Emo, Pop Punk, and its variants in mid-2000s high school culture. Or, It Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race.
Very first thing is a shout out to the Punk Rock MBA: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePunkRockMBA/videos https://www.instagram.com/finnmckenty/ https://www.thepunkrockmba.com/the-punk-rock-mba-podcast/ I've been wanting to write a response to all of their content for a long time, and while it's great that Finn responds directly to social media posts and messages, there's a lot that I want to say that's impossible to fit into an Instagram DM. But, without their content on Youtube and in their podcast, this is a topic that I never would've thought about addressing. While I definitely fucked with the hardcore scene (my first two concerts were a rock/metal show at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, and a hardcore show at Skelletones), to the point where a few of my good friends who I'd have over for bonfires and stuff were actually in bands that played at Skelletones, my little anti-establishment tear in high school had me digging into country, alt-country, cowpunk, a