From Under the Cork Tree:Fall Out Boy

Label: Island

Genre: Pop-punk, emo

Rating: 7/10

Chicago's Fall Out Boy prove on this third LP they're too good to be labeled a pop-punk band, the dynamics and musicianship of songs like "Of All the Gin Joints in the World" beyond any three-chord anti-establishmentarianist stereotypes. Considering their hardcore background and usage thereof, signs point to the politicized, popularized, new millennial definition of emo. Fall Out Boy are currently being touted as a band that will break into the stratosphere that groups like Yellowcard and Taking Back Sunday have already reached, but who makes up the majority of this rabid following? The smirk on Pete Wentz's face in the lyric booklet and the ASBOs of "Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner" says teenage girls. Why has this always been the case for emo? Here is another band that has consistently objectified women to the point that all we ever hear about is how miserably vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump got treated during a relationship or after a one-night stand to avoid feeling blue about the LAST girl that ditched him... And yet still they manage to bring in the masses. It's never a mother or a sister as it is in alt-country or even hip-hop, where females are objectified more egregiously but not nearly as often; it is, however, always a heartache that inspires a sing-along young girls the country over buy and sing happily along to. Strangely, feminists have not taken up the issue and as such the political firestorm emo nervously keeps at bay via beautifully heartbroken "bois" and catchy choruses has yet to find a fan for its flame. Women, do you really want to prolong a genre built up entirely on breaking you down? Having moved out from under the cork tree, I now safely hope not. From at least one man disturbed at the lack of uproar over gender inequality and cultural hypocrisy: You are clear to raze this rotting forest once and for all.

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