My Chemical Romance

Submission 9,478

Part of a series on Emo. [View Related Entries]

About

My Chemical Romance, often abbreviated to MCR, is an American rock band formed in 2001 in Newark, New Jersey. Consisting mainly of Gerard Way, Frank Iero, Mikey Way, and Ray Toro, the group became one of the seminal pop-punk and third-wave emo bands of the mid-late 2000s before their breakup in 2013. In 2019, it was announced that the group would reunite for a show in Los Angeles.

History

My Chemical Romance was formed in 2001 and originally consisted of Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Frank Iero, and Ray Toro alongside Matt Pelissier. The group released their first studio album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love on July 23rd, 2002. While the album was not commercially successful, it helped cultivate an underground following, especially online through sites like MySpace.^[1] In 2003, the group signed a major record deal with Reprise Records where they would release the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on June 8th, 2004, though this would be the last album to feature Pelissier, with him being replaced by Bob Bryar.^[2] The album featured their breakthrough hit "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" as well as "Helena," two of the band's most popular singles (shown below).

On October 23rd, 2006. the group released their third studio album The Black Parade. A rock opera and concept album, it tells the story of "The Patient," a character who dies of cancer and their subsequent journey through death and the afterlife.^[3] The album was a general success and is often regarded as the band's best work, with the album spawning singles such as "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Famous Last Words" (shown below). the former being the band's only top 10 hit in the US. The album would later be reissued in 2016 to mark the album's 10th anniversary, titled The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts. Bryar would depart the band in 2010.

In 2010, the band released their fourth studio album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, which was another concept album following a gang of outsiders known as The Killjoys and their adventures fighting the evil corporation Better Living Industries in a post-apocalyptic California. The album would later be followed up by the compilation album Conventional Weapons before their eventual breakup on March 22nd, 2013.

Reunion

On October 31st, 2019, the band's social media accounts all changed their profile pics to display a candle with a symbol. This was shortly followed up by the announcement of a reunion show to take place on December 20th in Los Angeles. The announcement also coincided with the creation of an official Instagram account for the band. The announcement was covered by a number of music and rock publications such as Pitchfork,^[5] Billboard,^[6] Loudwire,^[7] and Kerrang.^[8]

Reputation

My Chemical Romance was a particularly notable band in defining the popular culture definition of "emo" in the mid-2000s. Though the group rejected the term emo and musically shared little with notable 90s emo bands like American Football and Sunny Day Real Estate, the fashion of the group, particularly the black outfits and black eyeliner, became representative of the genre in pop culture.^[9]

Online Relevance

My Chemical Romance was a staple of emo culture online in the mid-late 2000s. It is one of the favorite bands of Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way, the protagonist in the infamous My Immortal fan fiction. On January 2nd, 2009, YouTuber xXblo0dyxkissxX uploaded a video titled "A Shoutout From Tara and Raven", in which the two girls in the title listen to My Chemical Romance and talk about the new year. The video gained over 1.2 million views (shown below, left). On March 13th, 2019, YouTuber Matt Cutshall made a video parody titled "felt emo again might delete" which featured "Welcome to the Black Parade" as the music, gaining over 373,000 views (shown below, right).

Relation to Joe Rogan

On October 29th, 2019, Joe Rogan had a conversation with Kevin Smith on Rogan's podcast in which Smith asked about Rogan's relation to Way. Rogan confirmed that the pair are cousins but they have never met. Rogan had mentioned that they were cousins on Twitter in 2014.^[10]

When I Was

WHEN I WAS was a series of memes popular on 4chan involving image macros of Gerard Way (or any other person) holding one's grasping arm out as they dramatically start the lyrics to "Welcome to the Black Parade." The sentence is usually finished by the next post, or continued throughout the entire thread.