Emo, Punk (v2).

Whilst I hate to admit it emo is linked in someway to the original punk rock. Being a fan of punk music myself I get a little nervous when people link the two, but I thought I'd tackle representations of emo, and emo representations of film as a small challenge. This is partly because I thought that 'emo' music, and its representations needed some more discussion, even though 'emo' culture hasn’t been covered too much on film since this manifestation of punk rock has been fairly recent. I thought I'd take another look at it from the perspective of 'emo' representations of films rather than films which interpret emo culture or emo music since (with the exceptions of Spiderman 3) these are probably few and far between.

The representations I can come up with are mainly inter-textual, Blink 182 (OK, maybe not emo? I beg to differ) refer to "live like jack and sally" in their song "I Miss You", and that they could "have Halloween on Christmas", referring to the Tim Burton film The Nightmare before Christmas. Many emo kids (*chuckle*) cite this and The Crow as being their favorite movies, and numerous song reference both films. This is mainly due the shared mood of both films and the mood of emo (and goth music), but I also think it is explained as a recent musical culture trying to find a historical reference point, or way to be more than just a fad in a changing media culture.

On the other hand though, the media is more and more beginning to depict emo in film and television content. The latest Spiderman is rumored to feature an emo Peter Parker, complete with eyeliner and the fringe. Awesome.