Youth Rebellion
a. Youth Rebellion
Rebellion is the basic idea which has triggered various youth subcultures to
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basic cause why various youth subcultures come out in the society. Historically in 1980s, the phenomenal youth subculture, Punk, emerged because of the dissatisfaction of young people toward the system of parents culture standardized by the high class people. Young people who mostly come from blue collar people need to acquire a space for expressing their ideas, what they feel in the adolescence phase to the society. The imbalance position between parents who rule the mainstream culture and their children has triggered the rebellion to happen. When the children have found the space to grow up, they will practice all of the ideologies within it. Historically, Punk is a youth subculture which actualizes the rebellious ideas in various actions as El Bashir writes:
One can say that the punk subculture emerged in opposition to mass culture... The subculture has many ideologies that have always been a form of shock and rebellion, thus it was often viewed negatively. The political ideology most commonly found in punk is anarchism, which is expressed in some songs. Along with this, punks have anti-capitalistic, anti-commercial, and non-conformist views. (El Bashir, 2004: 61)
Like Punk, before it is highly exploited by the mainstream media, other youth subcultures with each own rebellious ideas are always on the opposite side of mainstream culture. The society in common often considers negatively toward the rebellious actions they take since they all are in a reverse with the normal norms and rules. Punk has committed itself as a place for young people to express their idea free from the involvement of the commercialism and conformism through the establishment of the DIY (Do It Yourself) ethic which later becomes the most noticeable idea from this subculture. Azerrad affirms that DIY ethic is a realization of Punk‟s rebellious idea encouraging the members to settle on the
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As Punk is developed into other youth subcultures like Emo and Hardcore, the actualization of DIY ethic was kept running in those subdivisions. Emo previously was recognized as the root of Hardcore-Punk youth subculture which fought back the standard and mainstream culture through Do It Yourself ethic but in a more sensitive and personal way. However, Emo nowadays has lost its rebellious side since the media has widely misused it as a new form of marketable product. DIY as the realization of rebellious idea previously held by Punk has been taunted by media so that its rebellious side does not appear anymore. Similarly, Schwartz and Merten explain this phenomenon as the new form of agreement of mainstream culture controlled by parents and the children in various youth subcultures. They affirm that the traditional cycle of the intense conflict followed by reconciliation when the younger generation takes its place in society seems less common today than in the past (Schwarz and Merten, 1967: 458). It means that nowadays youth subculture do not take a serious rebellious actions since there is dominant factor like media that has been very potential to replace the image of a youth subculture.
In Emo nowadays, the original rebellious actions have been replaced with the perception of media in redefin ing its „rebel‟ side. There is an accord between the wide society and today youth subculture in understanding the meaning of rebellion. Through the music video for example, the rebel side of previous Emo
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i. Blue and Yellow
In Blue and Yellow video, the rebellious side is found within the performances of the band members and the models which consist of the audiences whom intentionally appeared. The singing performance concept of band performing on the stage has strengthened the ambience of rebellious side of Emo. Below are the scenes showing the rebellious side of The Used when performing on the stage.
Figure 84
Figure 85
To highlight the rebellious side of the band‟s music video, the camera captures the situation both in the venue and from the audiences‟ arena. On the stage, the band accentuates the rebellious side of Emo through the performance of Bert who takes a headbang action (Figure 84). Added with the performance of other band members behind him who also play the music instruments
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concert. While this scene is lasting, Bert screams the phrase “Well you‟ll never find it, if you‟re looking for it”. His screaming voice over the assembling music instruments is proposed to strengthen Emo rebellious side. This screaming technique can be found also in the previous 1980s Emo to express the painful feeling of the song. However, screaming was not the most noticeable rebellious sign of the old Emo bands because they still really practiced the DIY ethic by avoiding the mainstream media interventions, establishing independent record labels and considering the music as the place of youth expression not as the
saleable thing. The spotlight of Bert‟s screaming action in this scene gives the general description of Emo today which only highlights the rebellious side
from the stage performance especially when screaming technique appears.
The next figure is a scene of diving action of the audiences while The Used‟s band members are performing on the stage (Figure 85). The angle of camera shows how almost all of the audiences appreciate this „diving‟ by put
their hands up to lift a boy audience. This action shows that there is a strong relationship between the band as the performers on the stage and the audiences. Also, this action can be found in almost rock concerts. The rebellious action of this audiences‟ scene is used to show the general description of the members of Emo youth subculture in general when they are coming to the concert. Similar like the previous scene, diving action is not the only thing that is used to show
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Why can this rebellion be accepted nowadays? The media, as usual, control the hipping phenomenon in the society. American adolescents who grow up post 9/11 tragedy are different from American adolescents who grew up in 1980s. Seen from its social life, the 1980s adolescents lived in a strong and powerful America which can create everything independently. Although at that time industries ruled the every aspects of youth life shown by the growing up of mainstream music on MTV, the adolescents still had the power to sustain the ideology of a youth subculture. However, the media did not involve their action because other youth stuffs such as MTV-music type were accepted well due to the euphoria of America‟s good condition. Post 9/11 changes Americans
perception toward everything. Like what have been explained in the earlier chapter, the glamour stuffs are not suitable with the condition of America in general. Since the media places as the next big thing for Americans adolescents post 9/11, everything related to Emo including the rebellious actions are considered as the standard of being involved in Emo. Rebellion is not merely an awareness of the members of youth subcultures to fight against the mainstream culture like what happened in the early Emo, but simply change into the stage performance and audience response like what can be seen from
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Emo nowadays still practiced the rebellious actions but not like the previous rebellion of Emo found in the 1980s history. Emo is not something underground anymore even its rebellious actions are out as the new commodity to attract the attention of adolescent who look for the identity. The rebellion as
a commodity in Emo youth subculture appears on The Used‟s music video entitled A Box Full of Sharp Objects. Using singing performance concept, it can be fully gained that the band members emphasize the rebellious side through the stage performance rather than giving the basic rebellious ideas of a youth subculture.
The first scene shows the performance of Bert and Quinn on the stage. The angle of the camera focuses on how Quinn plays guitar passionately and Bert spurts beer form his mouth (Figure 86). Their performance have emphasized the rebel side of rockstars which can easily found on other rock music concerts. Spurting beer while singing is an obvious act of rebellion where a singer can express his feeling. This action, for sure, will not be found in other music concert like pop or RnB. This what makes Emo is different from mainstream
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encompass the sense of rockstar‟s rebellion in general (Figure 87). The long shot picture gives an impression of The Used as a band who perform in front of
the audiences. The stage lighting shows that it is a scene of rock concert not pop concert. There, Bert jumps while singing the phrase of the lyric
enthusiatically “Today I feel and felt better, just knowing this matters I just feel stronger and sharper ”. In the end of the phrase, Bert screams the „sharper‟
part, the action which can usually be found in any nowadays Emo band. The fast beat of drum and guitar rhytm with full techniques giving the strong impression in the song as a rock song not a ballad one. The combination of the lyric, mu sic and Bert‟s stage performance emphasize the rebellion of adolescents in the perspective of Emo today. The phrase “Today I feel and felt better, just knowing this matters I just feel stronger and sharper ” makes an impact on the strong and unbeatable young people which commonly close to the rebellious acts. The rebellion is also initiated in the next figure which is a scene of Jeph Howard playing bass keenly in the video while the bass dominating the music. The short duration of his stage performance, however, is used to strengthen the rebellious side of The Used as an Emo band (Figure 88).
Considering the condition of America post 9/11, it is impossible for young people to go back to the previous situation when everything was strong
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hip hop and RnB music and totally fight against the system like what is practiced by underground Punk in 1980s and 1990s. Emo youth subculture is considered as a right place for American adolescents to express their feeling due to the anxiety of adolescence phase and national grief after the tragedy of 9/11. However, the ambience atmosphere after the tragedy encourages young people to focus on themselves and to deeply explore their feeling since the media also support it by exploiting Emo youth subculture. Unlike the previous Emo who mainly focused on the rebellious efforts to sustain this hardcore punk rooted youth subculture from the mainstream media, Emo today only depicts the rebellious sense in the stage performance of the band. Incongruously, these rebellious acts have been appeared in the video as the requirement to be involved in nowadays Emo.
iii. I Caught Fire (In Your Eyes)
Like what have been repeatedly stated before, rebellion according to Emo nowadays does not merely apply the DIY or Do It Yourself ethic anymore because everything is handled by the media so that the DIY ethic which generally rejects the interaction with the mainstream media has been replaced with the new squashier ideas. Through another The Used music video entitled I Caught Fire , it can be gained that the rebellion of previous Emo with its DIY ethic has been replaced with another ethic focusing on the peer relationship.
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The scenes above are captured from I Caught Fire music video which applies the singing performance semi narrative concept. The narrative side performs the models of Emo Kids consisting of suburban boy and girl adolescents. Their fashions, like what have been discussed in the previous subchapter, have strengthened the sense of being Emo so that everything they perform there is close to Emo meaning. The first figure is a scene where a group of Emo Kids are sitting in front of the closed shop (Figure 89). The angle shows how they have so strong relationship as a youth subculture that they sit together in the edge of the road with their peers, a common idea which is usually found in any kind of youth subculture. The next figure is a scene when Emo Kids are walking along together to the unknown place. Using similar angel like the previous scene, it can be seen that the kids walk to the same direction (Figure 90). One direction means that they have a really close relationship which covers the unity idea in Emo besides the rebellion since they live on the street. Their appearances and actions at least have explained Emo as a rebellious
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The next two scenes captured from the video are also used to strengthen the other rebellious sides of Emo as a youth subculture. The next figure is a scene where the kids are stepping on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame (Figure 91). The camera takes close up shot of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star under the feet of those kids. Hollywood Walk of Fame is popular as the appreciation symbol for the Hollywood stars who have dedicated their life for film. This scene unintentionally describes the Emo members as the rebel kids. The scene raises an impression that the kids are different from the normal people whose names are represented by the names written on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star. The next scene is a close up shot of a paper board with the typography “Let‟s be honest. It‟s for beer” (Figure 92). Beer signifies the popular alcohol drink which mostly becomes a favorite drink for adolescents in general. The scene intentionally confirms that beer is the basic need of those Emo Kids . Sometimes, drinking beer contain of alcohol will prove that somebody is strong and rebel. The rebellious side here is only proven by the consumption of alcohol drink rather than doing something more useful like what was found in 1980s Emo.
The regular appearance of Emo Kids in the media has proven that
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like Punk, actualized its rebellious idea through the application of DIY ethic within the subculture. However, after dejecting by the media, Emo today focuses the rebellious actions on the daily life simply like peer relationship and alcohol consumption. Why is this new form of rebellion easily accepted by the media? As it is known that post 9/11 American need a healing phase to build back its power. The out coming of Emo in youth life is punctually right since media has publicized it as a sensitive youth subculture which can cover youth life to compromise with the mainstream culture by only focusing in daily activity not the brutal one akin to old Punk and hardcore youth subculture in 1980s. Peer relationship is what this young American generation needs because before 9/11 happened, most of them focused on their individual business.
iv. Blood on My Hands
Another video showing the commodified rebellion in Emo youth subculture is Blood on My Hands. Here, the video applies singing performance semi narrative concepts fully performed by the band members. Bert, the main character in the video, shows the rebellion through his acting. Mainly this music video narrates about Bert as a psycho who has killed more than one victim.
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The scenes above are captured from Blood on My Hands music video. The first figure is an opening scene of the video where Bert sits alone in a dark room (Figure 93). The long shot camera is used to catch all of his appearance together with the background behind him. Here, Bert clutches a cigarette between his fingers while thinking something seriously. The low key lighting in this scene stresses on the gloomy atmosphere which can be occasionally found in any music video related to Emo. A cigarette which he clutches along with his informal fashion signifies the rebellious idea in a new form. In the past, rebellion can be got from the real action of adolescents in the society by applying DIY ethic, now the rebellious sense of Emo is found from the similar appearance and smoking habit like Bert does.
The last figure is a close up shot of Bert‟s hands full of blood while holding a knife while stabbing on a man‟s body (Figure 94). This bloody scene
is the main scene in the video since it is suitable with the title of the song. Bert stabs the victim when the assembled instruments of the music simply played in
a faster tempo and he sings the phrase “There's blood on my hands like the blood in you. Some things can't be treated so don't make me, don't make me be myself around you ”. The capturing of this scene reveals assassination as the new form of rebellious idea in Emo way. Combined with the lyric, this scene raises the threatening act which is actualized with the assassination act. Assassination or murdering was not considered as rebellious act in the previous Emo . However, Bert‟s acting here shows that Emo member can be rebels too
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and assassination similar like Bert‟s action in the video. This new rebellion r elated to suicide and assassination can be accepted in Americans youth‟s life
since the various media take Emo gloomy feeling excessively as the new trend after the tragedy of 9/11. Even, according to the report, Emo youth subculture has caused the rising number of suicidal action among adolescents in American. It proves that Emo now is close to the demising thought as the extended form of rebellious ideas.