My Rant Book

Punk Rock and Outcasts

A/N:  I have felt this way for a while now but have never really made a full blown rant about it so don't get butt hurt.

So I've noticed something for about the past little over a year I've been in the "5sosfam."

This fandom, the 5sos fandom, tends to overuse 2 words quite a lot: punk rock and outcast.

The problem with that is... NINETY FREAKING PERCENT OF Y'ALL DON'T KNOW WTF YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT OR WTF EITHER OF THOSE WORDS MEAN.

Let's start with punk rock.

I am well aware that it is an inside joke within the fandom. The problem here is 1. it's now way overused and old and 2. some of you are ACTUALLY being legit dead serious. Some people ACTUALLY truly believe 5sos are punk rock and that actually makes me wanna gouge my eyes out.

Repeat after me: 5SOS. ARE. NOT. PUNK ROCK.

PERIOD.

THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN PUNK ROCK.

AND THEY NEVER WILL BE.

They were JOKING about the punk rock comment and some of y'all took it seriously. And now that She's Kinda Hot came out you're all like OMG IT'S SO PUNK ROCK no bitches it really isn't. It's pop punk. NOT punk rock.

I feel like some people think if anything is heavier than pop rock/pop punk it MUST be punk rock. Do y'all not know there are SO many genres out there??? I can't even name them all myself. Punk rock is not the go to for anything that isn't in the top 40.

Punk rock is a genre, but also a concept mainly. It is a concept of anarchy and rebellion, talks about political and social issues, has a "screw the man" attitude. 

5sos do NONE of the above and no Rejects doesn't count. Rejects talks about exactly that. Being a reject. It is neither political nor social. Same with She's Kinda Hot.

If you want examples of punk rock, go listen to The Offspring (who I LOVE go listen to their Americana album), The Misfits, or The Ramones. Google the definition of punk rock and its history. Don't hold on to your pride and refuse to be educated. I'm not saying you're all supposed to automatically know your music genres, but once someone points something out, go research! And we can go from there.

And I know some people think music genres are an opinion and what I have to say to that is no. No they're not. They were constructed for a reason and were constructed in different meticulous ways by the founders and heads of the music industry over time to separate everything out and give it a name, and many other genres come from other genres. They sprout off, like generations, like babies. They are important in music culture. They are FACTS, NOT opinions.

And before someone comes at me saying I don't know anything about music (because there's always one), I am actually a music performance major in college. I have a friend that is majoring in the music industry basically. I look up music history and band facts and genre facts for fun. I dive deep into the very core of music for shits and giggles. Between the two of us, yes. Yes I DO know what I'm talking about.

Also, while I'm at it, half of you also pretend to like bands just because 5sos do, which makes you fake af. You DON'T have to like everything they like and it doesn't make you less of a fan. You can discover a band through them and listen. I've found bands through 5sos that I GENUINELY like, but to pretend to just for 5sos. Like 90% of you claim to love Nirvana but if I ask you to name a song other than Smells Like Teen Spirit, Heart Shaped Box, or Rape Me half of y'all would fail so hard it is not even funny. Ffs be original.

Next point, ever since She's Kinda Hot came out not even 48 hours ago I can't even tell you how many times I have seen people going "OMG THIS SONG IS SO INSPIRATIONAL BECAUSE WE ARE ALL OUTCASTS THEY'RE TELLING US TO BE OURSELVES AND IT TALKS ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESSES AND OMG." 

First of all, when tf did 5sos talk about mental health issues in that song? Because I struggle with several and I get ecstatic when I hear a song talking about it, and honey, they did not talk about it in there. Which is not a bad thing, I DO like the song a lot. I'm just saying that is way too far a stretch. You wanna hear about mental illness go listen to Last Resort by Papa Roach or Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park and cry because that's what I do when I listen to them.

Second of all, yes the song is SLIGHTLY uplifting. Maybe for some of you it's the most inspirational thing you've ever heard and if it helps you who am I to stop you? HOWEVER, people keep saying how we are all outcasts and how many people in the fam are outcasts.

Let me be clear. Just because we are in the 5sos fandom does not make us outcasts. Idk if y'all know this but 5sos is one of the most popular bands right now so none of us are super outcasts we are like half the world right now. Also I feel like some of you don't know what outcast means because half of you are the exact opposite of an outcast. 

An outcast is someone COMPLETELY rejected by society, their school, their peers etc. 

If you have a clique of friends, you are not an outcast.

If you are in a relationship, you are not an outcast (at least not the most severe case because you can be alone I guess idk.)

If you have not been bullied, you are not an outcast.

If you fit society standards, YOU. ARE. NOT. AN. OUTCAST.

Half of you dress like every typical preppy popular person which is YOUR choice and I am NOT saying it's a bad thing, but what I AM saying is that you are NOT an outcast if you fit in.

I'd maybe say like fans of "emo bands"could be outcast like because everyone seems to associate emo with cutting and suicide and depression and weirdness and none of the above is true.

And also, if you truly were an outcast, you would not advertise it and parade around like it's a fashion statement. A TRUE outcast would know how completely alone, sad, and depressing it is to be one. I don't have many friends. I have 2 and one lives in another state. In college I eat alone most of the time, don't talk to many people. I rarely go out. No one likes me much. I'm bad at making friends. It's so lonely and I would NEVER scream to the mountains I'm an outcast because as an outcast you hide it if you can, at least online.

I am tired of people using awkward weird and outcast as if it is cute. It's not. It's hard. Lonely. Sad. Awful. I do not want to be any of those things. I wish I could make friends, meet a boy and have him like me, fit in, go out, etc. But I can't have that and never really did but some of you are taking this idea of outcast and making it cute and desirable to the point where it is now trendy and you're just like everyone else.

It's NOT cute or funny. STOP IT.

STOP overusing both of those words until you learn what the actual fuck they mean.

I'm out.