One good thing about emo

I am pretty excited about my journey through Nothing Feels Good. For the book itself, I only have listening to a little Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil) left.

Yes. there are still some other things to go through before I start the next music book, Guitar Heroes of the 70s, but it is nonetheless progress, and I like that the rest of the material has not been dictated by Andy Greenwald.

As I make progress there, I will probably spend some more time on suspended emotional maturity and the downsides of wallowing, but today I want to praise, in that emo really did seem to be a movement that made everyone believe they could form a band.

That is where I see the strongest punk connection. One film image I have never forgotten is a graphic of new bands springing up around cities where the Ramones played, which I later saw repeated with other bands. There are lots of ways in which music can inspire, but to inspire others to explore their own creativity and to express themselves is something special.

Of course, a lot of those bands aren't very good. That might be a part of how it happens: a band that isn't technically proficient but has a lot of heart inspires others that are even less proficient but responding emotionally. Not all of them can be magic. At least, not all of them can be magic for everyone.

One of the other things coming up is a list of twelve emo bands that Alternative Press  would like to see reunited. Some of those bands were not in the book, but there was one that I already listened to and found really annoying.

No, I am not going to name them. Yes, I will listen to them again in the context of that list. Yes, there is a good chance they will annoy me again, but that's okay. It's nice that they meant something to someone. It's great that someone associates this band with something other than the sensation of fingernails on a chalkboard, you know? And it was probably good for them to be a band too.

I like high art, but I like accessible art too. I like that there is variety. I like that there is something for everyone.

When I first started thinking about emo, part of it was how much it meant to these kids, and how passionate they could be about it. There were kids who were passionate about acts that were way more pop as well. I'm not saying that it is purely subjective, but I support there being a lot of room for a lot of variety.

I get why Jim Suptic apologized for The Get Up Kids' influence, but I think there was something positive there too.

And I do have a burning desire to know whom he meant when he referred to the bands not being very good, but I'm not naming the band that I thought was terrible either, so perhaps it's better this way.