Wipe those tears away and read this
Everybody Hurts is the ultimate emo handbook
By Alex Wallace
Published: April 23rd, 2007 | 2:26pm
Although they’re often sitting in front of computers blogging their lives away, you can spot them at record stores checking out the new Fall Out Boy or eating at the corner vegan eatery. The girls might be wearing hand-me-down cardigans and Zelda haircuts, and the boys likely sport bowl cuts and very tight girls’ jeans. They’re emo. And it’s not just a type of music anymore. It’s an identity.
Meet Leslie Simon. She’s the managing editor of Alternative Press magazine — the emo lover’s wet dream. She, along with the music magazine’s leading contributing writer, Trevor Kelley, wrote Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture
“The gist of the book is that you’re born emo, not made emo,” Simon says. “It’s not a fake lifestyle, it’s not something artificial, it’s not something solid. It’s something that you feel regardless of whether you wear black eyeliner and you’re a guy or you’re a girl and you wear legwarmers over Converse.”
Emo originated as a way to describe a genre of music that is, go figure, emotionally charged. In the beginning, its connotations were often negative, and many bands were unwilling to identify themselves with the genre. “I think it’s starting to turn a corner, though,” Kelley says. He hopes that the book will help people to feel more comfortable with the word. “I wish [emo] would become more like punk or hip-hop, where it is something like: Here’s a book all about this culture, this culture exists, we created it, and that’s kind of great.”
Although Everybody Hurts has a lot of inside jokes that lovingly poke fun at the culture, it’s also a guide for the emo aficionado with tips for emo shopping, dining, and concert-going. Simon and Kelley also dole out tips about how to find a date on MySpace, acceptable concert behavior, and how to blog, emo-style. It has some fantastic fashion do’s and don’ts as well:
• “Do fasten your belt on the side. If you wear your belt buckle in the front, you might as well be wearing mom jeans and driving a minivan.”
• “Don’t put on a band’s T-shirt immediately after you buy it at the merch table.”
• “Don’t wear a dress over jeans. If dresses were meant to be worn on top of jeans, they’d be called shirts. And, if we recall correctly, there are already things called shirts.”
No matter what you look like or listen to, chances are that if you’re emo, you feel different in some way. “It’s the whole Pete Wentz [of Fall Out Boy] ideology of the outsider,” Kelley says. “I love that he gives that speech so often onstage saying these are the theme songs for the awkward people, and I think it’s great that three million people consider themselves that way.”
Simon agrees that one of the great things about emo is its ability to welcome the outsider in. “I’d rather have people in the scene that are passionate and really aren’t that different than the people that are listening to the music,” she says. “I feel like there are so many bands that are emo that have inspired kids to pick up guitars, to manage bands, to be on street teams, to be proactive in wanting to be part of the next movement.”
Everybody Hurts is an enjoyable read full of Rob Dobi’s spot-on illustrations. Those who identify as emo will love the mention of things about the lifestyle that people may know about, but never think to point out. Those who don’t know much about the genre will appreciate that the book is simultaneously amusing and informative.
The authors dug deep and found the places and things that were there at the genre’s inception — such as the sorely missed Fireside Bowl in Chicago.
Everybody Hurts is full of witty and incredibly funny insight into a culture that has been berated for too long. It’s for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, spent hours trying to get their hair to look like they just rolled out of bed, or who, at shows, would rather stare at the roadie onstage rather than interacting socially. It’s for those who appreciate Taking Back Sunday and for those who imitate Haley Williams from Paramore. It’s for those who live the lifestyle, follow the ideology, listen to the music and love it all for its ability to allow the outsider to fit in, somewhere.
Issue #20
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