What are you thinking?

ahah yes Jules there is something undeniable about the image MCR created for themselves. That's why whenever I argue MCR's vision, I do keep in mind that to know MCR's true selves people have to look beyond the surface.

So I think, if I were to be part of the protest, I'd also want Daily Mail journalists (all journalists actually) to become aware that they can't do hasty research & pack it into an article.

As for MCR fans being an 'army', I don't how other people interpret it or how seriously they take it. I guess it's just a word to unify the group of fans who back up MCR...and the protest is a peaceful one too, so I see it as a chance to let our voices be heard in disagreement with the Daily Mail. It will be slack of the Daily Mail to ignore the protest or disregard it, because we, the public is who they're concerned with & WE the public, are the point of publishing a newspaper.

'Taking away music' will never happen in a dictatorship-like level of course...but the newspaper will steer its audiences (in this case- parents of teenagers) in that sort of direction- with misleading information about MCR. It'll affect parents' decisions in bringing up their kids. The thought of that really irks me! Now, I will sound like a bitter old grouch, but I reckon I've suffered enough from the lack of freedom, where my parents banned/disagreed with basically all pop culture because they may be potentially harmful to me. I don't want kids to experience my story.

MCR may be harmful if kids get the wrong idea, but it is the parents' job to help children mature while guiding them to see both positives and negatives in pop culture like bands. Therefore, bands shouldn't be blamed!

ta da! i've reached my point...I felt like there was something left unsaid in my last post ahaha.

& in response to your last 2 paragraphs Jules-
yes MCR is a band and if you simply compare it with all the world events/needs, protesting for a band shouldn't even be on the agenda. But what i'm getting at here, that MCR is more than just music but they send out a message that influence people in the way they live their lives. Now I think that's pretty important. It's always hard for bands to cop it from the media when they are just trying to make a difference (for those who incorporate that goal into their music), but it'll be pretty pointless if they just shrink into a corner and go, "ouch they're hurting us, we must deal with the hurt in our feelings". There's gotta be action happening!

Just like Avril quoted, ""be yourselves, dont take anyones shit and never let them take you alive."

^^ well said Amy.
thats my favouritest MCR quote ever

zacky vengeance:

I cant believe this.
I just found out a great friend of mines brother and his mate
got into some serious car crash just last night. His mum is dead
and their in both serious condition on the vurge of living or dying.
My friend, im too scared to talk to her cause i dont want to
see her all sad
if he passes, everyone will never be the same everyone in my
suburb & my family. Me and his sister are like sisters and we call eachother
cousins and she calls my mum her aunty see his family is kind of like my family also.
its sad really

Alright you know that accident
yeah i just found out from my friend that he
needs to get his leg amputated and has holes in his lungs
and is parylyzed from the waist down
he is in intensive care and has been for 12 hours
His friends mum died and his friend broke his back and is iternal bleeding
i hope he lives, hes a sweet kid

CAcT '-.-' tux:

MCR may be harmful if kids get the wrong idea, but it is the parents' job to help children mature while guiding them to see both positives and negatives in pop culture like bands. Therefore, bands shouldn't be blamed!

ta da! i've reached my point...I felt like there was something left unsaid in my last post ahaha.

& in response to your last 2 paragraphs Jules-
yes MCR is a band and if you simply compare it with all the world events/needs, protesting for a band shouldn't even be on the agenda. But what i'm getting at here, that MCR is more than just music but they send out a message that influence people in the way they live their lives. Now I think that's pretty important. It's always hard for bands to cop it from the media when they are just trying to make a differenceor those who incorporate that goal into their music), but it'll be pretty pointless if they just shrink into a corner and go, "ouch they're hurting us, we must deal with the hurt in our feelings". There's gotta be action happening!

Just like Avril quoted, ""be yourselves, dont take anyones shit and never let them take you alive."

These points were the ones that striked me the most.
No one is saying any band should be blamed for anything.
But MCR is not the first, and will not be the last, band to be blamed for a 'tragedy.'
And, parent's can only instill their values and teachings into their child up until a certain point, depending on their relationship.
There's always a time where a teenager wants to decide for themselves what's wrong and right, so what their parents may have taught them becomes irrelevant.
I know that was the case for me a few years back. And then I snapped out of that phase, and moved on, and regained a very positive relationship with my parents.
So, I don't think you can blame the parents for this at all.
For the most part, the child makes a decision, based on what they believe is the right way to go.
And that's where bands, and musicians, and other influences surface.
It is because of these other means of relations that a person can be swayed in their decision making.
Which is why MCR get blamed. Because if a fan bases all their principles, morals, values etc. on the message given by MCR, then whilst that particular fan is not very intelligent in my opinion, it's not dissimiliar to that of a parent instilling their own beliefs in their child.

That part in bold - ask any band, band member, musician, artist, actor etc.
I guarantee that almost 98% will say that they never thought they'd actually get famous, or whatever.
In saying that, no band starts out with the ignorant intention of 'saving people's lives'.
They start out because they enjoy music. They want to be famous. They have talent.
Not because they plan to be a superhero.
MCR is not an exception. It has only been since the fandom has literally exploded with comments such as, "MCR saved my life!" that it has really been taken on board by the band themselves.

There are hundreds and thousands of people in this world trying to make a difference.
And I don't mean "make a difference by inspiring young people."
I mean actually do something for the world. You can look at any organisation, and they are the ones with the intention to make a difference.
And yet, they will still be under fire by the media.
You also said MCR is more than just music, because the message they send out influences people to live their lives - that's exactly what I'm saying.
MCR has been a good influence to most of the people you'll find on this board, claiming to be a fan.
But there is without a doubt the flipside, that they have caused trouble for others.
You have to realise that not every sees and believes in MCR the same way you do.
What one fan is does not constitute what another is.

That girl that committed suicide, from what I've read, was a very dumb fan.
She said that self-mutilation was an initiation process into the 'emo culture' or something.
Isn't it obvious that she obviously portrayed MCR in a very different way to you do, or I do, or anyone else?
Whilst you see the band as saviours, others see the band as encouragement to suicide.
It's not always black and white. In fact, it rarely is.

^ omg...i'm so sorry about your friends jess...
I hope with all my heart that they'll have the physical and emotion strength to endure the process of their lives being so traumatically changed...it's so terrible!

earth2themorgue:

thats my favouritest MCR quote ever

might as well be mine too. & lucky I heard it with my own ears at the Luna Park show.

Ok asha, I do take your point, as you do come from a jouralism background. There are some things you said I didn't know about the internal workings of the press. Oh well, I still 100% support the protest for all the other reasons! muwahahha

CAcT '-.-' tux:

Now, I will sound like a bitter old grouch, but I reckon I've suffered enough from the lack of freedom, where my parents banned/disagreed with basically all pop culture because they may be potentially harmful to me. I don't want kids to experience my story.

Don't mean to jump in half way here, but this part reaaaaally got to me. That's being so melodramatic. If that's the worst that a kid goes through, then they're sitting pretty. I'm probably taking this to heart because of the childhood I had, and mine is much too horrific and personal to even contemplate talking about here, to the point that even most best friend of 9 years doesn't know my story, so I wont be giving examples. Let your imagination do its worst. But that's the kind of story I wouldn't want kid to experience. Priorities, people.


And perhaps it's a good idea if kids are prevented from listening to that kind of music when they're young. Kids at a young age generally don't understand metaphors. They hear a song about killing a friend or a lover and they take it literally. And I'm not talking specifically about MCR here, I could name so many bands. HIM is another one which has come under fire lately. When kids are old enough to analyse these things accurately, then by all means go for it. Until then, some [perhaps overzealous] parenting isn't a bad thing.


And really, do you think the band themselves care? They might bat an eyelid at the comments, they may randomly speak out against the paper at a concert, blah blah. But at the end of the day they laugh it off. Because they have their fans, and that's what they care about. Perspective.

Personally, I'm much more interested in protesting about things that matter. Cause I don't care what some shitty paper has to say about a band. And the more I love them, the less I care. I know the truth, the fans know the truth. In the music world, that's the be all and end all.

Jules' post-

ok ok i also take your point about the parent/teenager relationship, which does not conflict with my view at all, since families are different. At this point I'm not sure where our discussion is heading because there's just too many intricacies & uncertainties to argue a right or wrong / black or white.

But let's get back to the article and Daily Mail. I don't know where, but I know the Daily Mail has used labelling such as 'suicide cult' when referring to MCR fans. I think anyone who's involved with the rock music culture would at least scoff or go "pffft" at that label. 'Cult' is so blunt, so inaccurate & shocking...so merciless to use it to describe music audiences & kids.

when 'suicide cult' surfaced, there were complaints & disagreements & "wtf?"'s. But when the Daily Mail follows up on this blown up story of subculture they've created for a 2nd time then a 3rd time, adding more inaccuracy to it...

...like, the 'emo initiation' ceremony. MCR might've been one of the factors in the creation of this 'trend', but its influence is probably as minimal as 5% amongst the many other possible things that are causing kids to harm themselves. So why don't the Daily Mail address other issues too? If they did, I wouldn't be so against this newspaper. And when they put MCR's actual concert picture in the article...that was just slack.

Looking back at the article, MCR was mentioned near the start. I get the feeling that the journalist's aim was to suggest that MCR is the trigger for everything else that went wrong in the girl's life, despite only being a fan for 2 weeks (eg: her pics of teddies hanging themselves, being on internet too often). Hmmmm...very dubious.

The article's last line:
"The Black Parade is a nickname for the place where Emo fans believe they will go when they die."
and a previous line:
"Emo - from the word emotional - is a reference to the angst-filled lyrics and melancholy themes of the rock music central to the culture."

does that make sense???!?? I never noticed it until I started to read the article carefully just then. So what they're saying is definitely, that 'all fans of a genre of rock music called emo (which sings about melancholy themes & and angst), believe they go to a place called the Black Parade when they die'.

:

i could just protest for shabby journalism and lack of sense.

CAcT '-.-' tux:

The article's last line:
"The Black Parade is a nickname for the place where Emo fans believe they will go when they die.":

that made me nearly die laughing, i was like holy hell best line of journalism ever

Rh!annon:

CAcT '-.-' tux:

Now, I will sound like a bitter old grouch, but I reckon I've suffered enough from the lack of freedom, where my parents banned/disagreed with basically all pop culture because they may be potentially harmful to me. I don't want kids to experience my story.

Don't mean to jump in half way here, but this part reaaaaally got to me. That's being so melodramatic. If that's the worst that a kid goes through, then they're sitting pretty. I'm probably taking this to heart because of the childhood I had, and mine is much too horrific and personal to even contemplate talking about here, to the point that even most best friend of 9 years doesn't know my story, so I wont be giving examples. Let your imagination do its worst. But that's the kind of story I wouldn't want kid to experience. Priorities, people.

I was being melodramtic, as you could see that I was saying "now i will be a bitter old grouch" it in that sort of tone...not that the internet helps much with it. I know, there are other misforunate childhood stories, but I didn't try to say that my suffering a lack of freedom is more terrible than some other sort unfortunate experiences. This aspect of bringing up kids is just what I'm concerned with here in context with the Daily Mail discussion.

It seems like priorities of what people should agrue/take a stand/lobby for is commonly being talked about in our discussion...I don't think prioritising is an issue here. Who knows what else our protesting fans are taking a stand for? No one's saying that protesting fans are spending all their time getting it right for MCR.

I'm willing to bet that a great majority if those MCR fanz aren't protesting for any worthy causes. Prioritising is an issue here, cause the average teen these days is much more concerned with the type of coffee their favourite lead singer is drinking on a Monday morning than the fact that we're on the brink of another mass extinction event. We know there are exceptions, but we've all dealt with MCR fanz, and we know what the majority of them are like.

And honestly? Protesting does bugger all. Most times, it just turns violent, makes headlines for a few days, and then its effects are forgotten like a passing storm. And the irony in all this is that protesting the matter is just bringing in more advertising for them. They will LOVE it. Papers love controversy. The protest will fuel the fire it's designed to stamp out.

At the end of the day, it's just a newspaper shit talking. Sometimes, you have to be mature and turn the other cheek.

[/$0.02]

^ HAHAHAHA. Has your icon always had that moustache, or am I just really slow?

^ ahahah...we'll see what the protest turns out like. I take no bets tho! However they are telling protesters not to turn up in full emo attire, amongst other words of advice...i think their plan is quite mature for 16 year olds who came up with it.

Gabe Pride;:

^exactly.

ha the fact the "protesters", some of them come from a site called, "i'm not okay" prolly doesn't help the 'emo' status XD

oh i do like irony! No no, it's already been said that INO's not to be mentioned in the protest.

Rh!annon:

^ HAHAHAHA. Has your icon always had that moustache, or am I just really slow?

lol i've had this ava for ages but i only put the moustache on like yesterday

Haha. Oh good. I was looking at it tonight going "pretty sure that's never been there... but maybe I just missed the completely obvious..."