You know what was cool in school? My Chemical Romance. Didn’t that raw angst just speak to you? They were singing songs about exactly what you were going through – you were under-appreciated, so much deeper than that, and MCR were telling people exactly what you wanted to say.
You know what was more cool than My Chemical Romance in school? Hating My Chemical Romance. Subverting the subverters – how delicious. MCR were never a proper punk band at all – their brand of pop-goth (or ‘emo’ as it was fun to call it) was edgy enough that The Daily Mail could think they were the reason people stab people, but they were still just the right side of demented to actually sell some records. It worked, and they were popular. So all us hipsters decided to reject them. Kids were letting their hair grow around the front of their faces to their chins, and we looked (over our thick glasses and Starbucks take-away cups) and said ‘what idiots’.
I was never a very good hipster – I could never fit into the jeans. Which is probably why I’ve come around to My Chemical Romance; Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) in particular. N12, as we’ll dub it, shows My Chemical Romance doing the opposite of what normal bands do – they’ve stopped taking themselves so seriously. Their third album, The Black Parade, was a concept album about death. I never heard it, but the singles were contemplative and bleak. N12, contrastingly, has a chorus made up of Na’s. They’re having a lot more fun, and so am I.
The video’s even cool. They’ve dropped the gloom and dread and given everything a shot of day glo – and I love it. The best part is they haven’t actually compromised their themes of teenage rebellion – they’re still banging on about rising up against whatever kids rise up against (probably the PCSO who told them they couldn’t skate in the car park), but they’re not being po-faced about it.
I joked with a friend on New Years Eve, while we were listening to some Magnetic Man, that if we went back in time and told our past selves what kind of music we were into these days we’d instantly fade from existence, having set in motion the events that would lead to our own self-assisted suicide. Although he was an MCR fan back then, but I sure wasn’t. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a fan now, but I appreciate them. It’s becoming clearer to me that when you pick sides with music, you only miss out.
I’m coming around to the realisation that, when all’s said and done, there’s nothing wrong with popular music.
I don’t know why it’s taken 20 years for something to dawn on me that 8 year old girls already know. I don’t want to say that it’s because popular things popular because they’re good, because that’s quite often not the cast. What I’m saying is that I’ve finally decided that listening to the charts on the radio isn’t something to be ashamed of.
I am the worst hipster ever.
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