I am a possessive person.
Not with everything, mind you. Need a pen? Check my desk. Like a shirt? Sure, just wash it before you return it. I'll even lend people large amounts of money with the assurance that I'll be paid back in full.
What I am possessive with is my music. Particularly The Smiths and Morrissey.
I'll admit I'm relatively new to The Smiths. When "Hand in Glove" was released, I was a mere embryo. But when I was eighteen it took one listen to Singles and I latched on. It's an almost primitive attachment: somehow these four men managed to find the exact words and melodies that perfectly describe what I feel, how I think. Never mind that I'm female, American, and was three years old when the band broke up. They just get it. Morrissey understands me. Clichéd as it may sound, it's true, and I'm sure many people would agree with me.
And I won't share them.
The main offender for this? Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy.
Fall Out Boy, if you don't know, are more of the emo pop sort of music that's popular among American teens at the moment. They've had a huge cult following for years where I live because they're locals. My brother has even followed them around the state of Illinois and can brag that he's seen them in concert a whopping ten times. And I could ignore Fall Out Boy, and their irritating bassist, were it not for the fact that I am always hearing about how much Pete Wentz loves The Smiths.
It's bad enough he writes lyrics evocative of teen drama. It's bad enough that I see his smug, slack-jawed, Paris Hilton permatanned face on every music channel and every magazine cover. How can a person like that have the same passion for a group that I do? I am totally confused as to how a group so erudite, intelligent, passionate as The Smiths inspired some flavor of the month group like Fall Out Boy. Somewhere along the line the "inspiration" was polluted. God forbid he inspire millions of young teens in metal studded belts and metal studded teeth to go out and buy The Queen Is Dead.
I don't mean to say The Smiths are completely, exclusively mine; if I truly felt that way I wouldn't be contributing this article. I don't care if some of my friends listen to them, either, I know some people who are even bigger fans than I am. For a group like Fall Out Boy to like The Smiths, a person like Pete Wentz... it's like buying a puppy from a breeder and having it grow up to be a complete mutt. A poor analogy, but I'm not sure how else to put it. Pete Wentz, you may have your own book called The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, but to me you will never truly know the meaning of the song - clandestine (and yes, I used that word on purpose) love, hate, anything - the way I do. It says nothing to you about your life.
Here is another example. On the Fall Out Boy website, www.falloutboyrock.com, Pete Wentz leaves this snippet for his fans to ponder:
"What you think is your personality is just a collage of Seventeen articles and cleverly contrived lyrics. Read a book - talk to someone very old - fall asleep with the window open - write down a secret about yourself. Escape."*
To me, this is incredibly ironic. Fall Out Boy basically is "a collage of Seventeen articles and cleverly contrived lyrics." They don't mean anything, not the way The Smiths do. If The Smiths read the book, Fall Out Boy skimmed the Cliffs Notes five minutes before class. They feel like impostors, and to someone who loves, idolizes, Morrissey and The Smiths, it verges on blasphemy for them to say they were influenced by The Smiths. You can't feel it. Listen to "How Soon Is Now," then listen to "Dance Dance" and you'll know what I mean.
Perhaps it's just a personal preference. My brother thinks Morrissey is too whiny and gay. Pete Wentz himself says, "It's about the relationship the songs have with your ears. Not the relationship that what comes out of other people's mouths have with them."** But for Pete Wentz to profess love, to inspire other teenyboppers to listen to my band... it feels like the relationship between my ears and The Smiths' songs has been violated.
*Wentz, Pete. Diary post, 26 Dec 2005. http://www.falloutboyrock.com/falloutboy/journal.php
**Ibid, 8 Dec 2005.
