My Chemical Romance

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RPF Fandom
Name(s): My Chemical Romance (MCR, My Chem)
Scope/Focus: Core band in Bandom
Date(s): 2001-2013; 2019-present (band), 2004-present (RPF)
See also: Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Cobra Starship, Mindless Self Indulgence, The Used
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My Chemical Romance is a rock band from New Jersey that is considered one of the three core bands of Bandom, despite never having been signed to Fueled by Ramen or Decaydance.

The band was created in 2001 and broke up on March 22, 2013, but later reunited, playing their first show since 2013 on December 20, 2019. Their reunion was announced on Halloween 2019, which was followed by a reunion show at LA's Shrine Auditorium.[1] Further tour dates were announced at the beginning of 2020, due to occur later in the year; the tour was then postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and finally began in May 2022.

In its first 12 years, MCR released four studio albums – I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, The Black Parade, and Danger Days – and Conventional Weapons, a compilation album released as a series of singles shortly before their breakup. MCR was in the Warped Tour lineup in 2004 and 2005. See Wikipedia for more detail.

Band members Gerard Way (vocals), Mikey Way (bass), Frank Iero (rhythm guitar), and Ray Toro (lead guitar) are all featured prominently in fanfiction and other fanworks, as is ex-drummer Bob Bryar, who left the band in 2010, and Brian Schechter, the band's old tour manager.

Additionally, Matt Cortez, the band's guitar tech; Matt Pelissier, the band's original drummer from 2001 to 2004; and Alicia Simmons, Lyn-Z Ballato, and Jamia Nestor, wives of Mikey, Gerard, and Frank respectively, are also often featured, as are a variety of members of other Bandom bands. Matt Cortez has also filled in for Mikey Way, during part of their touring schedule after the release of The Black Parade, and for Frank Iero. Other touring band members included Mike Pedicone (drums, 2010-2011), Jarrod Alexander (drums, 2011-2013) and James Dewees (keyboards). Ray's wife is mentioned less often, probably because she has less of a public profile.

Related Bands

"The Subset Bandom Connection" flow chart by wistfuljane

MCR fanfiction often features members of other bands that MCR has gone on tour with or is known to have personal connections with. These bands include Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship, The Used, and Mindless Self Indulgence. The bassists of Fall Out Boy and MCR famously hung out a lot during The Summer of Like (Warped Tour 2005). Gabe Saporta of Midtown and Cobra Starship is mentioned in the liner notes of MCR's first album, and MCR and Midtown toured together in 2003. As a result of MCR and Mindless Self Indulgence both being part of the lineup in the 2007 Projekt Revolution tour, MCR's singer and MSI's bassist (LynZ) got married. The two bands toured together again later, and a different member of MSI also provided a voice-over on MCR's fourth album. (Disgruntled old-school fans complained in 2007 that MSI and MCR had already known each other for years before Projekt Revolution, but that this was not common knowledge due to the majority entering the fandom in 2004 or later.[2])

There are several connections between MCR and The Used: the bands went on tour together in 2005, The Used and MCR's singers were briefly friends, MCR's manager Brian Schechter was The Used's tour manager, and MCR drummer Bob Bryar was The Used's sound guy.

MCR and Panic! at the Disco members sometimes appear in Bandom fanfic together, but they do not appear to have any significant connection except through Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy.

Before the rise of Bandom, fans also sometimes wrote crossovers with other bands such as HIM[note 1], Green Day[3], and Simple Plan[note 2], along with plenty of The Used and Fall Out Boy crossovers. Fall Out Boy is the most commonly used band in crossover fanfiction with My Chemical Romance, and the stories often include the romantic pairing of Mikey Way (MCR's bassist) and Pete Wentz (FOB's bassist).

Fandom History

See also: History of Bandom

In terms of sustained popularity within Bandom, MCR had the advantage of having formed long before Panic! At the Disco and not having broken up in 2009 like Fall Out Boy. PATD may have been considerably more popular during its brief heyday before the 2009 split, but even though MCR had a four-year gap between albums, they were on tour until mid 2008 and had told fans to expect an album in 2009. The 2009 album fell through, and MCR didn't get a new wave of fans until the 2010 release of Danger Days, at which point it was the only major Bandom band left standing. (Reportedly a lot of the existing fanbase did not like Danger Days, so the composition of the active fandom in 2011 was probably very different from the fandom in 2006-2009.)

As of 2017 MCR has 1.5 times as many fanworks on AO3 as Fall Out Boy, despite FOB having gotten back together in 2013. (FOB is gaining on MCR though.)[4] PATD comes in third.[5] AO3 went into open beta in 2009, and was increasingly adopted by fandom circa 2012-2013. However, for the majority of its existence, MCR fandom was on livejournal, where popularity is harder to track (especially since many posts and accounts have since been deleted). A very rough comparison can be made using PATD and MCR's general slash communities--at 22K posts, slashatthedisco beat mychemicalslash's 17K--but FOB slash seems to have been spread out more to general bandslash communities and pairing-specific communities, so accurate numbers are hard to come by (it was probably smaller though).

As of 2016, LiveJournal-era slash rec lists still online tend to include fic posted 2007-2012, but the RPF fandom existed earlier, with some fic written before the advent of Bandom. The band's major label debut was in June 2004, and although their first MTV music video wasn't released until September, a few fans on slashypunkboys were beginning to show an interest in having fic for the band by July.[note 3] mychemicalslash was created in September 2004, and the more exclusive (and locked) comm yeahchemical was created in June 2005. (The first LJ comm for MCR was chemicalromance, created in 2002, but it didn't allow fanfic.) After mychemicalslash, but before yeahchemical and the Summer of Like, people were already complaining about worn-out fic trends:

To fanfic writers - There's nothing wrong with a little fanfic since it's just another form of expression and escapism IMHO. But please stop using "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" and "I'm Not Okay" as titles. Also, a few different cross-overs wouldn't hurt either. Maybe some really off-the-wall people like the Hanson guys or something that could result in equal hilarity. Hell, Tori Amos or Billy Corgan cross-overs would be pretty cool to read as well.[6]

In April 2007 a damnyouwentz mod recalled that MCR already had an active fic fandom in early 2006 and that other Bandom bands came later:

When DYW first started, there were maybe...two people writing really good fic in the Fall Out Boy fandom. (Three? Maybe three?) Nobody was writing good Panic! fic. Nobody was writing good The Academy Is... fic. Cobra Starship didn't yet exist as a band (dark days, kids, dark days). MCR, however, had a very active fandom. It had good writers. It had a community for good writers (yeahchemical). If you wanted good MCR fic, you could find it. People were talking about them. The fandom existed, and it included people who had been in fandoms before, who had fandom experience, who wrote decent fic, and were good people.[7]

By July 2007, a fan who came in on the 2007 wave of Bandom was having a friendly dispute with another DYW mod's characterization of MCR as a separate fandom from FBR/Wentz bandom. Their stories indicate that the two fandoms had thoroughly merged via cross-pollination: the DYW mod recounted that some MCR fans had moved into FBR fandom during the lull before The Black Parade's release, whereas the newer Bandom fan was seeing fans migrating in the opposite direction ("virtually all the MCR fans I know are also FBR fans, and came into MCR through the FBR bands, and that for all intents and purposes, none of them distinguish between MCR and FBR as being different fandoms").[8]

Where the Fic Was

In the mid 2000s, MCR fanfic was posted in many places, not just LiveJournal. For example, The Immortality Project was a popular fansite that also had fanfic, and UMCRS was a forum where people also posted fanfic.

In answer to a 2006 chemicalromance post asking where the good fic was, fans offered links to a variety of places: LJ reccers and communities like mychemicalslash, Quizilla, fandomination.net[note 4], and a message board (www.mychemicalromanceforum.com).[9] In March 2007, another fan in the same community mentioned reading badfic on mibba and LJ.[10] The Fan History Wiki reported that by August 2007, Quizilla had over 20K stories tagged mcr and 22K stories tagged mychemicalromance, though if the numbers are accurate, posting slowed down considerably after that.[11] Unfortunately, some of these platforms, such as Quizilla and the message board, have since been taken offline.

In December 2007, someone at wolfshirts asked, "where do all the cool kids post their MCR-fic these days?" and was pointed to bandslashmania and slowbirds.[12]

Wank and Controversy

  • September 2007 Stage gay wank and Bandom fans' response to it. The wank involved Bandom more generally, not just MCR, but it did occur immediately after MCR's infamous Projekt Revolution aka Projekt Gaymolution tour ended.
Personally? I think that the fact that middle schoolers will look at a picture of two boys kissing and say "hot!" instead of "eww!" is fucking amazing. That is awesome. And MCR and FOB didn't come around to take advantage of that – they created that.

Even with all those screaming fans, though, our band boys constantly get shit for acting "gay." Constantly! Magazines, TV shows, smug radio hosts, guys in bars, people on the street, bloggers, all of them smirk and call these guys big queers. There are many, many men and boys who will not get into their music because those bands are so fucking gay. Recently, at Download, MCR were getting heavily bottled by angry metal fans, and someone up front yelled, "Faggots!" In response to which Frank Iero stalked up to Gerard Way, grabbed his hair, and stuck his tongue down his throat while he was trying to sing. (This is not an exaggeration.) Consistently, over and over again, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy have responded to "fags!" with "hell yeah, motherfucker, now deal with it." They don't say, "No, but we're really straight!"[13]

  • Ongoing Fourth wall issues: people sending fanfic to them, writing about non-famous Wives (Alicia, Lyn-Z and Jamia are all somewhat famous in their own right, but Christa isn't), the fanfic interview where Ray praises the fans' creativity and Mikey objects to the incest fic. See: Bandom and the Fourth Wall.
  • Since before bandslash was a thing, MCR fans had opinions about new developments related to the band: see chemicalromance and mcrumorcontrol on livejournal. Signing to a major label, the first drummer getting fired, MTV, opinions about girlfriends, opinions about sudden marriages, tabloid "emo cult" moral panic, the fall of Pedicone, the band breaking up....
  • Since roughly 2020, Lindsey Way has become an overtly controversial figure. Lynzuglyliar (a blog dedicated to "exposing" Lindsey) had been running for years before 2020, but regained attention around this time when Lindsey made tweets that dodged allegations of sexual misconduct by her bandmate Jimmy Urine, and clumsily discussed the Black Lives Matter protests occurring at the time. Following backlash from fans, said tweets were quickly deleted and Lindsey departed from Twitter.

Breakup

On March 22, 2013, MCR announced that they were breaking up. MCR fandom was extremely upset by the news[note 5], and that event, combined with the Mikey Way cheating scandal a month earlier, caused many in the RPF side of fandom to leave, abandoning their WIPs. MCR's last tour ended in 2011, so the fandom may already have been at a low ebb. However, although some fans migrated to other fandoms such as One Direction or Hockey RPF, not everyone left, and in the meantime a new wave of younger fans appears to have discovered the band and started posting fanworks on Deviantart, Tumblr, AO3, and Wattpad. In the post-band era, there is interest in bandmembers' solo projects, but also still plenty of interest in the history of the band[note 6].

Reunion

In 2019 there was an announcement on the 31st of October of a single reunion show at LA's Shrine Hall.[14] This was followed by subsequent posts by the band that confirmed such a thing to have been in the works since 2017.[15] This drew mass media and fan attention. A reunion show took place on the 20th of December 2019 at LA's Shrine Auditorium, tickets for which sold out almost instantly. Further tour dates were announced at the beginning of 2020, due to occur later in the year, but were subsequently been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.

In 2022, the MCR Reunion tour commenced and the band was regularly trending on Tumblr during and following their concerts. This possibly started during the American leg of their tour in August. There was increased fan activity, with fans creating fanart and fanfiction featuring the band. Some fanworks were inspired by video clips and images from MCR concerts.

Fanworks

MCR fandom has produced a fair amount of fanworks, including fanfic, fanart, podfic, dolls, nail art, and art drawn on shoes. In the LiveJournal era, some low-resolution gifs of MCR video footage were available; as of 2015 tumblr fans are creating much higher resolution gifs, but some of the older video footage they have to work with is low quality. Many gif makers have tried their hand at transforming certain popular video clips, like Gerard and Frank making out during Projekt Revolution.

In a 2011 MCR primer, livejournal fan anoneknewmoose compiled a list of "classic" MCR fanfics from 2008, noting that the 2006 video diary Life on the Murder Scene was the primary canon for "[even] fics that were written in 2008-2010" and that "LOTMS is old."[16]

Fanfiction Tropes

Common tropes occurring in MCR fanfics can be divided between canon and fanon tropes, though of course these might interact and overlap within one story:

Canon

Many fanworks are based on the canon of the band's activities or performances. The band's dramatic albums and music videos offer fans richly detailed universes in which to play, giving birth to distinctive genres such as:

Other common tropes originating in canon include:

  • Mental health issues, as several band members discussed battling depression and other conditions,[22]
  • Alcohol and substance abuse as well as working towards sobriety, often linked to the previous trope,[23][24]
  • Hurt/Comfort stories, often with Frank as the hurt character due to his canon fragile health and frequent injuries,[25]
  • Crossdressing, either as a one-off or as a lifestyle choice, based on Gerard mentionning dressing in drag for a day at college and an interview where the band discusses putting on makeup,[26]
  • Artist!Gerard (based on his background in visual arts and release of his Umbrella Academy comic).[27]
  • Paramour Fic - stories about the band's stay at the Paramour Mansion in Los Angeles during the production of The Black Parade.

Fanon

Common fanon tropes include:

Fanart

"LIFE ON THE MURDERSCENE" by XBlackFerretX (2011)
"Every Snowflake is Different" by MoochingLeach (2011)

The video and album-based AUs listed above are common in fanart as well. Vampires, genderswap, wings, and anything else that can be rendered visually also occur in fanart. A lot of fanart is directly inspired by the distinct visual design of the band, from the album art to the videos to the tour costumes. Many pieces on deviantart reflect a blood-spattered morbid aesthetic reminiscent of several early photoshoots of the band covered in blood, not to mention the album art for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. However, many cute and cartoonified depictions of MCR can also be found.

Fanart Examples

Mainly group portraits; see character and relationship pages for more.

Podfic

MCR, as well as Bandom at large, is a big podfic fandom. The first MCR podfic ever created was probably Sing Ourselves To Sleep by inkjunket in 2007[38], but MCR didn't gain traction with podfic fandom as a whole until 2009-2010.[note 8]

Examples:

Memes

macro found on ONTD, originally posted to tumblr. Note that although the lyric is from Danger Days, the base photo was taken during a Black Parade era concert

Several lyrics inspired memes that circulated in many fannish spaces (tumblr, twitter, livejournal, even pinterest):

  • Gravity don't mean too much to me is a line from the song "Bulletproof Heart" on the album Danger Days, released on November 22, 2010. Image macros of Gerard in the air, captioned with the lyric, were in use as early as November 17, 2010.[39] Not everyone thought this was lolarious: "if you weren’t on tumblr for danger days era when ppl would make memes out of the line 'gravity don’t mean too much to me' i hope you say your prayers every day and realize how lucky you are"[40]
  • To a lesser extent, These pigs are after me from the same song also proved inspirational.[note 9]
  • More evidence remains for the When I Was A Young Boy meme, based on a lyric from "Welcome to the Black Parade" on MCR's 2006 album The Black Parade. Most likely the meme itself does not date to 2006.
  • The G note from the opening of "Welcome to the Black Parade" has become a meme in its own right.

MCR's breakup is itself a tumblr meme, as it is frequently brought up as the punchline to many jokes:

Zines

Shipping

In addition to the intra-band ships, frequent crossover pairings occur:

Fandom Communities

Journal-based

See also Category:Bandom Journal Communities

Note that Livejournal-based communities have sharply declined in activity, both due to fandom's relocation/dispersal to AO3, dreamwidth, tumblr etc, and due to the band breaking up.

Challenges

News and Discussion

Fanworks

Fic Finders

on Tumblr

Fannish Resources

Primers

Fanworks/Archives

Reclists

Other Resources

Notes

  1. ^ Examples posted in mychemicalslash: I Could Never Be Ashamed Of You, Archived version, 2005-12-28; Once Bitten, How I Wish You Were Shy. 10, Archived version, 2006-04-07.
  2. ^ Examples posted in mychemicalslash: Get on your knees and suck me, Archived version by boysex_bja, 2005-10-28; Mirror, Mirror - 1, Archived version by deviant_dev, 2005-10-28; It's Not Really Wrong... Just Hard To Comprehend - Chapter Twelve, Archived version by lmaoxatxanimal, 2006-02-22.
  3. ^ "I'm looking for some My Chemical Romance slash - I don't know if it exists, but I damn sure can't find it - and I want some! Oh Lord, how I want some! So if anyone knows of any, pleeeeeeeeease tell me cos I need it for my general wellbeing. They're so totally frickin slashable besides anything else..." untitled, Archived version, posted in slashypunkboys by mysti112, 2004-08-31.
  4. ^ As of July 17, 2007, the Musicians category listed 1892 MCR fics, one of the more popular bands. For comparison, the largest subcategory was Good Charlotte, with 4529 fics.
  5. ^ For example, the night the news broke, MCR fans at Muskrat Jamboree could be seen weeping in corners and hugging each other. In the following days, eulogies in text, gif and art form were posted.[1] As of 2015, people are still making posts lamenting the end of MCR on tumblr.[2] Some people cope by telling bad jokes.[3][4]
  6. ^ For a random recent example, see this fanart by suckingd4cocaine on tumblr, archived, posted 27 November 2016 and inspired by a 2007 interview (on youtube).
  7. ^ Nightswimming by waxjism actually includes a reference to a character breaking his foot "by jumping out the second floor," as per the song lyrics.
  8. ^ Based on posting frequency at the Audiofic Archive [5] and bandslashmania. The first post in bandslashmania's podfic tag was in April 2010: A Guided Tour of the October Country by novembersmith, by klb.
  9. ^ These Pigs are after me! After you!, direct link, posted by ddevrell, reblogged by mcrlolz. This gif was reposted on tumblr several times, so the original date and creator are unknown. Also, the base gif of someone in a plastic crate being chased in the rain is a popular source for transformation.

References

  1. ^ https://twitter.com/MCRofficial/status/1189980367677083648
  2. ^ Mindless Self Indulgence To Support MCR in October: chemicalromance, Archived version, comment by indecisean, 29 August 2007.
  3. ^ Anything Can Happen On Tour, Archived version, in chemical_slash, 2005-10-25; FIC: Give Me Novacaine, MCR/GD, 6/6, Archived version, 2006-01-29.
  4. ^ As of 18 September 2015, MCR had 9887 fanworks, and FOB had 5078. As of 30 April 2017, MCR had 13135 works, and FOB had 8218.
  5. ^ 6893 works as of 30 April 2017.
  6. ^ prettygolucky. Ways To Stop Looking Like A Teenybopper (And Other Such Rants), posted to chemicalromance, 2005-05-28. archived.
  7. ^ DYW FAQ!, Archived version, posted by cyclogenesis 2007-04-11.
  8. ^ comment thread started by kalpurna, archived, 16 July 2007.
  9. ^ batmanboxers. Fanfic, Archived version, posted in chemicalromance, 2006-11-23.
  10. ^ jordanlover. untitled post in chemicalromance, Archived version, 29 March 2007.
  11. ^ archived copy of My Chemical Romance wiki page, FanHistory.com.
  12. ^ practical_pig. Frank Iero, singer/songwriter, Archived version, posted to wolfshirts, 4 December 2007.
  13. ^ kalpurna, On the subject of stagegay, posted to LJ Sept 5, 2007. archived.
  14. ^ https://twitter.com/MCRofficial/status/1189980367677083648
  15. ^ https://www.instagram.com/p/B4-08s_hDb_/
  16. ^ moose_spam. mcr primer (2/2), posted to livejournal 2011-11-24. archived.
  17. ^ in sickness and in health by mwestbelle: WWII AU in which Bob married his fallen comrade's wife out of duty, but Frank is not so fallen.
  18. ^ The Holly Golightly Club by fluffontop: High School AU based on the "I'm Not OK" video
  19. ^ The Fall and Rise of The Black Parade by wordslinging, podfic by argentumlupine
  20. ^ Party and Fun Cosplay by Maru_Light
  21. ^ And the Embers Never Fade by turps: A story set in the Killjoys universe. About love, trust, and finding the people you need.
  22. ^ Tints of Rainbow Hue by turps: Mikey deals with his brother's depression.
  23. ^ Skin of the Canvas by sinsense includes several scenes touching on Gerard's addictions (discussion of his alcoholism & being in the AA program, scenes with his sponsor) and vividly depicts social anxiety.
  24. ^ The Year of Living Safely by Stele3: Post-sobriety MCR.
  25. ^ yobrothatssick, a 2011 Livejournal-based challenge dedicated entirely to sick!Frank stories
  26. ^ Hang On To Yourself by brooklinegirl, based on Gerard's quote in a Rolling Stone interview: Glam became about the kid in the room, the poster on the wall, putting on a women's short fur coat and eyeliner, with no shirt on, just listening to this music.
  27. ^ Conclusions by Bexless: In this universe, MCR never existed. Gerard threw himself into art instead of music after 9/11, Frank owns an indie record label, and Ray is a studio musician.
  28. ^ Absence Sort of Does Make the Heart by cimorene: Bob is a sound engineer, Ray is a guitar teacher
  29. ^ I Am a Patient Boy by onelittlesleep: So this is an AU about Gerard being a girl named Helen (after her...grandmother?) and Frank being sort of, head over heels.
  30. ^ Away With The Boys In The Band by inlovewithnight: Behind the Music: My Chemical Romance, in the world where Mikey has always been a girl.
  31. ^ You Can Find Out First Hand by 7iris, Podfic by falter: This isn't the first time Mikey's woken up in a different bunk than he fell asleep in. This isn't even the first time he's woken up in a different body. It's the first time he's woken up with tits, though.
  32. ^ Buy Handmade by jjtaylor, where Gerard sells his art on Etsy.
  33. ^ An anonymous complaint in December 2007: "Please stop with all the goddamn vampire fic already PLEASE. Writers who are generally talented can rarely make it good. We don't need 2098234870934 vampire fics. Please god, STOP IT." Unpopular bandom opinions ahoy!: untappedbeauty, Archived version
  34. ^ Gerard Way's (Vampire) Detective Agency by jjtaylor where Frank is a vampire and Dewees a zombie
  35. ^ An Inexplicable Occurrence of Angels by Stele3 where Frank is a fallen Angel
  36. ^ The Anatomy of a Fall by novembersmith in which Frank is a ghost
  37. ^ The Scene is Dead by Synchronik: horror/dark fic where the band tries to survive a zombie apocalypse
  38. ^ Podfic: Sing Ourselves to Sleep by Dira Sudis - inkjunket, Archived version, posted to livejournal Oct. 15th, 2007.
  39. ^ Gravity, don’t mean too much to me, tumblr post by makebelieveescapades
  40. ^ comment by pterick, reblogged of course with an example of the meme by tweez, July 11th 2015
  41. ^ archived, with 3090 notes as of 21 March 2016
  42. ^ archived (reblog)
  43. ^ archived, with 31,445 notes as of 21 March 2016.
  44. ^ archived, with 673,612 notes as of 21 March 2016. The main thread is here.
  45. ^ AO3 Frank/Gerard tag
  46. ^ AO3 Bob/Ray tag
  47. ^ AO3 Ray/Mikey tag
  48. ^ AO3 Frank/Bob tag
  49. ^ AO3 Frank/Mikey tag
  50. ^ AO3 Frank/Gerard tag
  51. ^ AO3 OT4 tag
  52. ^ AO3 Pete/Mikey tag
  53. ^ AO3 Bert/Gerard tag
  54. ^ AO3 Gabe/Mikey tag
  55. ^ AO3 Bob/Patrick tag
  56. ^ Grant Morrison AO3 tag
  57. ^ archived
  58. ^ archive.is. posted to livejournal Aug. 16th, 2007. 129 comments.
  59. ^ archived
  60. ^ AO3 copy
  61. ^ Mini sites - Mibba, Archived version