Newscasts around the country have gotten a lot of mileage out of exposés on the alarming "emo lifestyle" over the past few years–remember this gem?–but the tide of emosploitation might be turning. Last week, Fox News in Chicago ran a mostly positive story on local band Addison Park and the brewing "emo backlash." Apparently, looking funny in high school can get your ass kicked nowadays! Besides incorporating bongos into emo–surely a huge leap forward for the genre–Addison Park deserves credit for moaning about getting hassled by jocks while themselves picking on the other, "mopey" emo kids (i.e. the ones with worse acne and less of mommy's money). Some of the clip's highlights:
"It's also, they say, EMO-tional music."
"The mopey kids sit in a corner and write these completely apathetic, you know, blogs online."
"Everything is falling apart, and, like, birds are dying. Birds are dying."
"These kids have started to dress in, like, suction-tight jeans."
"That's what people see as emo, the pouting people in public."
"I've had a couple of bros, you know, kinda hassle me. 'No, you can't write music like that. It's not manly, dude. Bud Light, dude.'"
"I just love the essence of art."
"Their big emo break could be just around the corner, and that will no doubt make them very EMO-tional."
Also, this just in: Green Day is "emo-esque."