Like most acts lumped into the now-dreaded "emo" clique, flamboyant New Jersey quintet My Chemical Romance eschew it. They working-class Jersey playing music, rather a visionary act with an amusing penchant for theatrical pop music.
The band's third album, Black Parade, is an urgent, paranoid and darkly humorous concept album.
It follows a "Tonnes of this record was autobiographical," says 29-year-old frontman Gerard Way.
charts around the world last year. Still, many of their fans are teenagers.
The English tabloids accuse MCR of exploiting teenage angst.
"That statement is so ignorant," Way says. "That our stuff or exploit.
"
Not everybody is convinced. His band, along with Panic! At the Disco, were "bottled" at the Reading Festival last year - audience members threw containers of urine at the stage.
Kasabian frontman only inspire Way to embrace his underdog tag.
"Being underdogs is a part of our DNA," he says. "We'll never shake it.
"
Way and his brother Mikey, the band's bassist and co-songwriter, their house in the suburb of Belleville.
"Belleville's next to Newark, a dangerous-type city, so you can't really go outside and play much. Me and my brother really just lived in our heads.
"
the September 11 attacks, which he witnessed from the Hudson River pier, changed his outlook on life.
people."
He drafted Mikey, Toro, Iero and original drummer Matt Pelissier to start the band.
Their name originated from Irvine Welsh's MCR's early shows were madness. Way wore his bulletproof vest and screamed profanities. Seeing the not-so-obvious potential, Warner signed the band in 2003.
A year later, the band released their breakthrough album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. The intense, anthemic feel of singles such as I'm Not Okay (I following.
However, it was the tribute to Way's late grandmother, Helena, that helped the band shift millions of records.
The song's video ballet-dancing corpse. It was one of MTV's most-played videos of 2005.
The band's DVD, Life on the Murder Scene, shows Way's slide into addiction.
In the video-diary segment, a bloated Way is cocaine, Xanax and alcohol.
"It became something to do to kill the time," says Way, who has since lost about 20 kilograms. "We were just sitting and waiting to play.
A lot."
The key moment arrived in Japan. A suicidal Gerard believed he would not be coming home.
He became violently ill in Osaka and made Mikey, also suffering various addictions, quit, too.
There have been other surreal moments. Such as Courtney Love's daughter Frances Bean declaring MCR her favourite band.
Late in 2005, she and Love visited backstage in LA. "I think she is a lot like me," Way says.
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