Pind.

 

The black parade is dead

After so many songs about wrist slitting, is it finally over?

Ren asa

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Reviewer

eeing as we’re all such mature
S and refined adults here at Douglas

College, there’s a topic I’ve wanted
to tackle for some time. Over the past
decade, music has taken, more or less, a
turn for the worst. From one fad to another,
we've seen many ‘popular’ artists come
and go in the blink of an eye. But these
artists (Soulja Boy, The Jonas Brothers,
and Hoobastank to name a few), if not
just awful, will have a decent sound that
becomes tarnished after being overplayed.
But those are merely individual names;
when one goes, ten other MySpace bands
(yes, MySpace still exists) will be there to
replace them. What I’m focusing on is an
entire genre that at one point conquered
airwaves all over the world, and without
much notice, suddenly disappeared.

Emo is often described as rising
from the 80s punk movement, particularly
that of hardcore punk, but its roots can
be traced back to two bands. The first is
Minor Threat (1980-1983), who had a
major influence in establishing the sound
of modern day punk bands. The second
is Rites of Spring (1984-1986), who
have been arguably considered the first
official emo band for blending the punk
sound with deeply emotional lyrics — for
the record, neither band is proud of this.
Between then and the early 90s, more
bands began branching off into similar
genres, such as post-hardcore, pop punk,
and grunge. During this time, the specifics
of ‘emo’ were still being worked on, with
bands like Weezer, Green Day, and The’
Offspring creating something of a segue
for the genre. By the late 90s, many of
today’s emo bands had begun forming —
what they didn’t realize is this new-ish
sound they were perfecting was emo.

By 2002, emo had risen to immense
popularity within the United States.
Canada didn’t necessarily catch on until
the rest of the world did, so what in U.S.
youth culture could’ ve rattled them in
the early 2000s? What could’ve possibly
brought their emotions to such a distraught

6

 

and bleak standstill? In a strange way, 9/11
was the event that brought emo into the
mainstream. Emo may have been popular
worldwide, but it never reached the same
level of popularity that it still holds in the
United States. The universal fear felt there
was transferred back to the already angry
and confused creatures known commonly
as teenagers.

In those pivotal stages of puberty,
many learn to turn to music as their
source of venting out their frustrations;
the angrier, the better. One wasn’t going
to feel any better watching the beautiful
people on MTV, so the next best thing was
literally MTV2, which at the time still held
a heavy hand in bringing attention to rising
artists. It always disappoints me when
people laugh, but before the sound became
trendy, their whiny lyrics and generally
uninspired music actually got many kids
through that time and introduced them to
earlier (and much better) punk and metal
bands later on.

Once the emo genre began circling
the wrong crowds that was when the
worldwide phenomena started. Much like
Minor Threat and Rites of Spring, several
current core emo bands became extremely
hostile to the term. As such, what I’ve
noticed was that many bands openly
selling albums under the emo label were
the first to start dying off. Whether they
were jumping on the bandwagon is highly
arguable, but it says something about the
stability of the genre and those involved
in it. By 2010, many of them had broken
up (Fall Out Boy), had members die
(Hawthorne Heights), changed their sound,
are ‘working on new material’, or simply
snuck back into their underground lairs.

A lot of these bands were
understandably just as unstable as their
more dedicated fans. They’ll continue
to be ridiculed until metal fans find
something better to do, but the fact is they
spoke to a lot of people. So despite some
of the garbage that’s resulted, emo may not
have been meant to stay, but it had some
lasting effects on part of a generation.

 

Sonic finally rings in a winner

Sega make an impressive comeback with “Sonic Colors”

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Reviewer

ver time, various video game
Or and consoles receive

updates, expansions, revivals,
and sequels. The excitement of counting
down the final days towards the next
release date never gets old. All gamers
have a favourite series (and often
therefore console), and the dedication we
carry is arguably what keeps the gaming
industry alive. However, as is universally
agreed, there are some series’ that
desperately need to die. To put several
years of forum debates aside, the most
obvious choice is Sonic the Hedgehog
(STH).

Even those out of the gaming loop
know who this speedy blue hedgehog
is. Sega’s poster critter was one of the
biggest crazes in the early 90s, releasing
several acclaimed games and two popular
ABC cartoons shortly before it entered
redundancy. The series was expected to
fade out until Sega shocked everyone
with 1998’s “Sonic Adventure” (SA), and
again in 2001 with “Sonic Adventure 2”.
In a perfect world, Sega would’ ve ended
Sonic on a high note, but instead they
chose to repeat history: two more bizarre
cartoons and a slew of embarrassing
games. Once again, we anticipated an
upcoming end for Sonic, but at this
year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo,
Sega revealed other plans: amongst other
projects, “Sonic Colors”.

As the story goes, our notorious
archenemy, Dr. Eggman, has apparently
repented his evil ways. In an attempt to
convince us, he’s built the single most
epic theme park the gaming world has
seen in recent years. However, Sonic and
his pal, Tails, are one step ahead, and
faster than Sonic himself, we unravel
Eggman’s ‘secret’ plan. “Sonic Colors”
introduces us to a new race of aliens
called Wisps; cute, mostly squid-like
creatures that harness a different ability
depending on their specific color (e.g.
cyan turns you into a laser, orange into a
rocket, etc.). Eggman of course is using
the theme park as a forced captivity
for the wisps, and plans on using their

 

     

powers for his own gain. What this gain
is exactly, you'll have to get the game to
find out.

Sega has been trying to make 2010
the year of Sonic’s revival, from stripping
their least popular games from shelves to
(finally) hiring a brand new voice cast.
Their attempts, as usual, have been hit
and miss. For example, “SA” was ported
to the Xbox 360 and PS3 in September,
which met with a near-universal panning.
However, “Sonic Colors” seems to be
the best STH game we’ve seen in a long
time.

Although there is a copy for the
Nintendo DS, which contains different
features, I’ll be covering the Wii’s
version. The game play in “Sonic Colors”
literally blends that of every past STH
game, often switching from first-person
to side-scrolling views, and referencing
some classic scenes and moves as well.
The Wisps I have a mixed response to;
some Wisps, like cyan, really enhance the
game, while others like yellow (a drill)
can quickly become an annoyance. But as
you progress, you gradually unlock more
Wisps, which makes for some serious
replay value (similar to “SA2”).

Then there’s the graphics, which are
without a doubt some of the best we’ ve
ever seen on the Wii. The levels are
colourful and absolutely stunning, and the
theme park designs range from a trippy
space station to a mountain made of
cakes, candies, and hamburgers. In other
words, you’re going to have a lot of fun.

Unfortunately though, you’ll be
crossing some painful difficulty spikes
in later levels, succumbing to the ever-
annoying ‘cheap death’. Basically, your
first play-through will be your worst, but
that can be said for any game. Depending
on your sense of humour or nostalgia,
you may find the dialogue amusing or
embarrassing; the game really is geared
towards younger kids. Still, even if
you’re not a big Sonic fan, the game is
definitely worth at least a rental.

4/5