One of my favorite things about My Chemical Romance: they established their look early. They found what they were doing and branded it: black suits, red ties, peacoats, pinstripes. It was dark. It was edgy. It was cool…at least, thirteen year old me thought so.
Flashforward five years and a few records later, and My Chem shed the goth aesthetic for post-apocalyptic new wave. Neon colors. Torn sleeves. Bright hair dye. It was hard to believe not just that this was the same band, but that these were the same people. (I remember reading a Rolling Stone profile in fall of 2010 in which the writer was awestruck by the sight of Gerard Way, formerly overweight and decidedly unsexy, trim, nimble, and dancing on stage.)
Make no mistake, My Chem’s career has always been a game of aesthetics. Both these looks were carefully cultivated, the culmination of choices made to communicate a message about what kind of band they are and what kind of music they make.
And yet, the contrast between these two looks is stark, almost shocking. If you were following My Chemical Romance between 2005 and 2010, the difference between the aesthetic overtones of the Three Cheers… era and the Danger Days era is enough to make your head spin.
And that’s not even mentioning the music.
I suppose the biggest takeaway here is the creative practice of running the opposite direction. There’s a freedom in pushing against who you’ve established yourself to be. The perfect subversion of an audience’s expectations (and perhaps your own expectations for your work) is to do the opposite of what you would’ve done previously.
Run, run run, as fast and as far in the other direction as you can. Watch what happens…
joshua chamberlain 