starting to get emo
lyskoi:
as far as I can tell from this tour, emo is constituted by its engine of supposedly vulnerable masculinity; all of its content only attains value or currency. by self-congratulatory being not-hardcore, not-pop-punk, and not-post-rock, emo revival has enabled a ton of men to make whatever they want, united only by their similar approach to masculinity through vulnerability. (it has obviously also enabled a lot of other people to make art that are not-men, I do not have an analysis on this yet.)
none of the men, obviously, contain the formulas for unmaking the fundamentally toxic thing that unites them; instead, their supposed rejection of standard ways for masculinity to embody harm allows them robust credibility. it enables them to navigate critiques of masculinity and patriarchy as minor roadblocks, to be surmounted to by their sense of humor, or their fancy guitar playing, or their throwback to the 90s - a time too distant to be comprehensible but still too soon to analyze wisely.
I’m thinking about the brave not-men I know who are deep into this music, who still find things of value in its emotional register despite its instability and untrustworthiness. Also thinking about not-men musicians who are doing work within emo and struggling for their own visibility and ability to be meaningful, whether within straight emo itself, or within this weird not-straight emo thing that seems to be organizing itself consistently and steadily along lines I don’t entirely yet understand. I listening to you, I hear you, and I am not wise enough yet to speak on the work you’re doing.
these are my observations from being on this tour with the get up kids and my last trip with the world is, from witnessing work I admire in emo from people who are not straight, from having been exposed to emo and folk punk simultaneously since about 2011, from playing guitar in the hotelier for a sec there, from going to my first show to see algernon cadwallader back in 08. if you wanna play the cred game with me, I can play. but don’t.
it’s a losing game and I’m in awe of certain people playing, mistrustful of those who are winning, and worried for all of the rest of us. I hope you get what you need in this.
(via )
