Emo - Subculture free essay sample

A subculture is a small cultural group within a larger group such as society. Subcultures can be hidden or distinct; they often have norms, values, beliefs and interests that make them different from those of the larger culture. A large number of different subcultures can be found today in the united States, and the one that were going to get more familiar with is known as MEMO. At first Memo was only considered as a music genre, a style of rock music. But throughout the years as Memo music gained a lot of success, especially with teenagers.Today we look at it as a lifestyle subculture that unifies music, fashion, behavior, style and many more. Were first going to talk about the origins of the memo subculture in the united States then well talk about the effect that it has on teenagers and finally well talked the general worldview of this group. First of all, its necessary to know that the most important part of the memo lifestyle is its music. It first started in the mid-sasss as a hardcore punk music movement in Washington D. C. Memo is a short term for emotional hardcore or mocker. Throughout the years as soon as popularity carne, memo style began change.It went from punk rock to pop punk to Indies rock. In the sasss a couple of independent records label began to specialize in this new style as they saw a possible success in memo music. After that memo gained way more popularity and thats when it became a fashion trend. Then in the early 200(Yes, an memo rock band named Jimmy Eat World went on to sign a contract with Trademarks Records to be one of the first memo bands to go mainstream and platinum. After that, more bands such as Dashboard Confessional or Save The Day followed the footsteps of Jimmy Eat World.The memo music is mainly designed to me highly dramatic, it also creates a arsenal relationship between fans and artists. The values expressed through the memo music are emotional topics such as nostalgia, brokenhearted, hope, depression, self-hatred, anger, love, loneliness, sadness, suffering and many more. Undoubtedly music is the main and more important part of the equation of the memo movement, but since young teenagers have been introduced to this movement they gave a lot more value to lifestyle/fashion/attitude part of the equation. Memo has always been tied to both music and fashion. In the early sasss memo fashion was clean and cut look, but as the style spread to young teenagers, it changed completely. Nowadays tens Memo are known for having a slim fitted unisex fashion, most Of things are suitable for girls and boys. They wear black or bright colors slim fit jeans called drainpipes, slims or skinniest. Some memo guys sometimes wear girls jeans because they fit them better. Girls sometimes wear skirts or dresses with leg warmers.Memos love to wear short sleeves tight t-shirts with the names of their favorite memo bands on them; a dark color zip hood is something that an memo must have. The Memo fashion is also very popular for having lots of accessories such as studded belts with a large belt buckle, a variety of hair clips, bangles, black restrains, fingerless gloves, rings, black horn rimmed nerd glasses, backpacks and messenger bags with a lot of pins on them. They wear canvas sneakers or skate shoes often old and beaten up.Brands like Converse and Vans are very popular for memo shoes. Memos are also known for their strong make up, black or dark color eyeliner and white pounded to make their skin tone paler then natural. Some of them also have tattoos and piercing, specifically nose, tongue, belly button and lower lip piercing. Instead of having their ears pierced, a lot of memos have stretched ears. The one thing hat characterizes more the Memo look its the Memo hairstyle. Its often a long side-swept bangs brushed to one side of the face in order to cover one or both eyes.Their hair is most of the time straightened, short in the back and long in the back. Most of the time their hair Or dyed in dark black or dark red with bright colors like blue, pink, red, or bleached blond as highlights. A short choppy layer of hair with tons of gel is also very common. Besides all that here are a couple of things that memos do with their free time. Memos are known to have some kind of artist talent, they write poems or songs lyrics leaning with problems such as depression, loneliness, confusion or anger. They also love to draw anima cartoons. The memo population has a lot of online communities (Faceable, my space, beta etc. ) where they spend a lot of their time on. However nose are famous for the way they take their pictures, most if not all of their pictures are taken form an unusual camera angle and they are photodiodes before they are shared online. Generally speaking, all subcultures come with a certain amount of stereotypes. Today Memo kids are view as emotional, sensitive, shy, vampire hearted and introverted teenagers. They are known for committing suicide, depression and self-injury.People believe that the values and the beliefs of the memo subculture can be very dangerous. In 2008, the memo band named My Chemical Romance was responsible and blamed for the suicide by hanging of a thirteen year-old teenager Hannah Bond. A couple of weeks before she hanged herself she showed her father the cuts on her wrist and told him its was part of the memo initiation ceremony. My Chemical Romance glorified suicide in one of their song with the lyrics: Although youre dead ND gone, believe me your memory will go on.Hennas obsession with the memo band was linked to her suicide. In conclusion, weve seen how the Memo movement was first introduced in the United States as a music genre; weve talked about its origins and how it became famous. We also saw that as soon as teenagers got involved in this movement Memo movement became more than a music genre, it became a lifestyle subculture that unifies fashion, behavior, style, attitude and cults. Wee also seen how Memos were characterized and identified in society and how the society looked at them.