Make Up

d. Make Up

Emo is considered as a youth subculture that can free the members, especially boys, from the „Boy Code‟ required by other youth subcultures

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„feminine‟ concept (Aslaksen, 2006: 36). The feminine concept can be seen from the wearing of tight T-shirt, tight jeans and side-banged hairstyle. Besides concerning on that girlish clothing, Emo boys often wear dark eyeliner and nail

polish to emphasize the „gloomy‟ and feminine sense of this subculture. These two essential make up are often used by Emo boys to emphasize the meaning

of being an Emo Kid. The application of this required make up can also be found within some of The Used music videos.

i. Eyeliner Eyeliner is the essential make up of being an Emo Kid (Simon & Kelley, 2007: 36). Today, the members of this youth subculture often wear eyeliner to emphasize the gloominess idea within it. A person will be considered as Emo, if he or she wears black eyeliner. The used of eyeliner can also be found within The Used‟s music videos. Bert, as the vocalist, emphasizes the wearing of eyeliner, both red and black, through his performances on some videos.

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Those are two captures of Bert‟s singing performance on several videos. The close up shots of Bert highlights on the wearing of eyeliner on his eyes. The first picture is a scene captured from Take It Away music videos made on 2004. The trending Emo in America around 2004, make everything related to this youth subculture become the commodity including the eyeliner. Through

this close up shot, Bert‟s eyes wearing eyeliner become the object so that the viewer‟s attention will be directly led to his eyes area (Figure 79). As it is seen on the shot, Bert‟s eyes area is filled with the red eyeliner, which has been known as one of the make up requirement of being an Emo Kid. While the camera shots Bert‟s face, this vocalist screams loudly till he can not open his eyes widely. The combination of Bert‟s close up shot of his eyes area and his screaming voice has signified the standard Emo boy. This shot is intended to show the viewers about how the Emo boy should wear to be considered as Emo .

The use of eyeliner can be found also on gothic subculture which highlighted

death theme (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/fashion/18GOTH.html) In Emo, the function of eyeliner might be the same since Emo is also raising the gloomy and dark theme. It can be correlated with the terrible event of 9/11 in America which causes death and grief. As the gloomy youth subculture, the media through this The Used music video has commodified eyeliner as part of Emo accessories.

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2005. The dimness blue lighting makes Bert‟s face blurred and unclear, still, the red line under his eyes is obviously seen (Figure 80). After emphasizing on

Bert‟ eyes area, the shot moves to the scene where Bert puts a red flower from his lips (Figure 81). These two shots are intended to make the viewer see the

gloominess side of Emo through the dimness lighting behind and spot on the feminine side of an Emo boy through the red flower on Bert‟s lips.

ii. Black Nail Polish Besides eyeliner, nail polish is another make up used by most of Emo members. Similar like eyeliner, black is the dominant nail polish color applied by the members to highlight the darkness theme derived also from Goth subculture. In some of The Used music videos, the band members like Bert and the early drummer, Branden wear black polish on their finger nails.

Figure 82

Figure 83

The medium close up shot of Bert make him possible to show his hand on Blood on My Hands music video made on 2009 (Figure 82). As it seen above that Bert raises his hands to the camera that the viewers an watch his tattoos and black fingernails polish. Added with the dimness light behind him, his appearance including his black fingernails raises the darkness impression

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Branden‟s scene, the early drummer of The Used from A Box Full of Sharp Object video (Figure 83). The close up shot mostly focuses on his face and his

fingers. Noticed on his fingers, Branden polishes his fingers with black nail polish similar like Bert does. Those two shots, however, are made to show the viewers that black nail polish is a required make up in Emo fashion.