by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: May 15, 2008   Last Updated: December 09, 2009

Since the term teenager was coined in the 1940s, there have been many attempts to blame the failings of society on youth 'gangs' and subcultures. The older generation, as represented by the media, tend to regard such groups as epitomising a decline in standards, a lack of respect and a general decline in society. Voiceless youths express themselves through their choice of clothes, their hairstyles, the films they watch and the music they listen to. Youngsters of a similar disposition are drawn together and find contentment in belonging to a group, and share a sense of solidarity with their fellow members. However, this world is mostly inaccessible to adults, which results in a lack of understanding towards such groups, and feeble attempts to explain such incomprehensible behaviour. Emo is just the latest youth subculture to make it into the headlines; this time for supposedly encouraging suicide and self-harm. In reality it is just another youth subculture which provides young, disaffected teenagers with an outlet to express themselves.

Youth subcultures are nothing new; in the 1950s we had teddy boys, in the 1960s it was mods and rockers and in the 1970s it was punks. All claimed headlines for being emblematic of social decline, yet these 'troubled' teens, for the most part, turned into well-balanced, tax-paying adults, as will be the case with most emos. Focus has been drawn to the emo culture of late because of a number of suicides committed by fans of emo, or emotive, music and followers of emo culture. Self-harm has also come to be associated with the emo lifestyle. In emo circles, emotive seems to mean evoking more melancholic and darker emotions than sanguine ones, as demonstrated in the music of bands such as My Chemical Romance and Funeral for a Friend. However, it is facile to say that by listening to depressing' music troubled teenagers are being encouraged to self-harm, or even commit suicide. Clearly, such individuals have a melancholic disposition, anyway, and this kind of music and lifestyle appeals to them.

Emo culture in itself is nothing to worry about. It enables young people of a certain disposition to find other young people with similar interests, and in the process gives them a sense of belonging. It is more worrying that the media is prepared to explain away adolescent depression and suicide by blaming musicians, who are often in their twenties and thirties, and a subculture which involves youths dyeing their hair black, and wearing black clothes. Correlation does not equate to cause, and by trying to blame emo for teenage suicide and self-harm, attention is drawn away from the real issues at stake.

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