This is what ensued. Note: be prepared for superfluous language.
It all started with his Facebook status: I heart Anti-Flag. That then drew Green Day comparisons, at which point I jumped in:
Maco: also Green Day are awesome
Conor: hey maco - I worked this out at the Easter Show. if taken ironically, the lyrics to minority could be seen as a parody of emo kids. but since that concept wasnt really around when minority was released...hmm. awkward for green day. im not saying its a bad song, i really like it. but just look at the lyrics and then imagine like my chemical romance singing it. not that MCR are bad either.
Maco: i get what you mean with "I pledge allegiance to the underworld. one nation underdog, there of which I stand alone. a face in the crowd. unsung against the mold. without a doubt, singled out, the only way I know" but the rest of it isn't filled with the socially-perptuated cliched stigmatic imagery that the emo subculture displays, so i would HAVE to disagree with you... perhaps just for the sake of wanting to argue
Conor: ..."Blinded by the silence of a thousand broken hearts" - one line summation of every emo song ever. which i guess furthers the concept that they could be singing it ironically..."Stepped out of the line/Like a sheep runs from the herd" - runaway sheep conjures up the concept of a "black sheep", as in the sheep that never fitted in, as in the sheep dressed in black, as in emo!
Maco: yeah sure man, but what i was implying is that whilst it is emoesque, it is NOT AS intense as contemporary emo music., esp with the more-empowering less-fml lyrics like "You are your own sight". Just check out Welcome to My Life - Simple Plan
"Do you ever feel like breaking down? Do you ever feel out of place? Like somehow you just don't belong and no one understands you Do you ever wanna run away?
Do you lock yourself in your room? With the radio on turned up so loud that no one hears you screaming. No you don't know what it's like. When nothing feels all right. You don't know what it's like to be like me. To be hurt, To feel lost, To be left out in the dark, To be kicked when you're down, To feel like you've been pushed around, To be on the edge of breaking down and no one's there to save youe" basically just everyone hates me, FML FML FML!!!!!! as opposed to Minority's societal severance ie. rather than depression, it's exhilarated segregation.
Conor: aha but i never brought up simple plan as a counter, nor as an example of any kind. and that one line of "you are your own sight" is no defence for the entire song. that could be some symbol for tears of pain. think about it. i didn't. and exhilarated segregation? that is an interesting descriptor you have there maco. sounds like you've read too much emily dickinson....
if i were to compress minority into a likewise concept it would be an anti-establishment/punk sentimentality about it but containing the underlying sentiment of contradiction, in that it acts to create a divisive sect of society but in essence thus acts to create a majority out of its minority and undermining the very nature of the song itself. and whilst this paradox (emily dickinson again!) is evident, the song is set to the lyricism of an emo prototype, that being a devoid category of punk devoted to the microcosm of self, and yet parading it as a banner of individuality echoes the phrase --"you're unique, just like everyone else".
so it has been established that minority is a punkish song that is essentially an emo prototype. it has also been established that the genre of emo music is a paradox within itself.
Maco: essentially minority was intentionally written with underlying punk ideologies; merely manifested in a means that was evidently open to exposition, as reflected in your superfluous retort. thus it can be said that it is only analogously emo.
Conor: so you agree with my analysis of "the emo paradox", as I have just named it, yet distance minority from this paradox? cause the song itself has an internal paradox that is irretrievably linked to the emo paradox. and yes, I agree regarding the exposition point you make. analogously emo? i dont know if that is the right phrase, because i don't think one would make a direct comparison between green day and simple plan, but rather see green day as a distant predecessor.
so, from the both of us:
- green day is not NECESSARILY emo, but rests in punk values
- minority is a song that reflects the emo sentiment, albeit a bit watered down and perhaps disjointed from the nature of the emo
[side note for later discussion: i dont see why bands would promote themselves as being "punk" when the very nature of punk, as made so in 1977, was one of no musical talent (see Sex Pistols - awesome tunes), whereby the underlying principle was to just make music. as in just to piss people off or to make a statement (SP once more). that said, many bands that would typically be defined as punk, I would disagree with on the basis that they had musical integrity, e.g. The Clash are not punk per say but alternative & punk that is infused with reggae influences.]
Maco: i agree with your analysis of "the emo paradox" not within minority, but perceive that its existence is most probably a common misconception amongst 90s punk. on that note [no pun intended], go watch "Punk's Not Dead" and all will be revealed
Conor: agreed. sort of. i won't admit misconception on my part, but perhaps on the musicians or the social context.
Ryan: jack reid!
Link: Minority [MP3]
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