in which i live up to my name

[kaizoku]

I downloaded like... 20 cds worth of music tonight. *music hangover* And then I went and saw La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon) which is lovely and heartbreaking and bilingual and you should all go see it at the theater if you can.

*Looking at bandom picspam* I'm really glad that people like and are interested in the girlfriends of the bandboys. But it bothers me when the justification for not hating one of them is "she makes him happy." I see this ALL OVER. I get where it's coming from, because yeah, of course your first allegiance was to the person in the band. But I don't like the implication that she's just there to make the boy happy, that that is her function. And it raises the question -- if they break up and she's not making him happy anymore, are you going to go back to hating her? I don't think most (sane) people would actually do that, but that's what we're setting ourselves up for here.

I have a longer rant about how white boy fandom feels like it's all-pervasive and how frustrated I'm getting with that but I'll spare you all for now.

Comments

[echelon-ga-l.livejournal.com]

I so totally agree ! I mean, I simply hate them all the time, before, during and after the relationship, like that I'm just a jealous fangirl and I never change my opinions ! ^^"

No well honestly, if they're in love ok that's cool but who can pretend she's happy when she sees a hot guy with another girl ? Even f you already have someone yourself... a bit of jealousy doesn't matter. In fact, I tend to ignore the official girlfriends and keep on slashing the boys.

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

I don't really get the jealousy thing... I mean I understand feeling like it makes harder to slash them (depending on how attached you are to canon.) But actual jealousy? Seems strange to me. (But then I'd be okay with my boyfriend sleeping with other people too, so maybe I just don't have that gene.)

Also the girlfriends add to the pool of hot girls that can be written about, which for me is a good thing. *g*

[echelon-ga-l.livejournal.com]

I'm a jealous girl. Very jealous but I hide it and I don't annoy my boy with that. Of course I wouldn't bear if he slept with other girls but I wouldn't mind boys as long as he let me be aware of that and share the dirty little secrets (ah the joys of bisexual boyfriends !).

But I think you helped me understanding why I didn't like the band boys girlfriends : they always date some hollywood chicks and I can't stand that kind of girls. All the girls I had crushes on didn't look like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, etc... For example I worshiped Manson for dating Dita Von Teese. She's totally my kind of girl ! :p

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

they always date some hollywood chicks

Oh yeah, there's definitely some issues there. Bands with older guys like MCR seem to have more unconventionally beautiful partners... Of course then there's the fans calling Ryan Ross' girlfriend fat, ugh.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

I have a longer rant about how white boy fandom feels like it's all-pervasive and how frustrated I'm getting with that but I'll spare you all for now.

Intersections of race and fandom and fannish patterns? If you ever feel like sharing, please do!

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Also, yeah, duh. Very good point about the girlfriends. The human beings who just also happen to be some bandboy's gf.

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

Cool. I feel like I should figure it out more in my head first but thank you for the encouragement. Part of it is I feel like I'm getting *myself* into fandoms that are all about white boys and I knew that going in so I have only myself to blame. (I don't want to harsh on anyone else's squee but sometimes I just feel like saying "oh great, another band/show full of white boys I can't even tell apart. Why should I care and don't just say because they're precious.")

The human beings who just also happen to be some bandboy's gf.
Yeah, exactly.

Hey are you into bandom? *memory fail*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

(I don't want to harsh on anyone else's squee but sometimes I just feel like saying "oh great, another band/show full of white boys I can't even tell apart. Why should I care and don't just say because they're precious.")

You shouldn't. *eg*

And Jesus Christ, no, very much not in bandom. By now wish I had a killfile for bandom entries.

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

Hehe. Sorry. It would be nice if there was a way to filter on tags. Though I would miss your voice of sanity!

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Sanity! *giggle*

But no, I'm just being grumpy; I'm not really going to filter out people on the flist--they're on it for a reason. And you definitely don't strike me as an ABATT person (All Bandom, All The Time).

[mapsandlegends.livejournal.com]

I am a complete bandom noob, so would you mind telling me which bands are part of this whole kit and caboodle?

I have a longer rant about how white boy fandom feels like it's all-pervasive and how frustrated I'm getting with that but I'll spare you all for now.

My problem with most of this music is that it seems so homogenous (sadly not the fun sort of homo- prefixed word I would prefer ^__-). OMG, I've gotten old!

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

Well, there's "bandom" in the sense that you see most often on livejournal which is sort of 6 degrees of Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and includes Panic at the Disco, Cobra Starship, The Academy Is..., Gym Class Heroes, The Used, Paramore, The Hush Sound, The Sounds, Straylight Run, Taking Back Sunday, All-American Rejects, Brand New, Plain White T's, The Cab, give or take a few others. A lot of these bands are on the Fueled by Ramen label and they've toured and played together. I've also seen fic for AFI, Avenged Sevenfold, Good Charlotte, Cute Is What We Aim For, Green Day, My Bloody Valentine, Placebo... and a lot of other rock bands I can't think of right now. Some people consider all of them bandom while other people just use it to mean the FOB/MCR-related bands.

My problem with most of this music is that it seems so homogenous

No, I agree... I mean they're not all the same but most of the bands have a pop-punk sound and collectively they comprise a tiny, tiny fraction of the music I enjoy. I think it's the combination of this set of bands all knowing each other plus the context of the "scene" in general (plus the "stagegay") that's made it so popular.

[jelliclekat.livejournal.com]

I don't know about other people, but I'm not implying anything when I say "she makes him happy." Generally I'm referring to Ryan Ross's girlfriend, who I'm certain has many other amazing qualities, but I just don't know all the much about her. All I know is that when she is in pictures with Ryan Ross, he has this gigantic, amazing smile on his face. Therefore I assume that she is a good person whom he cares a lot about, and when I see people wishing they'd break up, I get a little snarly.

It's not that I think her sole function as Girlfriend is to make him happy. It's just that all I know--because I do not know them in real life--is that she makes him happy, and he makes her happy, and so I am ridiculously pleased for them both and love them all to bits. If she did not make him happy--not just as in if they broke up, but if she seriously fucked him up somehow--then I would no longer think she was awesome. And vice versa if Ryan Ross ever found it in his squishy little marshmallows-and-sunbeams heart to be cruel to her--my dislike of evil people does not end where celebrities begin.

[/possibly nonsensical post-midnight babble of bandom reasoning]