I guess the problem here is not the bands (each individual has hir taste.. Tristania rocks! xD), but of course the cliques, the trend, all that stuff which comes with it...
I mean, for many of those sort of 'subcultures' a pair of decades ago you had some sort of counter-culture behind; the punk 'no-future', the gothic 'not even a present' and its idealization of a non-industrialized nature based past our ancestors are idealized to enjoy... the problem is, when this becomes a postmodernist trend, that is to say, a pattern which is imitated and refracted again and again until any trace of meaning is lost in the pure imitation process and its mercantilization...
In the case of Emo, it seems as if there was not even any sort of counter-cultural idea to begin with, just the impulse to find a new trend, a new 'cool thing'... though, maybe (just to be less harsh
), it is a sympthom on that the postmodern-subculture-trendyness consisting on imitation and mindless pattern following is getting to a point these new sorts of trends like Emo are unconsciously just weak attempts on trying to find something which is out of the trend labelling, something new which has still not been eaten by the pattern recognition of mercantilization (but then again, Emo seems to have embraced so fast having an empty and recognizable pattern...)
I mean, for many of those sort of 'subcultures' a pair of decades ago you had some sort of counter-culture behind; the punk 'no-future', the gothic 'not even a present' and its idealization of a non-industrialized nature based past our ancestors are idealized to enjoy... the problem is, when this becomes a postmodernist trend, that is to say, a pattern which is imitated and refracted again and again until any trace of meaning is lost in the pure imitation process and its mercantilization...
In the case of Emo, it seems as if there was not even any sort of counter-cultural idea to begin with, just the impulse to find a new trend, a new 'cool thing'... though, maybe (just to be less harsh
), it is a sympthom on that the postmodern-subculture-trendyness consisting on imitation and mindless pattern following is getting to a point these new sorts of trends like Emo are unconsciously just weak attempts on trying to find something which is out of the trend labelling, something new which has still not been eaten by the pattern recognition of mercantilization (but then again, Emo seems to have embraced so fast having an empty and recognizable pattern...)