The Truth About Scene Kids (And Why You Should Hate Them!)

Dustin Hahn

Freshman/Undeclared

The Truth About Scene Kids (And Why You Should Hate Them!)

            Years ago, I saw an online flier that had the header “Punch your neighborhood straight edge kid today!” For those of you who don’t know the truth about straight edge, look it up. Anyhow, sitting in bed one night in recent days, I realized how wrong that flier was: it shoulda said “Beat the shit out of every Scene kid you can find!”

            Ah yes, the Scene kids: colorful, bubbly, fun, life loving, emo-like, scene stealing posers. We all know them, we’ve all seen them, hell you might even be one. Whoopee do for you. But I’m willing to bet you and your best friend couldn’t tell me the truth about Scene. A little hint: it has to do with the fun words at the end of the first sentence in this paragraph. Let’s explore.

            There are two types of Scene kids: the 1% who are true Scene kids and the 99% who are posers. They have similarities and differences of course. Both will dress relatively the same: skinny jeans, anime or teased up style hair, bright colors, tight flannel shirts (which I never understood), vintage/band tees, chucks, etc. We all know what they look like. However, this is about where the similarities end.

The 1% of Scene kids out there has one huge distinction that sets them apart from the other 99%. This distinction is the fact that a real Scene kid will NEVER flaunt, tell, or inform anyone that they are a Scene kid, because the it doesn’t matter to them; they just wanna be themselves: unique. A real Scene kid will practically worship the music they love and endorse and when wearing a band t-shirt, can hold a conversation regarding that and similar bands. The music is key and held in much higher regard than fashion. They are kind, outgoing, fun people (with exceptions of course). Naturally, a real Scene kid is pretty damn hard to come by nowadays.

 Unfortunately, the other 99% of Scene kids aren’t hard to find. They’re the ones that will talk loud and obnoxiously, telling everyone that can hear that they are a Scene kid. They eat up all the attention they can get due to that association. These are the ones that achieved the name Scene. A little known fact is that Scene kids didn’t give themselves this name. Instead, the people whose scenes were ruined due to this disease gave it to them, to signify that they don’t have a scene, that they just steal a different one. In trying to be unique, they aren’t, and are therefore simple “scene.” All these kids started joining these alternative scenes, and started calling themselves original and unique. They disrespect every scene they touch, infecting them and disgracing those who truly know the history and culture. First it was emo, by taking the dress and music, but inevitably caring more about how they looked rather than how they felt or how they interacted with and loved the music. This is key to what makes a typical Scene kid: they’re egotistical bastards that hold themselves up on a pedestal above the world, who think they’re unique by following a certain trend in a certain way, when they really just follow their Scene kid friends as they do the same damn thing. They ruined emo for a long time, but that isn’t the only scene that has been affected by this menace.

For many people, culture is all you have. I myself believe strongly in the rave culture (PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect is the ravers mantra) and the music being the number one priorities) and its subcultures (glowsticking especially). Rave culture, my culture, was also attacked by these fuckheads, and it is a disgrace to know that Scene kids have adopted some of the symbols that ravers hold so dear. Scene kids saw how ravers lived and dressed and took them in part as their own, making brightly colored bead bracelets and calling it kandi (a very important symbol in rave culture that is supposed to be handmade and traded in friendship). However, they failed to learn any of the culture and mantra that was associated with wearing kandi. Kandi is sacred to the vast majority of true ravers and seeing places like Hot Topic bend over backwards for these dumbass Scene kids (like has been done in the past by making scenes like goth, indie, and now rave into mainstream ideas) by selling pre-made kandi made me want to vomit in disgust. I for one will never buy anything from there again.

However, I must admit one thing: I used to accept the term Scene (though I didn’t know any better at the time of what the truth really was about Scene kids). I’ve given kandi to them, thinking they’d understand what it was all about if I explained it to them. I even dated someone who was outright proud to call herself Scene, who, for a time, believed in some of my rave beliefs. As you can tell, I eventually saw the reality behind Scene kids (though that isn’t the reason we broke up). Through my entire life, every single person who I’ve gotten to be close friends with, who called themselves Scene, has proven themselves to be the typical Scene kid: wannabe posers, who can’t find where they want to be, can’t hog enough attention, and continue to ruin the scenes that others truly love. They’ll go from one trend to the next, tossing out the current one a second after stealing it as their own, as often as they change their fucking panties.

But you like how they dress so you wanna be a part of it? I hear ya; I love the style and even have a few pairs of tight shirts that would cross as Scene if I wanted them to. And I’ll admit, Scene girls can be extremely hot (and while I don’t have much of an opinion, I can assume the same can be said about the guys of the scene as well). So dress like them. Listen to music like them. But listen to what speaks to your heart and your soul, not what someone else is telling you to listen to. Learn about another culture or scene if you really must. But be sure you learn that other culture well before you commit to it, only to have it end in ruin.

Why label yourself, especially as Scene? Cause it makes you cool? It makes you a giant prick. Be your own damn self and do it your own damn way. Stop reinventing something you have no interest in and know nothing about. This is what true Scene is all about. No, I take that back: this is what being unique is all about. Fuck Scene.



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