The Big Book of The Emo Trinity

Emo Confessions

These are my emo origin stories, and some of them are...cringey. 

Forgive me, Geezus, for I have sinned. 

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1. Panic! at the Disco

The very first time I knew P!ATD existed, I saw the logo on a shirt. I actually remember it pretty vividly: I was practicing out of costume for a school play in early 2015. One of the girls, a year younger than me, was wearing the shirt. I saw it and thought about what it could be for about five minutes straight. I mean, I know everyone here lives and breathes the phrase Panic! at the Disco, but imagine it from the perspective of someone who's never seen it. Who's panicking? Why at the disco, of all places? These are the 2010s, who goes to discos? And what the hell is going on with that exclamation point in the middle?? 

I knew this girl was pretty nerdy, like me. She liked Doctor Who and Sherlock and your popular "nerd" shows (while I, on the other hand, knew nothing about them). So after a long play practice of consideration, I decided that Panic! at the Disco must be...the name of an episode of Doctor Who. 

(you may now take the time to laugh at me.)

Why an episode title would be on a shirt, I have no idea. Maybe it's a really popular episode, I thought. It wasn't until I heard Miss Jackson months later that I realized P!ATD was a band. And a few months after that, I had all of their CDs and they were one of my favorite artists of all time. 

2. My Chemical Romance

I knew the phrase My Chemical Romance long before I ever knew what it was, let alone heard any of their music. My cousin, who is now married, loved them when they were in their prime (Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and everything after). (This same cousin attended the very first P!ATD tour. With RYan RoSs. She's probably where I got my emo from.) Anyway, I'd heard her talk about them before. She had, and still has, one of those automatic signature things that shows up at the bottom of all the emails she sends reading: 

"Oh how wrong we were to think that immorality meant never dying."

-My Chemical Romance

I would later find out that at her wedding, she planned to walk down the aisle to a piano cover version of Welcome to the Black Parade, but the music guy screwed it up and she had to use something else instead. I'm. Not. Even. Kidding. One day in late 2014, curiosity overcame me and I just had to know what MCR was. A book? A musical? Another episode of Doctor Who? I found out it was a band and was quick to google their music. Here's where the cringe comes in. 

I was looking on a website that had their music in a list sorted by popularity. The first was Welcome to the Black Parade, second was Teenagers, third was Famous Last Words, fourth was I'm Not Okay (I Promise), etc. So I began listening to them in that order and reading the small description of the band that went with it. 

"My Chemical Romance was an American rock band from New Jersey, USA formed in 2001. The band consisted of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way." 

And for some reason, my eyes had decided to just stop working that day, because I read Gerard as Gered (like Jared), Frank Iero as Frank Ear-o (instead of eye-e-ro) Mikey Way as Milky Way (like the galaxy). After a few days of listening and really starting to love the band, I went to school and started telling my best friend all about Gered and his lovely voice, how Frank Ear-o was so great on guitar, and how the bassist Milky Way must be one of those crazy rockers who change their names to something weird but rad. 

I'm ashamed to say that went on for a week at least before I did some proofreading and realized I was an idiot. 

(I should've called this post Try Not To Cringe: Emo Edition.) 

3. twenty øne piløts 

(please don't hate me immediately for this.)

When I first heard of tøp, I hated them. With a passion. This was in early 2016 when Stressed Out was constantly on the radio, and not only was it overplayed, I didn't like it. Up until that point, I had a thing against rap music because it was usually too plain-sounding in my opinion and the lyrics were mostly tasteless: they were always something about doing drugs/banging girls and I prefer music with deep, intricate, meaningful lyrics. So when I first heard Stressed Out, I admitted it was catchy but immediately threw it into the rejected rap song corner without giving it a fair listen and moved on. 

It wasn't just that, though: at the same time, two of the most annoying popular girls in my class decided they were tøp's newest superfans. It was completely overnight, like, one day it was "what's a blurryface?" and the next it was "JOSH DUN IS MY SENPAI DADDY!!1!". So, just as I disliked those girls, I decided to dislike tøp by association. They never shut up about Tyler and Josh and "have you seen the latest interview??" and "AHH TRUCE I CRI EVERYTIEM!!" I got sick of it quickly. 

Then one day I was listening to Fall Out Boy Radio on Pandora, a great app/website that plays you music based on other artists you like. A tøp song came on, but when I went to skip it, I saw it was from another album, Vessel. The song was Fake You Out. I listened out of curiosity and found that, wait, this isn't bad. Then I moved to Spotify, where I decided to give the whole album a try. I still wasn't crazy about the rapping parts, but I realized that they were the most unique sounding raps I'd ever heard and the lyrics were powerful and absolutely beautiful. Songs like Guns for Hands, Holding on to You, and Trees caught my attention. Soon enough, I decided the raps weren't bad at all. I gave Blurryface another try, and though it's my least favorite of all the albums, I still like it. That led to listening to RaB, and soon, Self Titled. It was a downhill spiral head-first into the Clique from there. 

(oh, and I no longer had to go to school with those two annoying girls, so all my problems were solved.)

Hope you guys enjoyed! That was long, wow. Please feel free to share some of your emo origin stories/cringey emo moments in the comments! 

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Sidenote, what are some things you all have/do that make you happy? I've been kinda depressed lately and I would appreciate it :)

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P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH DUN YOU MANAGED TO DRUM YOUR WAY INTO MY COLD HEART