The Used’s Biography
B. The Used’s Biography
There are numerous Emo bands gaining popularity in the third wave of Emo movements in 2000s. The popularity of bands like My Chemical Romance, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights and Thursday signify how Emo is incredibly popular among American youth nowadays. Mainstream music industries explore not only their music but also performance and behavior. Through various media like television, music videos, magazines, and internet, young people recognize these Emo bands then gradually consume them.
The Used is one of the famous Emo bands from Orem, Utah founded in
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Bert McCracken as the lead vocalist, Quinn Allman as the guitarist and the first backing vocalist Jeph Howard as the bassist and the second backing vocalist Branden Steineckert replaced by Dan Whitesides in the late of
2006, as the drummer.
This band is signed under a mainstream label, Reprise Record after going underground through a local independent music label. The four members of this band, who are all boys and still young, indicate the Emo-ness through fashion and performance on stages, music videos, internet and other media. Besides, the youth life background of each member that closes to poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and broken home, makes The Used fit to Emo sphere. Their songs are easily adapted by Emo Kids since it reflects the real emotion of the members, especially Bert McCracken as the songwriter, in telling his sad experience wrapped by noisy music. Instead of telling the gloominess side of young people related to anxieties in facing society which mostly is the basic theme of Emo, The Used‟s lyrics also tell about the romance and relationship problems of youth love. Most of the lyrics are covered with noisy sound of hardcore music.
The Used has released four studio albums and EPs (Extended Play) or mini
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(2004), Lies for the Liars (2007), and Artwork (2009). The EPs are Berth (2007) and Shallow Believer (2008) (http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Used/Biography). The first full album entitled The Used has been released on 2002 brings this band to reach their popularity. This album is listed on the Billboard 200 and peak on
63 th position. In Love and Death, the next album is released on 2004 repeating the band success by staying on the 5 th position of the Billboard 200 and getting Gold certification. The mainstream achievement comes up to The Used after the third album, Lies for the Liars, has been released on 2007. Instead of sitting on the 5 th position of Billboard 200, some tracks are used for original soundtrack of a blockbuster Hollywood movie entitled Transformer. The latest album entitled Artwork is opened at 10 th position on the Billboard 200 with 35,000 copies sold at the first week on September 2009. Like all of the albums, the EPs are also gained success by positioning 71 th in the Top Billboard 200 for Berth and 13 th position in the iTunes Top 100 Albums for Shallow Believer.
By the success history of The Used and their occasional appearance on media as one of the Emo bands, fans begin to point them as an icon of Emo subculture especially in America. Everything comes from The Used become trendsetter among Emo Kids. For instance the appearance of the vocalist, Bert McCracken, with eccentric fashion, eyeliner, wristband and long messy black hair is easily noticed and imitated by Emo Kids. Their songs become anthems for a part of Emo Kids since they are considered as representation of hidden Emo feeling. This band also takes a tour with a number of Emo bands in the Vans
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American cities) from 2002 until 2007 which finally reinforce The Used as an icon of Emo subculture through their music, lyric, appearance, behavior and performance on the stages. Besides, their music videos are also occasionally broadcasted by media such as MTV and easily found on the internet video sharing like YouTube.