behind BrokeNCYDE are so aware of and committed to their own image that they would start rumors of racism and rape, about themselves, in order to raise their profile. That sort of post-meta-irony is the kind of shit that makes me feel like I have to lay down for awhile.

generational terror, pt 1

I've lately been fascinated with some of the more bizarre new manifestations of popular music, particularly acts that come from hardcore/screamo/metal scene. Five years ago I would have known all of the new bands and been following the new trends, but its gotten to the point now where some of these newer acts are genuinely shocking to me. I can't really process how these groups have come to be, and their existence seems like some kind of cosmic joke. A really, really funny cosmic joke. So this week I will be celebrating the new names and faces of this bold new world!! Tremble in fear, anyone over the age of 15!



I don't have too much to say about this particular video, other than I laughed pretty hard and I think its actually decent as a cover. This is a recurring theme among the new breed of screamo bands- a lot of them are actually pretty competent at what they do, it just happens that what they do is incredibly awful.