Everyone Has To Start Somewhere

"If for one minute you think you're better than a sixteen year old girl in a Green Day t-shirt, you are sorely mistaken. Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favorite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about.” - Gerard Way

That quote is what its all about. There are so many people in the music scene today who think they are better than the newcomers because they have been in the scene for a long time. Maybe they have been in a few bands and therefore they feel they are superior. Or maybe they have been going to shows since they were little. Perhaps their parents raised them in the pit. But not everyone had that musical upbringing. I know I didn’t. I feel accepted in the scene now, but when I first started going to shows I felt out of place. It was like high school all over again. Everyone had their little cliques and I wasn’t a part of any of them. It wasn’t until I realized that these people weren’t any better than me that I stopped trying to fit in and just did it.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Unlike most of my friends who were going to Fletchers since they were fourteen and knew everything there was to know about the local scene, I didn’t go to my first show until I was seventeen. I only listened to classic rock in high school. I barely knew who Fall Out Boy was when Sugar We’re Going Down was popular. I was too busy jamming to The Doors and Queen. It wasn’t until I graduated and was working at Wal*mart that I realized how much I liked the music that I love now. Thanks to Michael Stuprich I listened to Senses Fail and My Chemical Romance for the first time. It was something else. And then a few weeks after I got into all of that, my friend Jen and I drove to Philly to see Senses Fail at the Electric Factory. I wore a Senses Fail tee-shirt and when they started their set, I felt at home. All of the people rushing the stage knew the words just like I did. They loved the tunes just like I did. And after the show they waited by the busses to get their autographs and pictures with the band just like me.

After that I was hooked. I started to go to local shows, joined street teams, and blasted my new favorite music all the time. And for the most part I would still feel safe and among friends, even if I didn’t know the band that was playing. But there were still those pretentious people who thought they were better than me because they knew the band or they had been going to see that particular group since they had formed. And those people took that comfort away from me. They thought they were better than me because they didn’t wear the band’s shirt to the show, after all that was super lame right? Just like I wasn’t radtastic because I wore jeans and didn’t have crazy awesome extensions and at the time my skin was ink free. But there was still the music and the music made it not matter. I loved the people up on stage, and not because they were musicians and band guys are like totally hot (insert sarcasm here). I loved them because they believed in the music they played. And they made me believe in it too.

Today I find myself a different person than that shy girl who was new in the scene but I’m still very much the same person I’ve always been. I still wear band tee’s and I still rock my blue jeans. I don’t have extensions in my hair. Granted I did end up getting tattooed and pierced, but that wasn’t to fit in. When I go to a show I still love finding a band that is in it for the love of the music. And there are still those people who try to make me feel inferior because they’ve been at this way longer than I have. And to them I want to give a big “whoop dee fucking doo”. Just because you have had the pleasure of going to shows longer than I have doesn’t mean you’re any better than me or anyone else for that matter. We are all at the same level, united under the music that we are all there to enjoy.

Alright. Thus ends my rant. I hope that if you take something away from this. I hope that you realize that everyone has to start somewhere. And rather than making them feel unwelcome and inferior, maybe you should try to take them under your wing and show them the ropes. Who knows what awesome things could come from that.

Till next time.
Mandie