The Gods of Emo Have Returned: An Ode to MCR
by Lily Hartenstein and Isaiah Anthony
My Chemical Romance ended their six-year break on Halloween, when they announced a reunion show in Los Angeles; it sold out almost immediately. Since then, they have added three more shows: one in New Zealand, one in Australia, and another in Japan. No formal announcement regarding a full tour or new album have followed, but rumors are flying everywhere.
As it stands now, the extent of My Chemical Romance’s reunion is vague: While there has been no word of new music from the group, it’s unlikely the band’s members spent six years shooting down a constant stream of questions about a reunion only to reinvigorate and tease the fan base for a handful of shows.
Immediately after the initial announcement of the band’s return, Twitter erupted in excited memes. Tumblr, or what remains of it, looked like it did in 2009 again, as fan art and angsty posts about not being able to see them live flooded the site. Their YouTube page saw a 190 percent increase in views since the announcement, and their new “Best Of” Spotify playlist already has over 40,000 subscribers. The band has also recently reached the charts again, with streams of their music rising by about 12 percent.
The reunion announcement seems to signal the “second coming of emo.” With the popularization of “emo rap” thanks to Soundcloud, the current trend of edginess and e-boys/e-girls, and the nostalgic return to early 2000’s style, our popular culture is ripe for the resurgence. As soon as My Chemical Romance threw their hat into the ring, it became official: Former emos are awakening, new emos are forming, and the sub-genre that is a culture in itself is about to experience its second Golden Age.
The impact that My Chemical Romance had before their break is apparent and unarguable. My Chemical Romance was the life-force of emo, the quintessential representation of all aspects of the genre. They were widely successful, and had a large and diverse fanbase, but by far, the most prevalent and passionate of their fans were middle and high school teenagers: they seemed to capture the unapologetic emotion of teenagerdom, writing music that was as genuine as it was filled with angst, and that touched their listeners. What made My Chemical Romance stand out from other emo bands of the time, and what allowed them such large success, was that they were able to deliver that emotional intimacy on a huge scale, with unending honesty. They were a band that let everyone in, anyone that ever felt like a misfit in their life—and as it turns out, that was a lot of people.
The band took the responsibility of their voice very seriously: “Sometimes, honestly, I feel like we’re moderating a support group,” frontman Gerard Way told ‘Spin’ in 2007. “We tap into dark stuff from the high school years, and it’s our responsibility to bring kids to a positive, nonviolent solution.”
In Way’s 2013 open letter that declared the end of My Chemical Romance, he attributed the disbanding to an overwhelming sense of staleness and a refusal to force art where there was none. He described My Chemical Romance as “a perfect machine, beautiful, yet self aware of it’s system. Under directive to terminate before it becomes compromised. To protect the idea- at all costs.” Way did not want to see My Chemical Romance age into formula, gradually morphing into painfully generic rock in line with their contemporaries (although, perhaps there is room for one more act on the Hella Mega Tour. A lot can change in six years, but Way’s letter certainly felt like the end, going so far as to give the band the ‘V for Vendetta’ treatment, declaring that “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. I always knew that, and I think you did too. Because it is not a band - it is an idea.” Clearly, something changed.
Those that remember My Chemical Romance’s disbandment know that it was shocking but incredibly on-brand. Part of what immortalized My Chemical Romance as a cultural staple of the naughts was the finality of their art. They did not overstay their welcome, nor milk their fan base’s loyalty. By not allowing themselves to fade slowly into operational irrelevance, they cast a layer of mysticism and historic purity over their discography, enshrining themselves not as a mortal band, but as a brief moment in time; a defining piece of culture whose legacy stretches far longer than their tenure. Fated for destruction since conception, they were martyrs for the cultural subsection they helped solidify: one fuelled by angst, adolescence, and dejection, all of which were in high supply in post-9/11 America, all of which became the catalyst for the band’s formation.
Half a decade later, the announcement of their breakup remains vivid in the minds of their fans. Social media profiles turned monochromatically black to mourn the loss of a generational voice. There was confusion, anger, and denial, all of which were already ample among the fan base. The composer of their troubled symphony was gone; a foundational piece of their character now existed only in memory, which sometimes is the ideal place to exist.
While the 2010s were mostly devoid of My Chemical Romance, their legacy littered the cultural discourse, which questions if their impact would have been as strong had they been producing music during that time. Way was prolific in calling My Chemical Romance an ‘idea’ more than a ‘band.’ Now, the role of My Chemical Romance in their reunion is to maintain that idea.
While there’s no doubt that My Chemical Romance holds a certain level of status based on the impact of their former work, the question that remains is if their authenticity can carry over to today. The world is quite a different place than it was in the early 2000s, and the members of the band have all grown and changed a lot. We may need the emotional vulnerability and unflinching acceptance My Chemical Romance provided now more than ever before, but whether or not we are willing to embrace that culture, and whether or not the music can provide that, is still questionable. Other former goliaths of emo that are making music today, like Fall Out Boy, have failed to maintain the essence of the genre and sub-culture — not to get into any criticism of their music, but what they make today is nothing like the genre they once helped define. My Chemical Romance, with their impressive legacy, now has the task of living up to it.