Hi, I need help on understanding Teens today in the high school demographic. It's hard trying to find out what they're up to at a time when you can't really turn on Mtv and find out quickly like you used to. I know there's some teen writers on this site and I know there's some parents of teens as well. So anyway, this is the info I'm looking for.
Are goths and emos the same thing? Do they hate each other? Where do the metal kids fit in on this society? Are there other groups that represent misfit culture?
What music bands would misfit kids listen to?
What indie rock bands are popular with kids? I know that Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem are someof the biggest acts now, but I know dudes in their 30s into them, do they matter for the youngsters?
These might seem like simple questions but I live in a college town. Most of my teenage experience is from the early 90s. Thanks.
"Emo" is a term that originated from "emotive hardcore" which is a genre of rock. However, due to nature of the lyrics, the style of clothing, and the culture, a specific clique seemed to form with it. Nowadays it means something like "depressed for no good reason." An emo is a person who has no good reason to be depressed, but is continually so, and they usually create their own reasons for depression (such as being fat, ugly, a loner, whatever).
"Goth" usually refers a particular style of clothing and mannerism. While it may have originally been meant to mimic actual Gothic styles and history, it in no way does so anymore. It only refers to dark clothing, sometimes things like corsets with unusual frills are considered gothic. Corpsepaint can also be considered so, although it's taken off in the black metal scene.
"Metal kids" don't really exist. In school, I knew of one person out of 200 that actually listened to metal outside of Metallica or Pantera. And, considering they're so mainstream and lacking in quality, I don't consider them a metalhead. Learning and understanding the broad genres and musical theories incorporated into each subgenre of metal's culture is what a metalhead is. There are usually people who think they listen to metal, but are misguided by labels and genres given by the media... completely false ones. (Imagine somebody calling your favorite romance author an author of horror novels, and making people believe it's somehow true).
"Uhm a lot of rock/metal, screamo....bands you'll find in hot topic"
Do not include metal in this. I listen to metal, and the mere association with screamo is just sad. Almost insulting. It's like calling classical music pop. Aside from Black Sabbath, almost no metal bands are played on radios. Metallica, for instance, used to be thrash metal, but they fell into rock a long time ago (around their terrible St. Anger album). Metal rarely has screaming (I've heard more of it in hardcore and normal rock than I have in metal), because harsh vocals are a vocal technique. It is very similar to singing, and rumor has it that it originated from certain Pagan and Christian chants. There's no proof to this, though. Metal is about the guitar work and the even production, the layers, and focus on musicianship. Metal bands (whether death, black, folk, power, thrash, heavy/trad, or doom) can be purely instrumental and not have any vocals whatsoever. Screamo cannot. Screamo is a subgenre of hardcore, which is a genre of rock music.
However, I will not deny most emos or goths listen to stuff from Hot Topic. We call these people "mallgoths". They do not have a good knowledge of music, like most people, but have the elitism that goes along with having knowledge of music... when it isn't warranted.
So, to reiterate, emo, goths, and other such high schoolers do not listen to metal. They usually listen to emotive hardcore or metalcore (a terrible fusion of hardcore punk with any genre of metal, usually thrash, like Lamb of God).
