Pink Rock Candy – Top fashion trends, news and shopping of 2010

I knew it would happen. As soon as I heard about the mall shooting in Omaha, Nebraska, I knew the giant finger of blame would be pointed at emo music. The only thing is, I figured they’d start pointing it at bands like My Chemical Romance or Fall Out Boy because they are technically mainstream names. I thought they’d make it easy to put a face to the name, not pick someone the general public might have to google. I definitely never thought the blame would be placed on one, Conor Oberst, lead singer of Bright Eyes, but Radar magazine is pointing their finger at droopy-eyed Oberst, who also happens to be from Omaha and has dubbed him the Monster of the Week!

I’m sort of outraged, as was I when they dubbed Marylin Manson the inspiration behind Columbine. The writer of the piece, Tyler Gray, is putting words in a dead boys mouth, as harsh as that may sound. No one knows what Robert Hawkins was thinking, and he’s not around to tell, so why drag yet another musician’s name through the mud? Apparently writing lyrics like: “Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe / There’s people always dying trying to keep them alive / There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight / In an abandoned building,” is enough to make someone culpable.

Whether this was all in jest or not, mass media works in this funny way where they all grasp onto one idea and run with it. You have no idea how many news segments on “The Dangers of Emo” I’ve seen in the last 5 months. Let’s just be honest, teen angst is the most over-rated thing ever, and 90% of the angst in “emo” music isn’t coming from teens in the first place. It’s all made up, get over it!

Should we start playing the musician-blame-game once again?