Essay Sample about My Chemical Romance and “The Kids from Yesterday” Song

My Chemical Romance writes and performs the song “The Kids from Yesterday” on one of their last albums “Danger Days” to inflict the feeling of nostalgia onto the listener that we are no longer the kids of today but rather, the kids from yesterday. Through the bittersweet symphony that he produces, they are able to convey the purpose of getting their audience to think about how they are truly growing up in the world. Getting this type of message out to the masses will become difficult for the band since they are more known for a punk-rock sound, but with the album being a different type of genre then they are used to making, this is mainly to show how much they've changed within the years. With the use of the tune of the music being similar to that of a techno beat (which got popular in the 1990s) to invoke most of the nostalgia along with the anaphora through the song as the words really stick with the crowd of listeners and finally the Parallelism in the music video to show how the band has grown up as well as how they are no longer kids anymore.

The band My Chemical Romance gives a very techno-like tune to reflect that of the 1990s (which is when the majority of their fans are from/born) to invoke most of the nostalgia factor from. The nostalgia the band inflicts on the audience is what makes them think back to this simpler time when they were kids, when life was a fun game compared to who they are now. With the techno beat at the beginning along with the drums and guitar joining in, the band is able to set this “familiarizing tune” to the audience of maybe a song that they’ve heard before when they were kids. The band wants the audience to feel this way, so they relate to this song, and that the audience finds a connection between them and this song. Overall that the audience was once kids too, that they are the kids from yesterday just as much as the band is. 

Overall the message the band, My Chemical Romance, wants to give out to the audience is mostly found within the lyrics of the song and the anaphora it has. With the repetition of the lines to have them really stick to the audience of listeners, so they think about today, yesterday, and what might come next. The anaphora really sticks with the singer as they sing, “We are the kids from yesterday. We are the kids from yesterday. We are the kids from yesterday, today, today” to really get the message across that everyone is no longer a kid, such as “you only live forever in the lights you make” to truly make known that they are no longer kids, they are now onto the next step into your life. They want everyone to make something of themselves as time is passing on before they can’t make these “lights” they can live forever in. This really makes the audience want to do something with themselves that is meaningful with themselves and their memory.

In general, the band, My Chemical Romance, begins the video by having it show clips of old shows they have performed when they were younger and more naive. It continues to do this with the parallelism to how they were back then compared to now, how the crowds they are performing for are now larger, and more the music they are producing hold something to not only the crowds but how passionate they look to be presenting this song to the masses. With the clips of the band at the first concert they held, with less than a hundred people, to a sold out show of thousands, that they have grown from who they were and are no longer the kids they remember. The band wants to remind everyone where they came from and who they are, what they did in the past and what they'll continue to do with the messages they put out to their fans. This makes the audience look back to this simple time to where they were during that time years ago and compare that to who they are now, who they have become, and what they'll be like in the future.