5 Seconds to Live

Suicide, cutting, self harming. Three different words of similar meaning and all related to one certain genre of music, Emo. Emo rock, developed in the mid 1980 in the US as a subgenre to Hardcore Punk music, is widely known in today's society as negatively influencing music for teens according to many articles and media coverage regarding this genre of music. Evidence of this negative impact can be seen in the case of Hannah Bond of UK, who hanged herself in her bedroom to inspire an emo movement and the case of the ban of emo music from Russia due to its possible jeopardizing on national stability. With many of their lyrics containing verses and implication towards suicide and self harm it is easily understood why many critics would believe that Emo music is bad for teens that are easily influenced by the media today. Though emo rock as a bad reputation of causing mental or physical harm to their listeners, I believe that emo rock can be used as a type of healing salve that can generate a sense of belonging in society and a deeper understanding of your own state of being. In order to justify my stance on the subject of "Can Emo Music create a positive effect impact on society" I chose two journal to base my argument around: "Adolescent Boys' Use of Emo Music as Their Healing Lament" by Aaron P. Anastasi from the Journal of Religion and Health, and "Music Preference, Personality Style, and Developmental Issues of Adolescents" by Kelly Schwartz, from the Journal of Youth Ministry.

Before delving into the research, let us first understand what emo stands for, because a better understanding will provide background knowledge to understand the stances in this essay. Emo is a subculture that is based around music and fashion. Typical stereotyped emo teens are characterized as dark, shy, introverted, angst ridden and associated with depression. Emo music is characterized for their sullen melodies, dismal imaging and implicit lyrics that tamper on the darker shade of society. Examples of these implicit lyrics are "Did you get what you deserve? The ending of your life" by My Chemical Romance song DEAD. Emo fashion is depicted as clothing heavily based around the color black and accessories based around silver or metal such as black converse, black short sleeved tight shirt, studded belts and wrist bands.

Both writers believe that music can affect the behavior of teens and how they may impact them. In Aaron Anastasi's article, Anastasi believes that emo music can act as a source of acceptance for many adolescent boys who "desperately seek love and acceptance but often lack the means to attain it." (Anastasi 303) He argues that people suffer and many of those people are adolescent boys who are trained under the "Boy Code", a code where a boy is raised to be stoic, stable independence and never to show emotions which is considered a weakness. Anastasi states that because of these social standards and upbringing many adolescents have a difficult time expressing themselves emotionally and thus keep their suffering inside