Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I have never believed that music causes suicide and I never will.

I discovered My Chemical Romance at a low point in my life. I was depressed and cutting. It was a year where people were being laid off of jobs and times were tough. My family was hardly getting by on the checks we got from the government.

We were living in a small one bedroom apartment on Main Street. The man who lived above us was named Larry. Despite his name, he was large in size and donned a teardrop tattoo. I could tell he must have been in prison at one point in his life. It was a time when the police would knock at the door and ask if we heard anything strange the night before.

Not only that, but it was the time I started wearing black.

I was a huge fan of Green Day and decided I would enter the goth scene myself. I didn't think anything of it until people would call me names and spit on me because of it. I thought wearing all black was normal.

I only would listen to the music that I had been listening to for a while and would not listen to new bands unless other people said they were good. My friend was into Rihanna and Chris Brown, so I listened to them. With that in mind, I would watch the music stations on television but as soon as a band I didn't know or like even the look of, I would change the channel or turn the TV off all together.

It was late 2005. November, I think. In class there were two boys I got along with great. They asked me, since I must've looked the type, "Do you like My Chemical Romance?"

I had no idea what they were talking about. "My Chem-- What?" I laughed.

They told me to watch the video for "Ghost of You" and I told them I would. At home, I was watching the music channel and the VJ (video jockey) announced that Ghost of You by My Chemical Romance was coming on. I straightened and turned it up to find that it was one of the videos I refused to watch before. Being war-themed and my favorite band, Green Day, being anti-war, I refused to watch it in the first place. But I did that day for the boys and I found that I liked it. I thought it was amazing.

Thus, I became a fan. Not thinking any of them were good-looking in the least and only liking the music. Most of all, their message to fans saved me from the fate that took my father. Suicide.

So, to this day, I believe that music can prevent suicide.
But can it cause it?

Hannah Bond was a 13 year old girl who was obsessed with My Chemical Romance and "emo." She hung herself in her bedroom. The coroner and her mother both speculated that the cause of her suicide quite possibly could have been her obsession with "emo music."

The Daily Mail in the UK investigated this heavily and was protested heavily as well. They considered My Chemical Romance "emo" and their fans a "suicide death cult."

Being a fan myself, I would have to laugh at this insane accusation. My Chemical Romance never considered themselves "emo" or supported "suicide." In fact, quite the opposite.

It is sad, what happened to Hannah. She was mislead and misguided but music was not to blame. One does not one day decide that they are going to kill themselves; it's a matter of what happens over a period of time.

Death is easier to blame on someone or something, but when it is the wrong thing, blame is used in vain. What should be happening here is reconsidering what might have lead this girl to do something so tragic.

Music does not cause suicide. People cause suicide.

I will not change my position on this matter. I would just like to share my opinion. Anyone with a contradicting position may contact me. I would like to hear your opinion as well.

xoxo
Charley Chibi