Is MCR back from the dead?
You may have heard of My Chemical Romance. They are a emo/pop punk band that produced music from 2001-2013. Or at least, that's what people thought.
On July 20, MCR released a teaser video with a new logo and a date: 9/23/2016. Rumors abounded and most of the Internet lost its collective minds.
For most people around my age, My Chemical Romance were the epitome of what it meant to be emo. Part of the "Emo Trinity" along with Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco, or the "Emo Quartet" which has been created in order to include Twenty One Pilots, MCR debuted in 2002 with "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love." However, their sophomore album, "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge," was the first thing to really get them on the map. They followed it up with "The Black Parade" in 2006, which sent them into the stratosphere and remains their most popular album.
A little over a year after the release of "The Black Parade," The Daily Mail came out with an article entitled "Why No Child Is Safe From The Sinister Cult Of Emo." It essentially called MCR a suicide cult that romanticized death and glorified killing yourself and blamed them for the suicide of a young girl. The article claimed that "The Black Parade" was the place emos believed they went to after they died. It said that cutting your wrists was an initiation ritual to becoming an emo.
Anyone who listened to My Chemical Romance knew that these claims couldn't be more wrong. MCR's lyrics were encouraging and hopeful. They helped kids realize that they were never alone, showed people how to believe in themselves, and taught that being sad was okay, but it was no way to live.
Once the band got wind of this, they were understandably enraged. Gerard Way, lead singer for the band, famously took to the stage and started a "F*ck the Daily Mail" chant. They began to tell their fans at every show that suicide was not the answer.
With the release of "Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys," fans saw My Chem move towards a lighter sound. With superhero-themed songs, music videos and comic books that went along with the album, it was a huge change in sound for the band that only a few years ago was trashed for being a cult.
Their final release was a series of five singles, two songs each, called Conventional Weapons, in 2013. Only a few months later, the band announced its breakup over Twitter. Gerard Way was famously quoted as saying "My Chemical Romance is done, but it can never die. It is alive in me, in the guys, and it is alive inside all of you."
Those were some pretty definitive words. Fans across the world were devastated. Blindsided, we told ourselves that it wouldn't last. But with members of the band having a well-documented past with depression, most of us knew that this was permanent.
Fast forward three years and Gerard Way (vocals), Mikey Way (bass guitar), Frank Iero (guitar), Bob Bryar and Ray Toro (guitar) all have found success outside of MCR.
And then they come out with this video?
People went nuts. A reunion? Are they touring? A new album? We got our emo hopes up sky high.
But within 24 hours, we were given a reality check.
It goes without saying that many people were incredibly upset and disappointed. Some even went as far as to lash out at the band. They were criticized for announcing the re-release of their most popular album in such a way, when they must've known how many people would take it to mean more.
I see it from both ways. As a huge fan myself, I can't say that I wasn't crushed when I found out the truth behind 9/23/16. But I also know that MCR has always been a band deeply invested in the fans. From day one till their breakup, it was clear that the "Killjoys," as we are most often called, were the most important thing. For this reason, I find it incredibly hard to believe that they expected this level of excitement for the trailer. It's more likely that they didn't think so much of their fan base still remained, over three years after the breakup.
But former and current killjoys came out of the woodwork when they got wind of the possible reunion. Virtually all my friends, who swear up and down that they've surpassed their "emo" phase, were absolutely freaking out.
You see, people like to believe that they can just outgrow their emo trash phase once they get out of middle school. But, as so many people discovered, you can take the kid out of the emo phase, but you can't take the emo phase out of the kid.
…Or something along those lines.
People were ready, black eyeliner in hand and about to hit up Hot Topic. We were sure that emo was going to be cool again. We could finally wear our black skinny jeans and comb our bangs over our eyes without being made fun of.
Except, nope!
So the short answer? It looks like MCR is gone for good. But with the overwhelming positive response to their video, will they change their decision?
As someone who has experienced the original breakup, my answer is no, probably not. I think in our hearts, all us Killjoys know that chances for a reunion are still, as they have always been, incredibly slim. But with my emo hopes still sky high, I can only hope that I'm wrong.
