Society & Politics

4 Reasons I Love My Music Scene: A Peek at The Alternative Side

FallOutBoy2001
4 Reasons I Love My Music Scene; A Look At Part Of The Alternative Side

I cannot tell you the amount of times people ask me "why do you listen to that music?" when I tell them I listen to pop-punk, metal, punk, and post-hardcore. Here's why like my bands:


1. The lyrics are relatable


One of the main things I hear people say about these bands, especially pop-punk, is that the lyrics are stupid, and have no meaning. Sure, What's My Age Again, by Blink-182, might be a juvenile song, and it might not have a deep meaning, but there are are lots of other songs and many of them are deeper. As I'm typing this I'm listening to Stay Together For The Kids, which was a song the three guys wrote about divorce OR a terrible relationship affecting kids, from a child's perspective, and another personal favorite of mine is Blink-182's song Anthem Part 2, which is about how fucked up the system is.



Fall Out Boy has written songs about having low self-esteem and being bisexual, Rise Against and Pierce The Veil have written songs about suicide and self harm, Sleeping With Sirens writes about coming from a broken home and feeling responsible for it, and having no one who cares, My Chemical Romance writes about losing people you love, and All Time Low writes about having anxiety. In that list is at least one theme everyone can relate too, some, more than one, others, all of them.


4 Reasons I Love My Music Scene: A Peek at The Alternative Side

2. The concerts are full of energy


I've had the pleasure to go to two concerts, have tickets for four over the summer, one of which is Warped, and have seen too many videos of concerts to count. Every time you go to one, everyone there is hyped up and wants to see the bands, and the bands themselves are full of energy. Green Day and Blink-182, arguably the two biggest names? The bands are full of energy, and the crowd is incredible, and it's a sea of people all singing along to songs like American Idiot and Man Overboard. Concerts for bands like Suicide Silence, Of Mice and Men, and Chelsea Grin?



Everyone in the audience can tell you what the screamer is saying, and is almost always screaming exactly the same thing, and we've got pretty impressive pits going during songs like The Depths. Plus, our concerts don't cost nearly as much as most do. Over $400 dollars for one person to go to Coachella, while $45 gets you enterance to Warped Tour. $200 to go see Taylor Swift, $95 to go see Blink-182, All Time Low, and A Day To Remember.


3. The band members actually care, because they know what you're going through



This one is probably the biggest for me. The band members legitimatly care, because they know what you're going through and face struggles of their own. The singer for Pierce The Veil, Vic Fuentes, gets incredibly agitated over events like the trending of the hashtag cut4Zayn, because he himself has scars on his wrists from cutting and when he sees fans with scars on their wrists makes them promise not to self harm again. Yes, a futile gesture, but hey, he cares enough to say "hey, I know it sucks but ultimately this is going to bite you in the ass, you need to stop, it is possible."

4 Reasons I Love My Music Scene: A Peek at The Alternative Side


MItch Lucker, of Suicide Silence, had social anxiety, Alex Gaskarth, from All Time Low, has GAD and gets panic attacks onstage, Gerard Way from My Chem was depressed and an alcoholic, and most of the band members in bands I like have gone through something. A few bands have actually been so affected by fans that they've acted upon it. Blink-182 wrote Adam's Song after receiving a suicide letter from a fan, Pierce The Veil wrote two songs for two separate fans, one who's boyfriend died in a car crash and the other who committed suicide, and Austin Carlile, from Of Mice and Men, has a tattoo of the name of a fan who died of leukemia.


4. The fan base is just amazing


I've met many, many fans as a result of going to concerts, as well as meeting them outside of concerts, such as the rather large group of emos, metalhead, and punks that I went to camp with, and I don't believe I've found a better group of people. The fans are always incredibly polite, especially to my mom and other adults. There is the caveat that if they deem you unworthy of respect, well, you're fucked, and we will be incredibly sarcastic and make you look stupid.



I've been asked in the middle of a religion class at the local church "Do you worship Satan?" way too eagerly, and I believe the response to that was "Yes, that makes perfect sense, you idiot, I'm here at a religion class, learning about God, because I worship Satan." Another thing I've seen is the stereotype that we just lay around all day doing drugs, drinking, and causing trouble, and most of us, I've noticed, rebel against that exact notion. I'm straightedge in a town that it practically drowning in alcohol and drugs, as is my metalhead buddy, and a few of the local punks.



I'm not kidding you when I say there are probably 20 of us that don't drink or do drugs out of the 400+ kids in our school system. We aren't exactly "start riots and burn shit down" type of people either, most of us either have jobs or volunteer, and we all do pretty well in school (only speaking about my friends now, I don't claim to speak for everyone but from what I've seen its pretty spot on) Besides, who needs to start riots and burn shit down when you have an arsonist and a knife-wielding maniac who go to the school? We also have an anarchist but he's not nearly as bad as them.



I hope you enjoyed my Take on why I love my music and the music scene. I hope you enjoyed, and are maybe a little more knowledgeable about my music scene.

4 Reasons I Love My Music Scene: A Peek at The Alternative Side

4 Reasons I Love My Music Scene: A Peek at The Alternative Side
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