Politicians for centuries have viewed new cultures emerging from young people as a threat to society. Most new fads with young people come from new music, for example with the punks surfacing in the 70s there was a massive outcry from the older generation that they would be the downfall of all things establishment. Despite the banning of trends never being successful (i.e. if you ban something it only makes it more popular) Russia is thinking of stamping out emo. Russian officials think that emo is a ‘threat to national stability’ and that it is a dangerous teenage trend which leads to suicide and depression. Their evidence is limited to just a few examples of people actually self harming and committing suicide. Surely if emo was so dangerous then everyone who listened to the likes of My Chemical Romance would be rushing to the nearest high building or buying strong rope and razor blades. It’s not the case.
A coroner in Britain recently linked the suicide of a teenage girl to her obsession with emo and goth music. It lead to a protest on the streets of London against the misconception that emotional music is dangerous. It’s kind of like saying that everyone who listened to punk was an anarchist… stop waging wars on people you know nothing about.
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