Initial Pop Music Influences Assignment:

My Chemical Romance is a heavily based rock band, and has been going now for 8 years. Straight away, just shortly after forming the band, they signed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album, “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love”.
My Chemical Romance has been categorized as “Emo” and “Alternative Rock”, however lead singer Gerard Way is said to have publicly rejected the term “Emo”. They have come across to the nation with a “we don’t care” attitude which could be said to have been taken from many previous punk bands as well as others. A lot of the music created by Gerard and the band is about problems and illness, which is written from the heart of Gerard, based on his home life problems which are expressed through his music.

In an interview with the lead singer Gerard Way, taken from metalunderground.com, he states that he was inspired at an early age by Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), “'cause he's a great frontman, a great singer and I've always been influenced by the way he sang”. I think that this comes across much in the way Gerard performs, by leaping across stage and being a very good frontman, just like Bruce Dickinson. I also think that the style of songs has been influenced by Iron Maiden, with loud energetic heavy tracks, contrasted with the soft melodic tunes, often played on guitar. I think that the drummer uses a lot of fast powerful fills which can be heard in Iron Maidens tracks also, by Nicko McBrain. The whole band setup is the same as Iron Maiden, with two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and a singer, and is used in the same way. But the main influential part has to be the singing, with the use of screaming in tune and shouting down the microphone.

The bands album artwork also reflects how they have been influenced by iron maiden, with deathly pictures, such as skeletons and blood, and abstract artwork, coming across as a dark band. The bands artwork uses a lot of dark colours and some strange pictures, creating eeriness about it.

Another band which has said to have had a great influence on My Chemical Romance is “Thursday”. Both bands were from New Jersey and both had recorded for Eyeball. Both bands also combined punks’ aggression, with deep powerful lyrics. Also the record “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” was produced by Geoff Rickly, Thursday’s lead singer.

The bands fashion style is very much like The Cure’s, with dark clothes and makeup. I think they have taken this look from the cure and I feel that they want to express their feelings through the way they dress, almost circus like.

I think that My Chemical Romance have taken many features from bands and mixed them together, creating a new style of band which effectively will appeal to most people. I like the band for their attitude and deep lyrics, and think that they are a very influential band themselves.