Comments on Emo Hunts

Please Jesus, let us have those here.

And after that can we have hipster hunts?

No, if that happened, Capitol Hill would be empty.

Japanese pop star hunts!

clueless in MO: How does one identify an emo?

Funniest. Thing. EVER!

Mexicans rule.

More recent reports state that the emos have begun to fight back against the other “urban tribes” and organised marches in Guadalajara and Mexico City, escalating the violence and leading to increased police presence.

Anyone else read this and think "Clockwork Orange"? But more importantly... what's emo?

the emos have begun to fight back against the other “urban tribes”

Woo-hoo. Mods vs. rockers, 2008-style.

The Lord has finally answered my prayers! Gracias, Cristo, por su ayuda.

Sven and Mike: check out the article, it comes with a nice little diagram illustrating the emo look.

Rectangles Rock! Fuck you, circles and hexagons! Eat my shit!

Go the Intersections blog-he has a link right at the top of the paragraph to this: http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Emo.

According to this site, to be emo... just be a typical whiny teenager, and presto!

I gots no love for the emos myself, but unless having a generally annoying aura is somehow harmful to other people, I don't see the need for physical retaliation. (Just buy one of my favorite T-shirts: "Cheer up emo kid.")

Anybody actually able to translate the YouTube video? I speak only the language of the emo motherland-Japanese.

Reminds me of the opening scene from Velvet Goldmine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGx0Hk9uU74

I've seen like a million kids dressed like the ones in those pictures. What do you hate them for? What's the deal?

I guess I'm behind the new trend times... I didn't realize you could identify as "an emo" I just thought people were emo or listened to emo music. I feel so old and out of the loop.

Don't let size fool you--they're almost as nasty as Ostriches.

When will they address the real issue affecting the cities and streets of Mexico – the scourge of chupacabra on chupacabra violence?

*crosses arms*

fuckin' kids

*shakes head*

I like that idea. Find members of a group with which you don't identify and beat the living crap out of them. Only I think that it's been done before, if memory serves.

This is sharks and jets style shit. With just as much singing and even more hairspray.

Dudebros hate emos because they're only a few steps away from acting gay. Scary!

Kids stopped dressing emo in Seattle in 2004. Which means emo is big in Mexico in 2008, it'll be 2011 for MO, and about 2014 for the eastside.

This is pretty much exactly like gay bashing. going out hunting strangers who seem to look like someone who's lifestlye you object to.

What is an emo anyway? I think someone told me it was just a whinier goth kid.

Anyone who listens to music that shitty deserves to have at least a bit of sense beaten in to them.

But of course, there's a significant chance that if I was a teenager now, I'd be pretty emo myself. Nonetheless, the thought of slapping some emo kid and screaming "Stop listening to Panic at the Disco - that is NOT acceptable music!" excites me.

@17 - I know what you're hinting at, but you're 100% off base. Being emo is a choice.

It all makes me kinda long for the days when all the freaks hung out, no matter if you were metal or nerd or bat caver.

They are hunting down and beating up Sunny Day Real Estate fans? That's horrible!

I assume The Lashes are in hiding now?

Hernandez, you are carrying a lot of anger around, do you know that? It ain't normal to be like that. If I were you I would be thinking on that and not worrying about whether or not some people like music you don't like.

are the people on this board cheering this on the same kind of people who laughed when the kid got shot in the head in "Wassup Rockers"?

seriously, who cares if these kids are annoying, whiny teenagers? you were too. in fact, you totally sucked as a teenager. but did you have city-wide pogroms after you? this is fucked up. it makes me wish I was still a teenage kid with a caesar hair cut just so I could feel really justified in what's going on there.

I thought they were an endangered species ...

Elenchos, I think you're taking my comments waaaay too seriously. I have no intentions of beating someone up for their taste in music. I'm a Phil Collins fan, for christ sake! If anyone should get beat up for their musical tastes, it's me!

..."justified in being angry about what's going on there".

sorry.

But if they're not serious, and they're not funny, then why say anything?

@29 said "I'm a Phil Collins fan, for christ sake! If anyone should get beat up for their musical tastes, it's me!"

Hell yes. Where can we find you?

I'll the first to admit that I frequently say stupid shit on here, but I have to tell all you asshats, that this shit isn't funny.

Substitute "Jew" for "Emo" and it's the same shit that spewed forth from Aryan Youth mouths, 70 years ago.

I don't get it. I always thought Emo Phillips was funny as fuck.

Michael Strangeways:

one isn't born an EMO

thanks for playing.

OK, I take back my earlier remarks. I don't condone violence and don't want to be perceived as condoning violence, and yes, often I try to be funny when I'm not.

But comparing this to what happened to Jews during WWII is really offensive. These people in Mexico aren't being attacked because of an immutable characteristic. These kids could go home, change clothes, and then they'd be left alone. You can't just "change" your ethnicity like that. It's a bad comparison.

Anyone know where to find a good Emo Delicatessen in this town?

Nope.

Doesn't work, MS.

Leave EMO alone!

But WHY should anyone want them to change their clothes?!? WHY? What have they done to you or to anybody?

It's just seriously fucked up that you're even seeing a problem here. It is not healthy.

Actually, Big Sven, MY first thought was, "Guerreros! ¡Salga y jueeeegue!"

elenchos is right. There is no reason that they should have to change their clothes to stop from being attacked. It might be good sense to do so, but the message that it sends is that it is okay to use violence to mold the world around you, as you see fit.

if we can't substitute Emo kids for Jews (yeah, it's bit of a stretch), I think we can for Communists, intellectuals and jazz fans, right? does that sit better with the apologists on this board? do we have to split hairs?

being Emo is a choice, but being a dejected kid looking for subcultural acceptance, despite it's lameness, is universal. as funny as a Juggalo holocaust sounds, if it really started, I don't think we'd be fucking laughing about it.

How different are Emo kids than the kids in our day hat listened to The Smiths and The Cure?

I think the Emo bashers have a bit of suppressed Emo tendencies themselves.

Umm...I didn't say anything as to whether they should change their clothes, but I don't consider clothing choices to be sacred, so I have a hard time sympathizing with those who do. All I said was that they could change clothes to avoid being attacked, whereas a Jew can't change being a Jew.

And if you were down there, wouldn't you consider wearing something different for a couple of days, perhaps until the crowds dispersed? Nothing wrong with a little self-preservation if one has the option.

My name is Hernandez, and I've had a fun time being the target of your ire today. Thanks!

What do Jews look like?

They have horns, or so I've been told.

What do Emo kids look like?

Bobcat: you're an ass.

By your inane logic, a non-Jew who converted to Judaism would be worth of a public beating or death because they CHOSE to be Jewish.

There's humor to be found in almost every aspect of life, but people being beaten or killed isn't really a subject for ha-ha humor. And what the fuck difference does it make if you're Jewish, gay, emo, or choose to butter your bread from left to right instead of right to left; beating and killing ANYONE because they're different from you is wrong. An emo shouldn't have to change clothes, or a gay man stay in the closet or a Jew have to change his name from Rosenburg to Robinson in order to fit in. It's ALL fucked up.

@36: For what it's worth, I didn't perceive you as violent, just as a bigot. And I wouldn't compare this to someone attacking a jew, more like someone attacking a drag queen. I don't know why choosing to be a drag queen, or dress emo should make beating you up any more justified, maybe you can explain?

Calmate Hernandez... Tienes razon : )

That was a weird news clip. Las Krishnah's in the middle of all it is not your typical sighting here in Mexico. What a bunch of hype.

I think the whole story is a little exaggerated. I have no doubt that some of this is happening here in Mexico but it's not like that big of deal here.
I just called several friends to ask them if they have ever even heard of Emos being persecuted and non of them have.
We just had a big Emo concert here in town and nothing violent happened.
The news has a way of making something look like a huge deal when it's not.

I lived through several small LA earthquakes and seeing them on the news later you would have thought the whole city was going to fall into the ocean! They were small and not a big deal just like this Emo thing here in Mexico.
I'm not buyin it!

Emo doesn't exist any longer...for a few years in the late '80s emo(core) was a vein of hardcore, it sprang up during DC's Revolution Summer of '85, Gray Matter and Rites Of Spring were the ONLY emo groups at the start, culturally those bands were meant to be a crossroads as hardcore's relevance ended around that time. Soon a few more emo bands...Moss Icon, the Hated, etc. popped up...eventually the white belts of Antioch Arrow took the sound to a natural end and finished what DC had started. Emo was exclusively a post hardcore event, neither the Smiths nor anything "goth" had anything to do with it. What ever "emo" might be now has NOTHING to do with what emo is/was, and the contemporary use of the word means something completely different. I don't know exactly how the term was resurrected to have anything to do with the last 12 or so years of vapid, CRAPPY pop punk played by kids dressed as if the Misfits shopped at the mall, but I bet it was an idiot music writer. It's a pity about the poor kids in Mexico...and the UK...was it really a group of "punks" that beat up the goth girl? or Chavs? the chavs hate the goths!

Thanks, nipper. Now I'm hopelessly confused.

Although I'm pretty sure it's all a simple misunderstanding that could be easily sorted out with gun violence.

nipper, emotional is fairly widely accepted as one of the more popular genres of music over the past ten years.

it IS confusing...kinda like how in the '60s the US verion of Mod had nothing to do with the UK verion. It's that the WORD sounds cool and "fitting" to pop culture writers so it is taken and recontexualized as cliche and ends up being a broad somewhat meaningless catchall word.

emo wall

emo album cover

@ 52 but it has NOTHING to do with emoCORE. It's NOT emo as it was originally, NOW it is pop punk, or something like it...emo ORIGNALLY was post hardcore, but still quite hardcore. I don't care if it IS widely "accepted" the TERM is use incorrectly. Have you ever heard any emo? Rites of Spring or Gray Matter...the Hated? Where were you in 1985?

damn, Nipper. I was really hoping we could get through this thread without someone throwing out the obligatory "history of Emo" rant. so these kids probably don't listen to UOA or Rites of Spring or whatever... the people that did never called themselves "emo". it was almost exclusively a pejorative (I know from personal experience). it doesn't change the fact that a bunch of dumb kids into My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy now identify themselves as Emo willingly. by saying emo doesn't exist ignores the last 5+ years of popular culture. Emo is here and it pretty much sucks.

and there are plenty of emotional post hardcore bands arounf these days too.

What's the matter with kids today?

If the definition of a word is widely accepted, then that's what the word means. Be a good sport about that.

I still want to understand where all the anger at emo comes from, if anybody knows.

Judging from the video clip, it's because they look slightly effeminate.

@56 I usually save it for Line Out. And I've spent the last 25 years+ ignoring pop culture, and post Green Day even more so...now with uh, "emo(s)" and juggalos, um, serisously. Also, it's a pity about those contemporary emotional post hardcore bands. Eeesh!

BTW - a good point, no one in the '80s was known as emo.

PS - My band at the time '92, I think, played w/UOA @ their second show.

NapoleonXIV @ 59,

Yes, I am surrounded by teenagers, when the emo kids get beaten up at school it's because they are "gay".

I now think my 15 year nephew is an emo kid.

Before today, I would never have known.

I guess hunting down and killing emo kids is a bad thing, after all.

I didn't see it noted anywhere that Megan posted this yesterday on LineOut.

Current emo, is the new hair metal. Just as dudes who bemoaned the death of "true metal," post-hardcore has met its Poison. Look forward to Pete Wentz dating/reality shows in twelve years or so after the emo boom goes bust.

I guess you guys didnt pay attention to the news cast. or cant understand spanish. The kids doing the hunting are punkeros and metaleros which are as outside of mexican mainstream as Emos. these punkeros are the equivalent of US gutter punks. Emos in Mexico are not the same as wimpy Emos here. In Mexico They fight back and will cap your ass. Watch the film, the ones doing the running are not the Emos but the punkeros who showed up to hurt them. The emos rained bottles on them.

You see some emos, punkeros, metaleros, oscuros and other chavos bandas in mexico. these are kids fighting each other not mainstream mexican society going emo hunting.

First they came for the Goths, but I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Goth.

Then they came for the emo kids, but I didn't speak up, because I wasn't an emo kid...

I somehow thought slog commenters would be more sensitive to the idea of people beating on people they don't like.

@ 67: Hear fucking hear.

Orangekrush@23:

It all makes me kinda long for the days when all the freaks hung out, no matter if you were metal or nerd or bat caver.

You went to a much more progressive high school than I did. At my school, circa 1985, the punks and the skids (metal heads) had nothing to do with each other. Didn't fight, just each thought the other were poser dipshits.

SeMe@65: at last! Actual information! Thanks.

Yeah man, it amazes me that people are posting all these comments on something they didnt understand. the newscast is very clear: Punk rock kids showed up to fight the EMOS. these are alt kids fighting each other. greasers against greasers.

goths, skaters, and emos in mexico are NOT the same as here. they will kick your ass. you see them all over the DF hanging out. wacth the film amores perros or el amore duele.

that should be El amor duele.

Dan,

It's worth noting that most of the emos in D.F. happen to be gay, at least from what I discovered while out there for a couple of weeks last year. And the Emos tend to converge on Zona Rosa, the gay 'hood, hanging with their fag hags. So this is as much about fag bashing as the Emo thing... But is that detail getting much play in the press?

This is very weird. The Metro station where the Mexico City footage was taken is (Glorieta de) Insurgentes, which is pretty much Broadway circa 1995 in-the-round, a very tolerant and peaceful (and busy) place. I don't know about the Queretaro riot, but I would imagine that a certain amount of homophobia would be tied up in this out in the sticks, at least. Anyone pulling any gaybashing at Insurgentes would probably get their ass handed to them by a majority of bystanders, which seems to be what was happening in the video. (Only yards away from the scene in the clip is a long strand of stands selling pirated gay DVDs patronized by hundreds of dudes at a time, of all ages.) By the way Insurgentes and the bottom of the Zona Rosa in general is an awesome neighborhood, very diverse, cosmopolitan, and friendly and one the only place in the whole country I have witnessed gay PDA.

wow we should have prep hunts now.i cant stand emos or preps they both suck and both need to get lives

emos need to get over them selves and find a new way to get attention cuz the cutting thing is as queer as shit and makes them look pathetic so i have no sympathy for them at all