They Said “All Teenagers Scare The Living S*** Out Of Me”

Emo music has been criticised for its male dominance and its tendency to depict women as the heartbreaker, and even purportedly expressing violent anti-women sentiments.

It is beyond argument that many Emo songs are songs about heartbreak and express particularly furious and potentially violent thoughts. See, for example, an excerpt of “Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today”, a single from Fall Out Boy’s 2003 album “Take this to your Grave”:

‘Let’s play this game called “when you catch fire”
I wouldn’t piss to put you out
Stop burning bridges and drive off of them
So I can forget about you

‘So bury me in memory
His smile’s your rope
So wrap it tight around your throat’

While I will put forward the idea that many songs from other genres are angry, break up songs, I will not argue the particular degrees of hatred some Emo songs do put forward. It is an extreme example, and not all Emo songs about heartbreak are quite so violent. However it can be argued that people who listen to this particular type of music in times of distress and heartbreak use it moreso as a form of therapy rather than a list of ideas for revenge. In fact, Emo music is widely criticised for promoting depression and self-harm, yet I would argue that the more mainstream songs about heartbreak tend to be far more depressing. Some of these so-called “violent” Emo songs actually have a sense of empowerment, by not moping around but by saying “Hey, I was better than you anyway!” Just look at Panic At the Disco’s “Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off”:

‘I've got more wit, a better kiss, a hotter touch, a better f***

Than any boy you'll ever meet, sweetie you had me

Girl I was it, look past the sweat, a better love deserving of

Exchanging body heat in the passenger seat?

No, no, no, you know it will always just be me’

Furthermore, it is a gross generalisation that ALL Emo songs are angry songs about heartbreak. Consider songs like “Stolen” by Dashboard Confessional, “Hallelujah” by Paramore, and “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance.

And the argument that the songs promote violent anti-women sentiments? Look no further than The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ single “Face Down”, which expresses the polar opposite thought:

‘Do you feel like a man when you push her around?

Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?

Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end

as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.’

With regards to male domination, I won’t argue that in the past, the Emo scene has been dominated by males, focusing on women as the heartbreakers, but recent years have seen the rise of female fronted bands such as Paramore, who no longer portray women as the muse.