Is there a worldwide conspiracy to turn teenagers into Emos?

I can only give my perspective and experience from my own country.I have been noting a trend of late and wanted to see how universal it actually was.



Every one of the middle class white 13 year olds I have come across have taken on the corperate bastardised version of what was once an underground scene. Maybe because its that or Justin Timberlake

They all take on the negative stereotypes perpetuated by the media. Most think cutting themselves is cool. There have been a few teenagers who have commited suicide in my country and the media reported that they were influenced by the what I think is the corperate disease of emoitis


One of the mainstream groups that gets called emo, though there is arguments over that is called My Chemical Romance. Their record label is Reprise records which was created by Frank Sinatra and part of the Warner group.

en.wikipedia.org...




So these companies make money from perpetuating a false youth subculture which encourages them to actively do harm to themselves.


Quite clever cause we just sit back and make parallels to past generation teenage sub culture shocks. This one is different in so many ways though and if you have come across a teen in the throws of corperate emoism you will know what I mean.



I doubt its like this everywhere but I wanted to see if it has happened anywhere else and if it will ever go away?

Of course it will go away. I'm 19, myself.. so, i know that hormones can make people depressed during teens, because some people don't quite get what is happening to them in regards to the inside of the body, and are oblivious to what chemicals in your body can actually do.. they will blame it on thier situation, or people around them, when the problem is themselves.

Emo music has no depth, no staying power.. it has to pass. It's much like pop-music, in regards to artists like Justin Timberlake, as you mentioned, and Britney Spears and other incredibly dense people like that.. they have talent, but nothing of importance to say. Emo-ism will pass, it's a phase.. it's only recently surfaced aswell, after the whole Indie phase, which is slowly but surely (thank god) dissapearing.

People should be whatever they want, instead of worrying about what their peers think. I wear make-up and clothes made for girls because i feel it's how i should look.. and i'm damn proud of it

If your from the UK, i wouldn't pay any attention to the recent music scene.. it's all commercialised, much like the pop-scene. Both are brainless, with very, very few actual bands worth listening to, that inspire those few of us who realise how brilliant they are, regardless of style.

And in reply to "So these companies make money from perpetuating a false youth subculture which encourages them to actively do harm to themselves,"

It is true, but you should know by now, that money apparently, is more important than a persons well being. lol, it's horrible, but, the Government make it is so.. the same way they wouldn't give Alzhiemers patients the medication to prevent the condition from escalating on the NHS, because it was £2 extra or something. Bloody ridiculous.. but, that's the sad state of society today.

[edit on 6-10-2007 by Alesanjin]

Originally posted by Alesanjin

If your from the UK, i wouldn't pay any attention to the recent music scene.. it's all commercialised, much like the pop-scene. Both are brainless, with very, very few actual bands worth listening to, that inspire those few of us who realise how brilliant they are, regardless of style.

I disagree.
As a musician I have seen an awfull lot of good bands emerge over the last few years which is such a breath of fresh air from the bedroom computer musicians and Rap artists.
At the end of the last decade I despaired of there ever being any decent musicians coming through but fortunatley people began playing instruments again instead of sitting down in front of a computer screen with 'band in a box'

Emo? Goth?

is there really that much of a difference?


there be Goth-Emos?


I've noticed just as many kids if not more think they are gangstalicious... (gangstaricious for my engrish 2nd language friends)


And what exactly is a Chav? Is that just a UK version of a wannabe gangsta?

More or less yes they're similar to Hillbilly's, Southerners who (I'm not being racist here, just trying to give the general idea). Similar to say 'Trailor Parkers'. They generally listen to rap tho and carry a loaded BB gun for the 'lolz', well at least in my area they do.

I've wondered if there isn't some sort of actual mental depressant issue going on however if you were more into the serious side of the discussion - in my day anti-depressants were BAD, you were the devil if you took them and were practically spat on in the street. These days everyone and their kids is on Prozac or Ritalin. Are they medicating us into a depressive oblivion so we don't fight back when the time comes? Seems weirdly convenient to me. Half the kids in my primary school would have been given Ritalin if they were born today, but most of them turned out normal without medication, just had trouble as a kid or being a bit hyperactive was'all.

It's like all the hormones in the water, that can't be good to mix with other medication surely, or the flouride that is actually disposed chemical waste. Why the hell are WE drinking it? Always makes me wonder what GWB and his fellows drink.

Emo is just a trend about fashion, not following mainstream, attitude, and etc.
It is just like the majority of kids that listen to hip-hop, punk rock, house and all the other music types. They tend to dress the same as the people they see on television, act the same and hang with the same crowd.
Majority of people grow out of this phase, like my sister and cousins which were all emo at one point, now they act like everyone else.

My son, whos 13, has a best friend that weve known since he was about 6 and ever since weve known them his mom has had him on a ritalin type drug and zoloft.
This poor kid runs with the emo group at school, which caused my son to have some conflicting feelings because he had always thought that group was kind of "out there" but ive always tried to teach him not to judge by looks but by whats in a persons heart.
So even though he doesnt dress or act the part, he does hang with them and also ended up with an emo girlfriend, black lipstick and all..
However, once the constant, crying, I hate my mother phone calls started he kind of started to lose interest.. Emo= Emotional, meaning they REALLY over-emphasize ALL of their emotions.. sadness, anger, happiness, etc.. is in overdrive all the time..
He was able to pretty much tolerate her until she called him up while she was "cutting" herself after a fight with her mom..
My son and I have a really great relationship and when I told him that he really, really didnt need that kind of BS, he completely agreed...

Cutters; I just dont get it

yeah i dont get it im 18 and emo kids were the kids we used to take...err..."borrow" money from. im just so confused imean when i was 13 i used to get mad at my parents but i wouldnt cut myself...imean how does that help the situation. i dont understand what the government would accomplish by turning kids emo unless they wanted pictures of flowers crying and stuff. P.S kronos ritilan is very bad its medical meth i used to be on it and my dad got me off of it and explained to me later that i shouldnt have been on it cause my moms a meth head.

reply to post by justanothergangster

i used to be on it and my dad got me off of it and explained to me later that i shouldnt have been on it cause my moms a meth head.

Sorry to hear that..
I did know what ritalin was, when my son was about 5 he went to my doctor with me for a checkup. My son was a little, well a lot, hyper when he was younger and when MY doctor seen him running around the office lol, he wrote me a HUGE script for ritalin. He is a great kid, a normal 13 year old and a straight A student now.. I really do hate doctors!
Of course my ignorant, now X wife, wanted to give it to him right away but I was very skeptical.. I kept it in a cabinet for a few days and ended up pouring them out..
Anyway, what really shocked me about my sons friend, even more than the ritalin, was the fact that she also had him on zoloft..
One day I decided to print out tons of literature on the negative effects of these drugs on children and take it to his mom..
She wasnt very appreciative lol, she turned kind of cold to me after that..

"yeah!! emo babes are so hot...what?...they're what??...boys?? you're kiddin'...I just threw up in my mouh!"

Mod Note: One Line and Short Posts – Please Review This Link.
Mod Note: Please Stay on Topic


[edit on 12-10-2007 by DontTreadOnMe]

This too, shall pass.
I didn't end up an acid head forever from the 60's, nor did I keep the gold medallion and coke spoon from the disco daze. I put a "c" in front of "rap" very early on, though I still enjoy the very earliest and latest of the genre.
Emo just seems to be the modern "bad country" music, the "sitting in a bar because my girl done left me my truck broke down so I'm crying in my beer and my dog has fleas" stuff.
This too shall pass.

I've got a couple of teenagers, so I'm familiar with the word "emo". But every time I hear it, I think of this guy-



Emo Phillips. Who I'd just like to beat with a stick.

Fortunately for me, my kids aren't into the whole emo thing. Now my daughter can do drama like nobody since Bette Davis, but she's not what I'd call emo.

It's a fad, and like any fad, will run its course. And only a conspiracy in that if someone somewhere can make a buck marketing to a particular niche, it'll happen. And of course, once it becomes a revenue stream, there will be some corporate incentive somewhere to encourage it.

I wish my lawn was emo so it would cut itself.

It's just a stupid trend like grunge was when I was young. Some fools will end up taking it too far and either killing themselves or getting hooked on some drug but that's just natural selection.

Personally I have never really cared one bit about music or bands or whatever "scene" happens to be going on around me. I loved the little cliques it created though. Especially the ones who thought that conforming to a group somehow counted as non-conformity

If "emo" is anything it's sybolic of the greater woos-ification of society. It's bad enough so many group up into cliques like sheep but now they have to be weak and limp-wristed like sheep too?

If watching stupid kids do stupid things has taught me anything though it's that sooner or later a counter "scene" will pop-up. Probably violent and angry to make up for the poems and haircuts with bangs that are now so prevalent.

Then we all get to hear about kids getting into fights and binge drinking and whatever.

I guess people's desire to belong is more powerful than people's common sense.

What's so special about an alcoholic who plays guitar? A series of jackasses who generally end up choking to death on their own vomit. Yeah, that screams of cool.

To think of all the money that sort of circus brings in makes my hair stand on end.

I happen to agree with the original poster: I think almost every teenage Movement since the 60s has been manipulated into being self destructive, pointless and profitable. Cant have kids thinking learning and fighting for your rights is cool can ya? too many hormones, too much chance they will actually get up and fight for them, so they "must" be controlled.
Plus if kids were learning their history and how much they had lost of their freedom, they wouldn't be buying all the cheap to make(*), talentless crap spewing forth like a projectile vomit from the mainstream music/fashion/media industry, and might actually buy music etc from talented groups that are harder to suck into profitable (for the music industry, not the musician) contracts...

(this from a professional muso)

(*) its cheap because a talentless tone deaf hack who's voice can be "fixed" with pitch shifting and effects on a computer and who's lack of talent with an instrument can be replaced with session musos is easier to sign to a crappy deal than someone with an actual bargaining chip called talent...

I'm a hardcore kid of old and I know for a fact that this "emo" thing is already on it's way out. Besides all the tight jeans and hair dye, there is really a solid set of music behind these kids, and music of which these kids have no idea about. It is a huge marketing fad but I think it's less a general conspiracy rather than the snowball affect of profiting from trends. It'll come to pass.

I really do feel this teen sub culture is nothing like what has come before previously.


Again it seems a worldwide movement, I forgot to mention Im in Australia and it usually takes a while for fads to get here, not this one though.


There is peer pressure with this group to cut oneself and be terminally depressed. It is worn as a badge of honour. The ones that take their own lives get martyrdom.

Being put on anti depressants is seen as cool.

These kids being labelled with mental health issues, will infringe on future career options for them.

A big one I noticed in the States is that these kids wont ever be able to own firearms with new mental health stipulations. A basic American right taken away.

In the future they may even not be allowed to vote if they change the laws to stop people with mental health issues from voting.

The evidence suggests these kids are being set up to take a major fall.

*sigh*

My Chemical Romance isn't emo... it's Pop/Punk.

None of these black-clad, eyeliner wearing teenagers are 'emo'...

True emo music was a product of the late 80's / early 90's punk scene, a small and unloved music genre that the modern media has taken and butchered.

The Origins of Emo

Kids wanting to be 'emo' is simply a lame fad that will pass. They have no clue to the real music behind it, nor probably want to. Just ignore them and they will go away.

I covered that so no need to sigh


I was talking about the corperate monster and thought i had made a clear deffinition of the two.


Its not a thread about the true origins of the emo scene,there are enough of those out there on music forums.


This is about an orchestrated bullcrap scene created by warner music to bring down teens to a quivering psycological mess.

I for one dont wish to forget about them, I worry that they are being set up

reply to post by KTK


So your saying that reprise records, is a organization that influences kids to act depressed, to make them think that being depressed is cool? some bands do that, not an entire record company unless they want to get shut down..

What makes sense to me, when i see that band my chem romance is-
1. that band is pretending to be " goth"
2. kids think there music is " hard core" ( i have listened to more " hard core music)"

If any kid gets influenced by a fake band. Then the kid is fake as well.

and yes kids to that, where i live, when i was in high-school they did that..but they did it to BE cool, not becouse they were angry or severely depressed, only to make people think they are suffering because, that was a way to get attention. some go to extreams , some cut them selfs, some take pills/drugs and so on.

It's another stupid fad. the " rock" " goth" thing is in, most people are trying to achieve this way of life, but only a select few can be a true rocker and/or a true goth, it has nothing to do with the music, nothing to do with the way they dress, its something inside you, that has been inside you since you knew how to crawl, Just becouse you ware chains and die your hair, cut your self, and look like a euro rocker , or ware all black, dose not mean anything about you, anymore in todays world that is..
that is what makes me sick..about how people are at times, just be who you are, if your not this " emo" crowd or whatever it is....then so what? you are not meant to be a hardcore rocker, maybe your meant to be quiet, or reserved, maybe your meant to be a nerd, like Christina Agulara? ( for example) one time i saw this vid of hers and shes dressed like a Goth? the women sings..POP music..not GOTH music, and acts nothing like a GOTH, one day she is dressed like a heavy metalist one day she is dressed like a goth one day she is dressed like a virgin..so.........again.......why not be who you really are?



People are stupid what more can i say?

reply to post by KTK


I think you're taking this a little too seriously. Look at punk rock. Punk rock hit in the mid 70's and was a subculture epidemic! It's still lingering around and it's predecessor; hardcore is probably the only reason I have my head on as straight as I do.

It's not like kids are blowing their brains out left and right. They seem bummed but as real as it seems, it's just your average, angst filled teenage front. Like goth, punk, now emo... It's all relative to the rise and fall of any popular teenage trend.